Customer Reviews

The Meridian Hebrew/English English/Hebrew Dictionary (Reference) (Hebrew Edition)

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It is often the case in foreign-language, dual-language dictionaries that the more comprehensive and detailed, the more expensive the volume. This is also true in Hebrew, where the best dictionaries still tend to be the ones out of reach of the ordinary wallet, particularly those of students. This dictionary, essentially the same dictionary that started as the Signet Hebrew/English Dictionary by Dov Ben-Abba, is rather comprehensive and also affordable.

This dictionary contains more than 35,000 entries, derived from Biblical, Talmudic and Medieval Hebrew as well as modern Hebrew as used in Israel. Those who have not studied Hebrew often do not realise there is a distinction, and that Hebrew has changed over time just as all languages do; Hebrew in a sense had to be reinvented as a modern language in the twentieth century, and Ben-Abba's dictionary takes this into account.

The Hebrew words in both sections are completely vocalised (Hebrew is often printed without nikkud, the diacriticals that denote vowel sounds). There are complete transliterations and pronunciation keys (and, unlike English, Hebrew is much more standard in keeping sounds as they are spelled). The dictionary even includes medical, scientific and slang terminology, but these are changing so rapidly that dictionaries are hard pressed to keep pace.

While there are better Hebrew dictionaries available, at the student-friendly price, this one cannot be beat.

I'm in 4th grade at a Jewish day school & I like this dictionary because it tells me all the masculine and feminine stuff and it is easy to read.

I have had the original version of this dictionary since 1980. It was then called the Signet H/E E/H Dictionary and cost $1.95. I am quite fluent in conversational Hebrew and generally use the dictionary for reference. I read Israeli newspapers (Maariv, Haaretz) on the Internet and decided it was time to replace my by now quite worn-out dictionary. I extensively reviewed the Ben Yehuda, the Bantam-Megiddo, and the Compact English-Hebrew Dictionary by Shimon Zilberman as well as my original Signet. Of the four, I found the Compact and the Signet to be the best. The Compact is hard to find so if you do find it, go with it. The Meridian is exactly the same as the Signet and in my opinion is also very good. The Ben Yehuda and the Bantam-Meggido have been around a long time (1964, 1975 respectively). The translations in these are quite literal and not always Modern Hebrew (i.e., what you read in the newspaper). The Compact and the Meridian are based on modern Hebrew and therefore much more useful. For example, the word "mabsut", which is actually Arabic and means "satisified" is found in the Compact and the Meridian. It is not found at all in Ben Yehuda or Bantam-Meggido. The word "Pigua", which we see in the newspapers unfortunately too often now means an "attack" and is translated as such in Compact and Meridian. Ben Yehuda and Bantam-Meggiddo say it means "hit". So while that is still correct, in the context of how it is used conversationally, the translation is lacking. Unfortunately, the Meridian is no longer a pocket dictionary. It is now much larger and more expensive than Ben Yehuda and Bantam-Meggido, so I guess that'a a factor too.

Unfortunately I have bought this dictionary. In the English-Hebrew part the author just gives a list of Hebrew equivalents for every English words without defining the exact meaning of each one and no examples at all. If you look for "fan", you won't know which Hebrew word means fan like fanatic and which means fan like ventilator. I have made my Israely friends laugh several times because of this book. Also the letters are so small that a foreign learner will have a good headache trying to decipher them. Go for Oxford dictionaries instead, they are more expensive but worthy

I'm a beginning Hebrew student--self-taught because of disabilities that prevent me from taking classes. This dictionary is a wonderul aid. One of the things I especially love is the transliteration. Hebrew words are transliterated into English letters, and English into Hebrew. The latter has been especially helpful for checking my pronunciation. Since I already know how the English words are pronounced I can use the transliteration to see if I've gotten all the sounds right. And, of course, I can use the Hebrew to English transliteration to check my pronunciation of the Hebrew words.

It doesn't give much information about a word's various senses. But when I want that, I turn to the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament; Renn's expositional dictionary; Strong's Hebrew lexicon; or Briggs, Driver and Brown. But those are tomes and they don't cover nearly as many words as this dictionary. So the lack of such information is not a flaw, but simply the result of a trade-off. The result, in my opinion, is a lot of bang for the buck.

All in all, I believe this book will be very useful to beginners as they learn the Hebrew alphabet and start building a vocabulary.

The current edition is identical to the Signet dictionary by Dov Ben Abba published in 1977, which is the one I'm using (it was only $1.95 then). Its definitions are very good, and are more extensive than in other pocket Hebrew dictionaries that I've seen, especially English-Hebrew. The Hebrew is fully vocalized so there's no question how to pronounce a word. Many Hebrew expressions are defined. My copy is getting so worn that I'm considering buying the new edition.

The main problem I have with this dictionary is that it is confusing to follow. For example, the English word "Have" has 10 to 20 different possible translations to Hebrew (I say 10 to 20 because the list is jumbled and individual words/phrases are not distinct). You'd think that the first word listed was the common Hebrew word to be used. Unfortunatly, it's not. The word is "HYH" (hi-YA), which means to be or to have been (I was taught the latter). And that's just one example. I have spent hours attempting to translate one paragraph from English to Hebrew simply because I had to go thorugh a very long list of words to get a translation I wanted, and sometimes you don't get it at all. The Meridian needs some very, very substantial revisions so that it can be more eaisly used by students at all levels of fluency. On the other hand, it's not a total wast because it does go from Hebrew to English relativly smoothly, although it does not list verbs with thier shoresh or the binyan and gizrah they are in, something that really is necessary if you're taking Hebrew above the gramer school level (I, personally, started in college). If it did, it might be a little more helpful. Overall, I recomend that you try another dicitionary, preferably one a little easier to read.

Instant, easy to use and precise, like it says on the cover. The only complaint I have, but it's true of many such dictionaries, is that the vowel point print is way too small.

I was disappointed. This dictionary is probably useless to the English speaking beginner in Hebrew. The definition to common words used in every day phrases such as Hebrew blessings are impossible or nearly impossible to find. If a person is not fluent in Hebrew, there is no alphabetical order to the Hebrew words. A person cannot go from the English spelling to the Hebrew word definition. Many words lack English pronunciation. For the english speaking apprentice Hebrew student, this is not a tool. I returned the book.

Good overall dictionary, but merely a reprint of a 1975 dictionary. Does not include a lot of words added since then to the Hebrew language. Needs an update.