The New Oxford American Dictionary | Great dictionary, Very good pda version as well

The New Oxford American Dictionary | Meets the needs of readers and writers in America

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The New Oxford Ame...

	The New Oxford American Dictionary Oxford University Press, USA, 2005 - 2096 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great dictionary, Very good pda version as well

I chanced upon this dictionary at a book store. After giving it a quick lookover, it seemed to be pretty good. Like any good dictionary, it explains the meaning in great detail and provides sentences indicating meaning in context.

The area where this dictionary excels is in clarifying nuances in meaning between the word looked up and other related words. I was looking for a dictionary for my high school bound daughter and this was what made me decide to buy this dictionary.

As an example, in the entry for "clarify", the entry talks about the subtle differences between the words clarify, construe, elucidate, explain, explicate, and interpret. It must also be mentioned that it *does not* do this for *all* word entries -- only for some words.

As a bonus, the dictionary comes with a CD allowing you to install the dictionary on a PDA -- has versions for Palm and Windows mobile. I have loaded it into my Windows mobile Dell Axim x30 and it works well. The user interface is a little goofy but I got used to it soon. Keep in mind that you might need to have an external memory card to store the dictionary data.

Overall, I am very happy with the decision to buy this. Its a great value especially if you have a PDA.

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Meets the needs of readers and writers in America

Overloaded with new vocabularies, it is no longer a matter of knowing all the words, but to know the slightest nuance distinguishing a word from its verbal brethren.

"The New Oxford American Dictionary" addresses the needs of today's word hunter, providing the reader which words are the 'core' words, so that the other words might not confuse the reader.

New dictionaries will always be important so long as our language is definitionally fluid. Meanings change when crossing borders and time. The slant is definitively American. While those in England speak English, we Americans spell things differently, and use many common words differently.

For the serious student of words, and editors and readers, this is a good addition to your desk library. It is not the enormously thorough "Oxford English Dictionary," but it takes up less space. With over 2,000 pages of words, you should find all you need.

Why not five stars when the content is so good? It is big. Had this been a two or three volume set, making it easier to grab while writing or reading, that would have helped.

I recommend "The New Oxford American Dictionary." Libraries will find it useful, of course, but the families which can afford it will also benefit from "The New Oxford American Dictionary" as well.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

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This book not up to the OED standard

Purchased this as a gift and was astonished when the recipient showed me an obvious error on the first day of use. The entry for Howard Dean lists his tenure as governor of Vermont as 1885-2003. Not bad for a guy born in 1948. So, I went to their website www.oup.com/us, hoping to find a way of reporting the error. It lists dozens of editors but none for reference works. Nor does it have an email address for the department responsible for the this product.

One wonders if the publisher's marketing department shows the typical arrogant disdain for the opinions of end user purchasers in favor of wholesale outlets. Making it near impossible to report errors seems to indicate they just don't give a damn. If the publisher changes the website to make error reporting possible in the future, then I would revise my rating upward.

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The electronic version of the dictionary can not be installed on desktop computer

This is computer times. People need to find a proper word to use, or find a definition of a word when they work on a computer. An electronic version of the dictionary that can be used on a desktop or laptop computer will be very useful. It is good that this dictionary comes with an electronic version for PDA and Smartphones. However, most people have a desktop computer, and only some people have a PDA or Smartphones. I would rate this dictionary 5 stars if an electronic version for desktop or laptop computer is available.

oxford Dictionary almost

This dictionary is the heaviest I've ever owned. The disappointment comes with no Geographic locations or Biographic names. I have to use my little paperback for that reference material. It has a lot of historical entymological information that I find rather useless. The details or descriptions of words use entirely to many useless articles that add neither information or save pages.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7

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