The American Heritage Student Dictionary/Ages 11-15 Grades 6-9 [Hardcover]

Editors of The American Heritage Dictionaries (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 1994

With more than 65,000 entries of the most current and comprehensive vocabulary for ages 11­14, this up-to-date dictionary is the perfect companion for students. Newly updated biographical information, helpful usage notes, and word histories ensure that students will refer to this practical reference tool for much more than checking their spelling.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9--This new edition of an old standby is brightened up considerably with more than 2000 full-color photographs and illustrations, and 3000 new definitions. Marginal notes appear throughout the book, providing information about regional uses, common grammatical errors, word roots, and pronunciation; these added features, while entertaining, are too random to act as real resources. The true strength of this dictionary comes from the inclusion of terms, idioms, geographical locations, and basic biographical entries in one alphabetical arrangement. With all the basics one expects from a good dictionary, plus a few extras such as detailed etymology for some entries and notes on usage, this is an ideal basic reference for home or library use.--Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbia
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The most noticeable change in this dictionary since the 1998 edition is that all the black-and-white illustrations have been replaced with full color. More than 3,000 new words and senses have been added, among them dark matter, deep-dish pizza, and instant messaging. Entries for people and places have been updated and expanded. For grades six to nine. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1152 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 2nd edition (July 26, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395558573
• ISBN-13: 978-0395558577
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Teens > Education & Reference > Reference

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I stayed up late last night reading my daughter's dictionary!, October 21, 2005

By 

Kristy M. Moon "avid reader" (Carmichael, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The American Heritage Student Dictionary (Hardcover)

My six year old needed a dictionary to look up words for her Junior Great Books homework. At first, I was drawn to dictionaries written for 8-10 year olds. They had larger print and flashier, more colorful pictures. Unfortunately, they didn't do the job of providing definitions for the unfamiliar words we needed to define (this week we needed to find tun, puncheon, bewail, and beadle.) I was forced to look at dictionaries aimed at an older audience and found that many were just not visually appealing. I didn't want a bland reference book that would be opened as little as necessary. I wanted something worth flipping through on a rainy day.

When I opened this one up, I was pleased to see a good number of color photographs. On one two page spread, for example, there are pictures of Thelonius Monk, a Monolith (on Easter Island), the Sydney Monorail, James Monroe, a montage (of photographs showing things in London), and Maria Montessori. The photos are clear and well chosen; I learned what a mummer and a samovar are by just flipping through and finding interesting photos of them. Even more importantly, it actually had definitions for the words my daughter was looking for, in type that wasn't too small for her to read!

This dictionary uses the pronunciation you're familiar with from collegiate dictionaries, with a small key for the symbols printed on the bottom left hand margin of every two page spread. It's a nice "training wheel" in the transition to this formal way of writing pronunciations. There are also shaded boxes in some of the outside margins that give information about word building, usage, geography, and science. A few short biographies are also included in colored boxes in the margins. I found these to be interesting and informative for kids and adults alike (do you know what the words enthuse, donate, and diagnose have in common?) A two page spread with the periodic table is found after the entry for "element," rather than at the back or front of the book in a reference section; similar space is dedicated to other words like "taxonomy" and "solar system." Simple etymology for many words is included at the end of the entries. For example, for acupuncture it says "First written down in 1684 in English : Latin acus, needle + English puncture."

The scope of this dictionary makes it useful as a family reference book throughout elementary and middle school. It has all of the words your kids will encounter in their reading, plus a few words that might be new to most adults.

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good reference for young readers, May 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The American Heritage Student Dictionary (Hardcover)

The American Heritage Student Dictionary contains concise, easy to read definitions and helpful pictures, mostly of animals, historical figures, and illustrations of abstract concepts. The pictures are in black and white, but for the age that this reference tool is focused, I believe color pictures would have made the pages come to life more. The dictionary includes periodic table, taxonomy chart, historical era chart, and weights & measurements charts spread thoughout the book. I would have preferred these charts all at the beginning or end for easier usage.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Homework Help Found!, October 3, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The American Heritage Student Dictionary (Hardcover)

When I started school this year, the dictionary I had had writing that was hard for me to read. This dictionary is perfect for middle school students. It has all the middle school words, with easy to read print.