Customer Reviews

Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary, Revised Edition

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My wife just returned to doing medical transcription work from home. We needed a medical dictionary for the words she was not familiar with. We opted for Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary. We are very pleased with this medical dictionary, primarily because it is bundled with the CD-ROM.

The dictionary itself contains 57,000 medical terms with understandable definitions. The definitions are more limited than in Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. For example, the MW definition of sclerosis includes reference to one other disease (multiple sclerosis). Dorland's definition of sclerosis includes references to about 40 varieties of sclerosis (including brief explanations of each). Therefore, the MW medical dictionary is not the most exhaustive on the market. It certainly would not do for a Doctor, but it is quite sufficient for a home dictionary. The MW medical dictionary is not illustrated, nor does it include abbreviations for the terms defined.

We were very glad to find the MW bundled with the CD-ROM. The CD version of the dictionary includes a search engine. So, when doing transcription, the search engine can be used on the dictionary without having to pull out a book and sift through 57,000 definitions. This is a great bonus. The CD also includes abbreviations for the medical terms. They even included a feature allowing you to hear the word pronounced correctly. I only found one drawback to the search engine. When looking at the list of terms you have to click on a term to see the definition. Sometimes two words are spelled similarly and sound nearly the same. If the word you clicked on is not the word you need, you have to clear the search and start over - there is no way to return to the list of words from your original query. At least, we have not found a way to do so.

Overall, the Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary has met our needs. We are pleased with the purchase.

This Medical dictionary has been a life-saver for me and my college classes towards my major. I love this purchase and I will definitely be using it for many more years to come.

This was the first medical dictionary I got while in medical school. Since I was in there for Neuroscience and not to get an MD. perhaps my area of speciality was too limited for those who would usually use this dictionary. It was extremely frustrating to look up things such as encephalocele and find either no information or very little information. I decided that as a dictionary of medical terminology, books such as this cannot be limited to the concise words given in other dictionaries. There were too many times I was reading or writing medical papers in which I had to put this particular version down and look up the information I needed either at school or on the Internet. When you are in a hurry, you don't have time to do either of those things and prefer to have something you can just flip open alphabetically and get the answer you were looking for. I realize someone put a lot of work into this, but it just isn't enough and I have since gotten another dictionary to which I regularly refer. It isn't this one. Karen Sadler Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

would not work at all on my iphone or mac. It completely froze and Amazon had to disable it.

I have taught allied health students for years and I can say that I was most disappointed with this book. It is surprising that Delmar Learning, who claim to be such a leader in health textbooks, would put their name on something this miserable. The terms are largely out of date, definitions are badly written, there are no illustrations and students (who apparently this is designed for) would find a hard time using this book. I hate to be so negative but in a word IT IS AWFUL!

Medicine is not my field, but I have had no problems in understanding medical terms with this dictionary, ranging from simple words like "drive" from a medical point of view, including Ct-Scan, to the strangest words for the laymen. It should be useful for a wide range of professionals working in health care. A very fine presentation!