Are dictionaries public domain

Answer 1

Not generally, unless they are very old. But unlike many other types of literary works, dictionaries are full of non-copyrightable facts, such as the pronunciation, meaning or translation of words. The individual facts may not be worthy of copyright, but the collection, selection, arrangement, format, font selection, and other creative factors of each page in the dictionary may still be copyrighted (or it may have expired). The words and meanings of words are free to use, but not much more than that. On a related note: Online dictionaries often come with search or display software that has its own copyright, in addition to that of the database, and thus ANY use of the software (to find or view a definition) must comply with the terms of the relevant license.