The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary [Paperback]

The Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198601727 | ISBN-13: 978-0198601722 | Publication Date: May 28, 1998

Now available for the first time in a paperback format, The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary is a landmark in the description of modern Hebrew. Using principles developed in English lexicography but never before applied to Hebrew, it is an essential reference for serious English and Hebrew users alike, whether students, scholars, translators, or in professional contexts. The dictionary reflects the development of Hebrew in the twentieth century, and with over 50,000 entries offers extensive coverage of current idioms and phrases, slang and colloquialisms, technical and scientific terminology, academic discourse, legal and medical terminology, American and Australian terms, and a labeling system allowing easy identification of senses, contexts, and registers. For anyone interested in learning or translating modern Hebrew, The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary is an invaluable resource.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A. Kahane is at Northwestern University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1120 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198601727
• ISBN-13: 978-0198601722
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #202,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Hebrew
  • #40 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Russian
  • #62 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Hebrew > Instruction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A phenomenal dictionary, perhaps not for beginners, April 12, 2002

By 

Kevin B. Cohen (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary (Paperback)

This is a phenomenal dictionary. Some things that make it so great:

1) Huge numbers of usage examples, at a wide range of levels of
formality. The examples give information that's lacking in most dictionaries, such as which preposition(s) to use with a given verb. They also contain a wealth of idiomatic constructions. I'm amazed at how much time I've spent just browsing through the examples in this book.

2) Excellent differentiation between multiple meanings of a word. If there are multiple Hebrew words that correspond to a given English word, they are very clearly differentiated, often with examples that further clarify when to use which (see above).

3) The vocabulary covered is VERY comprehensive and covers all ranges of style, from literary to colloquial (including, I was happy to discover, many obscenities).

This dictionary also is not necessarily for beginners. Some reasons that it's not necessarily for beginners:

1) It's English-to-Hebrew only; if you're looking for a very first dictionary, you might do better with a bilingual one.

2) It doesn't list the gender of nouns, nor does it list irregular plurals. (Gender and plurals can generally be figured out, if you know the rules, but it's nice to have them made explicit.)

Since this dictionary is published by Oxford, the English is overwhelmingly British. This is most obvious in the fact that many British idiomatic expressions are included, while American ones seem less well-represented...

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent English-Hebrew reference work., September 30, 2000

By 

Alexis Rosoff Treeby (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary (Paperback)

It has what is probably the most important feature of a foreign-language dictionary: it explains the different contexts of a word, idiomatic usages, and expressions containing the headwords, not just the quick one word definitions many pocket dictionaries offer. A dictionary that simply tells you that three words equate to one English word without telling you where which word should be used is useless, and the Oxford dictionary avoids that trap. It's a must-have for students of Hebrew. I wish the Hebrew-English side was available, though.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference book!, April 5, 2000

By 

vallerino (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary (Paperback)

This is a very comprehensive Engish-Hebrew dictionary which includes many slang and colloquial expressions. Many example sentences are provided. My main criticism of this book is that it does not provide the plural form of Hebrew nouns, and does not provide the masculine, feminine and plural forms of adjectives, but only gives the masculine form.

A note on the slang used in this book: there are loads of current and slang expressions in the book, which is great. As I am American, I noticed that quite a bit of the English slang is British -- not American slang, which is not necessarily a criticism but a comment. There were quite a few British slang expressions that I did not understand, but only understood from reading the Hebrew translation. Overall I think this is a wonderful reference tool, and I look forward to the release of the companion volume (Hebrew-English).