You use Collect Words to rapidly enter vernacular words with a gloss or brief definition. You configure the columns to specify word form (citation or lexeme), and meaning (gloss or definition).
This topic provides comments intended to help you enter definitions that are useful later, while allowing the rapid collection of words.
The bare form of a word is not always understandable later, particularly when the orthography has not been worked out. This is often the case early in a project. For example, if we only wrote five vowels in English, we would have difficulty deciphering 'bit, bet, bat, but, bot' (beat, bit, bet, bait, bat, but, bought, boot, boat, bout, butte).
One user recorded only words—with no glosses or definitions—and later someone else tried to add short definitions. He found he did not know many of the words. Some were archaic or technical terms, some belonged to a different dialect, and others had spelling errors. With a short definition, it is easier to determine what the word was, and the word list becomes more useful. Further, a short definition also permits an outside consultant who does not know the language to better help the project personnel know how to process it.
Therefore, it is highly recommending that a short definition be entered.
But, how short is short? A one-word gloss, if possible, can suffice as an initial definition.
Do not spend a lot of time trying to determine what each word means or how to construct each definition while collecting words. Your collection rate will suffer. Many of the steps to necessary to produce a dictionary are becoming simplified, but it still takes considerable time and effort to solidify a quality definition. This will come later in the process.