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57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best dictionary I have ever owned!, October 17, 2005
This review is from: Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Concise Dictionary) (Hardcover)
Few dictionaries costing under $100 contain any of the more exotic vocabulary I occasionally want to look up. For example, if you read H. P. Lovecraft's tales, sooner or later you will be driven to look up the exact definition of "eldritch". Most affordable dictionaries seem made with the assumption that their users will never try to read above a junior high school level or become curious about unusual words.
I keep my dictionary on a desk next to my computer. It's a small desk, so the book's footprint is an issue. Weight and thickness matter because I have small hands and am unwilling to struggle with a volume I could use as an end table in my living room. The creators of this reference have kept its mass and dimensions under control while providing me with a reference that has so
far clearly and simply defined every English word I sought.
This is a gem of a dictionary at a bargain price!
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94 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent balance between brevity, clarity and depth, January 13, 2005
This review is from: Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Concise Dictionary) (Hardcover)
After a pair of 11th edition dud copies (random sections of pages were mysteriously separating from their binding in chunks of ten or so by nothing more than a light tug or page turn), I finally got a copy that I think will be a keeper.
I love this dictionary. There is something special about it. The definitions are as advertised: clear and concise, yet they do not "dumb down" or leave detail or nuance out of the definitions...and YET AGAIN, you are not going to get into crazy bouts of looking up words within words like with dictionaries that obviously try hard to "sound academic," like the American Heritage College dictionary (which seemingly throws all of it's effort into inserting as many "ten dollar word" synonyms as possible into it's definitions).
This is a much more comfortable, much more clear, much more DELIGHTFUL volume.
As another contrast, I notice in the Oxford American dictionary a sort of attempt to...oh...perhaps dumb down the definitions. But too often what you read comes off as a bit convoluted or "off," like they are uncomfortably contorting to conform to some image of what the American reader thinks, knows or will readily comprehend...in other words, it feels awkward, like a Brit saying "dude" or an American saying "chuffed."
So, yes, you are going to get British terms/slang in here, but really it's no big deal when contrasted with the free and easy clarity of most all definitions in the volume.
"Easy reading is damn hard writing." - Nathaniel Hawthorne
By that metric, there has clearly been significant effort involved in the creation and maintenance of this volume. It IS easy reading, and yet it's not DUMBED-DOWN reading by any measure. Quite a special and commendable accomplishment.
This revised edition only improves upon the feel (in terms of the definitions themselves) of my previous edition, the ninth.
Hopefully OUP will sort out the quality control issues so that more people will get (and keep) this fine, fine dictionary.
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38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of entries, but not enough depth., October 25, 2005
This review is from: Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Concise Dictionary) (Hardcover)
The Concise OED is a great way to own a bit of the OED without the expense of the 20 volume set, or even the Shorter OED. It certainly contains a wealth of entries and is quite up-to-date with newer words and phrases.
Buying a dictionary is tricky; they each have their own flavor. The Concise OED contains more entries than others, but lacks in its depth of definitions. For instance, the dictionary makes no distinction between "farther" and "further". However, my son's American Heritage Student Dictionary contains a helpful sidebar explaining the usage difference. Ultimately, the "concise" nature of this edition seems to apply to its word definitions. I think most have been trimmed too much.
Another frustrating aspect is the pronunciations. They are presented in The International Phonetic Alphabet and look like greek for the most part. If you are unfamiliar with this system, it is a real pain to flip back and forth to the key to determine pronunciations.
Additionally, the Concise OED is lacking in good etymologies for most words, something I enjoy reading.
On the plus side, it's a big book, but comfortable enough to sit and enjoy browsing. Definitions are plain and simple. Any lover of language and words will find it a fine addition to his reference library, but will need to supplement it with other dictionaries. I recommend the American Heritage a bit more for its casual manner and ease of reading.
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