Longman Advanced American Dictionary, Paper (Laad) [Paperback]

Longman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0582317320 | ISBN-13: 978-0582317321

*84,000 words and phrases *3000 frequent words highlighted *Signposts -- to find meanings faster in longer entries *Thousands of example sentences *Language notes

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

With over 84,000 entries, including over 4,000 encyclopedic entries for people, places, and organizations, the Longman Advanced American Dictionary is the ultimate reference for advanced students and instructors! Wide-ranging entries¿ from contemporary to idiomatic¿are thorough and understandable, as a result of the 2,000-word
Longman Defining Vocabulary.
The Longman Advanced American Dictionary is the first truly corpus-based dictionary of American English at the advanced level, utilizing:

• The Longman Spoken American Corpus, which contains 5 million words of demographically collected speech.
• The Longman Written American Corpus of 50 million words

These unique features make the Longman Advanced American Dictionary the ideal reference in the classroom and beyond:

• 84,000 words and phrases.
• 66,000 natural example sentences, based on the corpus, to show how words and phrases are really used.
• 40-page section on TOEFL¿ test preparation.
• Easy-to-see Signposts to direct students to the right meaning fast.
• 24,000 collocations and phrases.
• 3,000 most frequent words in American speech and writing clearly marked.
• 16 pages of color illustrations, plus hundreds of black-and-white illustrations.
• The Interactive CD-ROM includes:
  • all 84,000 entries clearly pronounced
  • 15,000 word origins that show the history of words
  • interactive exercises
  • TOEFL® and TOEIC¿ Tests
• The Longman Advanced American Dictionary Companion Website is packed with great self-grading activities for grammar and vocabulary practice, plus links to outside websites for additional information.
  www.longman.com/laad

Product Details

• Paperback: 1748 pages
• Publisher: Pearson ESL (October 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0582317320
• ISBN-13: 978-0582317321
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Students love it, July 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Longman Advanced American Dictionary, Paper (Laad) (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book for ESL students. The definitions are easy to understand, and the examples really help clarify the meaning and use of each word. There are also pictures of many things that aid in definition. I recommend it for intermediate - advanced ESL students. It is much clearer than a dictionary written for native English speakers.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly practical dictionary of American English, October 17, 2007

By 

Lux Lucis (Huntsville, AL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Longman Advanced American Dictionary, Paper (Laad) (Paperback)

The more I use Longman Advanced American Dictionary (LAAD), the more I find myself liking it. It is a highly practical reference tool on how to say things correctly or write something properly. Not as detailed as Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), but less crowded and easier to use. In fact, for the type of audience it targets, LAAD is the closest competition to OALD solely dedicated to the American, rather than British, English. (Be it mentioned, however, that Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary overall will blow any competition out of the water).

The Strengths of Longman Advanced American Dictionary:
1. Generous and fairly comprehensive corpus of words and phrases with numerous clear examples of their usage and guidelines regarding the context in which such words/phrases are used in the American English.
2. A nice colored section on American trivia
3. A short but useful pictorial dictionary section
4. Short blurbs on famous people (artists, scientists, sports stars, actors, political figures) that shaped American history and culture, often with photos of these people; descriptions of important US places (cities, geographical areas and landmarks) are also included.
5. Two separate sections on TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) and TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) preparation. Even though they are of no practical use to me, it was still interesting to browse through these sections, and I can see how they might be helpful to someone who is planning to take these tests.
6. A descriptive pronunciation section that addresses subtle nuances of the American English (e.g. that in American speech, "dog" rhymes with "frog", but not with "cog").

The Drawbacks of Longman Advanced American Dictionary:
1. This dictionary is not for people who primarily need a dictionary for... well, word definition. Definitions are given in a very simplistic manner. It is surprising to me that a publication bearing the title "advanced" defines words on a grade-school level (e.g. in the entry for the word "peyote" one will find the following:
<<a drug made from a Mexican cactus, which makes people imagine that strange things are happening to them>>
Now compare this to the definition from Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary: <<a small, spineless cactus (Lophophora williamsii) of N Mexico, and the SW U.S., with rounded stems, whose buttonlike tops (mescal buttons) are chewed, specif., in religious ceremonies by Mexican Indians, for their hallucinogenic effects>>
I realize that Longman Publishing House prides itself on defining all dictionary entries using only a basic set of 2,000 words, but I still strongly believe that such approach impoverishes the book as a whole. An advanced user should know full well what "hallucinogenic" means, and should be given definitions accordingly, on an advanced level.
2. The phonetic transcription is an awkward modification of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Longman either should have stuck with the IPA (the way OALD does), or utilized the phonetic transcription utilized in America by Webster's and American Heritage dictionaries.
3. It helps somewhat to know that A.A. Milne is a famous British writer of children's books, but it would have been quite a bit more useful to mention that he was the author of Winnie the Pooh stories.
4. No origin of the words (etymology) is included. Once again, a shortcoming for the advanced level.
5. The pronunciation of the verb to slough is listed as rhyming with "cow", instead of "puff". A somewhat surprising oversight on the part of Longman. The noun slough is transcribed correctly, however. So far, this has been the only notable error I have come across after a fairly detailed perusal of the dictionary.

Note: this article reviews Longman Advanced American Dictionary, 2005 Hardback edition without CD-ROM.

3.0 out of 5 stars LONGMAN ADVANCED AMERICAN DICTIONARY, November 2, 2010

By 

Paul K. Shin (CHICAGO, IL, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Longman Advanced American Dictionary, Paper (Laad) (Paperback)

WHEN I LOOKED IT IN THE WEBB PAGE VIEW, IT WAS MENTIONED " LOOKS NEW", BUT WHEN I BOUGHT IT, IT WAS WRITTEN IN SCRIBBLING ON THE SIDE AND TOP OF THE BOOK.