diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/84473-dict-lookup-type-error-message.yml b/changelogs/fragments/84473-dict-lookup-type-error-message.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cefc5b96788
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/84473-dict-lookup-type-error-message.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+minor_changes:
+  - when the ``dict`` lookup is given a non-dict argument, show the value of the argument and its type in the error message.
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/lookup/dict.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/lookup/dict.py
index a8c108974ff..c9b35b13bca 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/lookup/dict.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/lookup/dict.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ class LookupModule(LookupBase):
         for term in terms:
             # Expect any type of Mapping, notably hostvars
             if not isinstance(term, Mapping):
-                raise AnsibleError("with_dict expects a dict")
+                raise AnsibleError(f"the 'dict' lookup plugin expects a dictionary, got '{term}' of type {type(term)})")
 
             results.extend(self._flatten_hash_to_list(term))
         return results