It is not enough to go out and buy a certain number of dictionaries. The translator needs to have at his disposal a number of different types of dictionaries, many of which have been outlined in Section 1. He also needs to know what categories of lexical information (presented in Section 2) he is likely to find in each of them. And, finally, he has to know when and how to best use them in the translation process. Dictionaries can become a translator's best friend. But, as in the case of human friends, we first have to get to know them -their strengths and their weaknesses- before we can trust them and turn to them in need. And we should not expect any one of them to fulfil all our needs, any more than we can expect any one friend to meet all our needs.