Question

read the excerpt from samuel johnsons a dictionary of the english language. madness. n.s. from mad distraction; loss of understanding; perturbation of the faculties. why, woman, your husband is in his old tunes again, he so rails against all married mankind, so curses all eves daughters, and so buffets himself on the forehead, that any madness i ever yet beheld seemed but tameness and civility to this distemper. shakesp merry wives of windsor. there are degrees of madness as of folly, the disorderly jumbling ideas together, in some more, some less. locke. how does this dictionary entry differ from those of earlier dictionaries? it provides more than one definition for the word. it uses the word in a sentence. it reveals the words root or derivative. it includes published examples of the words use

Explanation:

Earlier dictionaries typically just gave definitions. This entry includes published examples (from Shakespeare and Locke) of the word's use. The first option (more than one definition) was also common in earlier dictionaries. Using the word in a sentence is not the main difference here. Revealing the root (from mad) was also a feature that could be in earlier works. But the inclusion of published examples of usage was a more distinct feature of Johnson's dictionary compared to many earlier ones.

Answer:

It includes published examples of the word's use.