This paper analyses the treatment of false friends in current Italian-Spanish bilingual lexico-graphy. Specifically, first of all, we check whether the megastructure of five Spanish/Italian dictionaries deals with the inherent topic of false friends. Secondly, the criteria of lemmat-ization specifically mentioned in the prefaces of these dictionaries are analysed, as well as those not mentioned, but which are reflected in the lexicographical treatment of the lexical units in question. In addition, the strategies adopted in the microstructure for the treatment of false friends are critically analysed, and some of the problems involved in their lemmatization, which hinder the dictionary user’s task, are identified in order to offer solutions to improve the lexicographical treatment of these lexical pairs.
