Customer Reviews

Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Perhaps I will end up buying the Oxford English Reference Dictionary at some point, but presently, this Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus 1st Ed is great. I don't care about slang or computer definitions in my dictionary, English has always been English, and while American may be different in spelling, it is still English. Internet, blog, PCMCIA, ARP, .NET, Mono, etc... is in computer books, which is where it should be. I don't expect my dictionary to have the recipe for Rice Balls or the proper pronunciation of this common variation of a Japanese dish, now perhaps coming towards being cross-cultural. I expect that information to be in a cookbook.

However, in words, it's wonderful. Why? That's easy; I believe it's because it had 'anfractuosity' as well as the minimum of 3 decent definitions for 'numinous'. This was the smallest dictionary I could find that had all the words in the Prologue of 'The Problem of Pain' by CS Lewis. Any dictionary that can match words with the vocabulary that CS Lewis expressed is all that I need.

Some other thoughts... I've been reading dictionary reviews for 20 minutes, and I think there are too many people that are trying to get subject specific with their dictionaries. Dictionaries should be ENGLISH specific. It's all this slang, idioms, and subject specific vocabulary that has dropped my vocabulary to sad terms. Between that application, and the genuine desire of individuals around the world to give the wrong definition to words such as feminine, it's no wonder the young are becoming less educated while spending more time in school.

New English... There is no such thing. English is English. It's been essentially the same for much longer than I've been alive.

Still, you should definitely get a dictionary of slang and idioms. It's good to know what people are saying in a specific region/country.

I originally purchased this dictionary just for a class requirement in English, having never really owned one before. And I've heard oxford makes the best dictionaries, so I ended up with this one. And now I can't stop using it.

It really is surprising how much use you can get out of a thesaurus/dictionary. I've used it for resumes (to keep word redundancy down), games (like Scrabble), homework assignments, and of course the occasional quip whether that string of syllables coming out of her mouth is really a word or not. It's big and heavy, but what can you say? It's supposed to be big and heavy. As far as the technical aspects of the dictionary are concerned, I'm not completely aware, but I'm not exactly worried with the name Oxford stamped on the cover.

glad to have a dictionary that the teachers use in school, my kids like the dictionary and that it serves 2 purposes instead of one is fantastic

It has all the qualities I want in a dictionary.