| Sumario: | Whether dictionaries should include cultural information has long been a topic of debate. The present study examines the lexicographic treatment of cultural information in various online English dictionaries. A range of culture-specific terms are chosen to exemplify the policy and practice of dictionaries from different publishers, of different types, and in different forms. Attention is also paid to the microstructure and macrostructure of these dictionaries through several case studies, especially those culture-specific words which are supposed to include more cultural information. Based on the findings, the study endeavours to overturn some of the preconceptions in previous literature on this topic. For example, the boundaries between dictionaries and encyclopaedias are actually flexible rather than fixed; the inclusion of cultural information does not mainly apply to general dictionaries but rarely to learner's dictionaries; and electronic dictionaries do not always adequately present more cultural information than their printed counterparts.
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