According to the Manual of Specialized Lexicographies a specialized dictionary (also referred to as a technical dictionary) is a dictionary that focuses upon a specific subject field. Following the description in The Bilingual LSP Dictionary, lexicographers categorize specialized dictionaries into three types.

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     A multi-field dictionary broadly covers several subject fields (e.g. a business dictionary), a single-field dictionary narrowly covers one particular subject field (e.g. law), and a sub-field dictionary covers a more specialised field (e.g. constitutional law). For example, the 23-language Inter-Active Terminology for Europe is a multi-field dictionary, the American National Biography is a single-field, and the African American National Biography Project is a sub-field dictionary.

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     A 'phonetic dictionary is one that allows the reader to locate words by the "way they sound", i.e. a dictionary that matches common or phonetic misspellings with the correct spelling of a word. Another variant is the glossary, an alphabetical list of defined terms in a specialised field, such as medicine (medical dictionary).

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      Example of a phonetic dictionary                                  Example of a medical dictionary