dictionary vs laundry list

dictionary

noun
  • Any work that has a list of material organized alphabetically; e.g., biographical dictionary, encyclopedic dictionary. 

  • A synchronic dictionary of a standardised language held to only contain words that are properly part of the language. 

  • A reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings (senses), and sometimes also containing information on its etymology, pronunciation, usage, semantic relations, and translations, as well as other data. 

  • An associative array, a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a dictionary (sense 1). 

verb
  • To look up in a dictionary. 

  • To compile a dictionary. 

  • To add to a dictionary. 

laundry list

noun
  • A long and often tedious list of items. 

  • An unrealistic list of skills, qualifications and experiences, as demanded by employers when hiring staff. Similarly, an equally unrealistic skill set claimed by a candidate on a résumé. 

How often have the words dictionary and laundry list occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )