Webster's New World Basic Dictionary Of American English

The best dicionary ever printed. Contains words other dictionaries seem to have forgotten. I have had mine since 1987 and my daughter wants one for Christmas. I cannot believe they no longer publish this.

What a concept. Take all the known words in the English language, put them all in a book then describe what each word is, and then tell how to pronounce them! Who thought of such a concept? Apparently a person named Webster, that's who!The book starts and ends appropriately enough with the words "a" (described as "the first letter of the English alphabet) and zymurgy (which is the chemistry of fermentation). And between those two words you'll find descriptions of words whose meanings range from "a vague notion" to "to shrink by a special process in manufacture", and so forth.Between "a" and zymurgy are fabulous descriptions of words that will amaze you every single time! Guaranteed!You think your spell check made by Mr. Gates is up to this challenge? "-pede" isn't in the word spell check I have!!! How are we supposed to combine the form of foot or feet without it, Mr. Gates? It seems Mr. Gates mind is made of two many "1's" and "0's", and not enough centipedes!Also included in this wondrous, unique book is a description of the abbreviations used in this dictionary (how else are you going to decipher "Norw" or "m" without it) and other wondrous subjects. So if you need a word, and Mr. Gates neglected to place it in his word check, this book is highly recommended for you. Frequently used in my house, where we have centipedes aplenty!

This has been my trusted dictionary since 1979, when all high school freshmen were required to own it. It's a great achievement in American lexicography, providing a generous, comperehensive, and suprisingly durable listing of current American language. The familiarly readable clear type and single alphabetical listing that includes biographical, geographical, proper name, and abbreviation entries accompanies a sober and solidly thorough listing of virtually every word you would want to know in American English. It includes newer contributions from science, technology, slang, and does a brilliant job in giving exciting, yet accurate entymologies and definitions with all their shades of meaning. I have been a liftime reader and when I took the GRE's I scored above the 99th percentile in the verbal section: I attribute much of my success in verbal skills to this well-made, wonderful hardcover dictionary.

I've vowed to improve my neglected vocabulary by reading more literature and looking up any words I don't know. I was originally using a hardcover college dictionary, but I found its size and weight to be cumbersome. I bought this dictionary because I didn't like lugging around the heavy hardcover to and from my easy chair and found it to be a suitable replacement. Rarely can I not find a word in the dictionary that would appear in the college dictionary and it serves my purpose well. It's about the size of a large paperback novel (smaller than War and Peace). The only problem is mine doesn't have the pronunciation key "located on inside of back cover."