The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English

I studied in London during college as a literature major and while there discovered that I needed a dictionary to complete my assignments and turn them in with the proper British spelling. I picked up this little dictionary to get me through the semester and loved it so much I carried it home with me. My family quickly realized how useful it was and I've spent a lot of time since searching to discover who "borrowed" it last. My mother is especially attached and has acquired a collection of other oxford dictionaries that either are too big to carry around or "just don't have the word she's looking for." If you have a copy, hang on to it.

Most ESL(English as a Second Language) teachers recommend Oxford Advanced Lerner's or Longman Contemporary, but they are too much verbose and require great stamina to reach the right definition. POD is concise.The most needed feature for ESL dictionaries is a broad recordings of idioms. At this point, all American ESL or paperback dictionaries are weak.(The papaerback ones are not designed for foreigners, of cource.) POD has decent number of idioms.The second required feature is the coverage. POD has a little Americanisms - it's an apparent defect. But it contains few geographical or proper names, so it has much more common vocabulary than any other paperbacks.I enjoy the easy-for-eyes typeface, also essential to old-aged-prone-to-eyestrain learners like me.