Shorter Oxford English Dictionary [CD-ROM]

Oxford University Press (Creator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0199231761 | ISBN-13: 978-0199231768 | Publication Date: September 20, 2007 | Edition: 6

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on CD-ROM features the full text of the Sixth Edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which is a complete update of this unique reference work. Based on the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, the "Shorter" contains an incredible one-third of the coverage of the Oxford English Dictionary , is just one-tenth of the size, and includes all words in current English from 1700 to the present day, with senses organized chronologically, plus the vocabulary of Shakespeare, the Bible and other major works in English from before 1700.

The CD-ROM is designed to run on both Windows and Apple Macintosh computers. With an elegant interface providing quick and intutitive searching, it also has advanced searching facilities for in-depth exploration, allowing searching of the definitions, eytmologies, subject, geographical region of use, register, and source language, as well as the ability to limit searches by the date of a word's first recorded usage. There is also an automatic look-up facility; by double-clicking on a word in a document or web page the user can view the entry for that word. Sound recordings enable you to listen to standard British pronunciations for over 100,000 words. In addition it features a crossword puzzle solver and anagram solver.

Supported operating systems: Windows: Intel� Pentium� III 1GHz or faster processor (or equivalent); 512MB of RAM; Microsoft� Windows� Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Widows 2000. Macintosh: PowerPC� G3 500MHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM or Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM; Mac OS x 10.3.9 or later (Power PC) or MacOS x 10.4 x or 10.5 x (Intel). All platforms: 300MB free hard disk space; monitor with 1024x768 pixels and high colour (16 bits per pixel, i.e. 65,536 colours); CD-ROM drive; 16-bit sound card.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In hardcover it takes up two thick volumes, but on CD-ROM you get the same 7.5 million words of text (with half a million definitions and 83,000 quotations) on a thin compact disc. The computerized New SOED is a great pleasure. It readily accomplishes the simple task of looking up a word, providing definition, usage, and simple etymology. But the program also searches by anagram and by rhyme, by quotation and by etymology. Perusing the headword group is like flipping the pages. In this fashion, I ran across "nesh" (soft--in consistency, mind, or morals), "convell" (refute completely) and "xoanon" (primitive carved statue of a deity). My Scrabble game is getting less nesh all the time. --Stephanie Gold --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The contents of this disc match that of its print counterpart of the same name (edited by Lesley Brown, 1997). Having said that, it's hard to believe this is a "shorter" dictionary: there are 7.5 million words on the disc, 500,000 definitions, and 83,000 quotations to illustrate meanings in context. You can approach these words in four ways: simple search (type in your word for a definition), index search (to look for headwords, derivatives, abbreviations, phrases and compound words, uses and references, and other word forms), full-text search (to search all text, etymological text, definitions, or quotations), and special search (to search for anagrams, rhymes, and phonetics). It may take a bit of hunting under those four groups to find a form-specific search that suits, but how remarkable that Oxford has made it possible within just two levels of looking. Nice features include two wildcards (* and ?) that work at the beginning, end, or middle of words, as well as a link feature that lets you use the dictionary within several word processors such as MS Word for Windows 6 and 7, WordPerfect 6.0 and 6.1, and Ami Pro 3.1. Bottom Line: What's extraordinary about this disc is how well it will serve all types of users, from those with the most casual reference question to the scholarly student of the English language. It is highly recommended for all types of libraries and personal collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• CD-ROM: 24 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 6 edition (September 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199231761
• ISBN-13: 978-0199231768
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,454 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Print is Just Fine and So Is the App, September 25, 2007

By 

B. Leach "Oldink" (Sherman Oaks, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: Sixth Edition (Hardcover)

I am an older person (69, wear specs) and have no problem with the print in the sixth edition of this great dictionary. Yes, the print is smaller than that of the fifth edition, but the volume itself is also smaller, less poundage, allowing an (older) arm to lift the darn thing without mechanical help--say, a forklift. No problem at all with the print. One technical note for Mac users regarding the CD-ROM. Tech support at Oxford tells me that a patch is on the way, but as of 25 Sept. 2007 the installed SOED is inoperative on both my iMAC G5 and MacBook. So until that patch arrives I'll just have to use the real thing, not a bad idea anyway. A great dictionary.
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A year later now (October 2008) and I've just installed the update to the application version of this great dictionary. And I'm happy to report that it works well on both an iMac G5 and a new MacBook. Loads fast and word look-ups are instantaneous. Impressive improvements over the original application.

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In fact, it does hyperlink every word, August 27, 1998

By 

Christopher Locke (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (CD-ROM)

The previous review complained that headwords had to be entered manually, and I thought so too for about half an hour of playing with the none-too-intuitive interface. But this turns out to be incorrect. If you double-click any word (to highlight it), then mouse on the open-book icon, the entry for that word will be called into the display window. I would have preferred a right-button mouse menu, but I'm glad to have the capability however it's implemented. btw, if there are possible other forms of the word you've selected this way, a menu pops up to let you choose. Nice.

The Windows menu does not include an option to tile the screen (just cascade), plus the app doesn't remember window positions. Annoying, but not a showstopper.

More irritating is not having better access to the quotation sources and authors. But there are plenty of quotes. Also, while I'm picking nits, there is no option to Select All (pretty standard with Win95 apps these days), so you have to mouse select the whole page if that's what you want. Also, no line breaks are preserved when you paste into a text editor, so plan on lots of reformatting if this is something you want to do often. Grabbing single blocks of text is easy however.

I'm glad to have this material readily to hand, so I can easily live with Oxford University Press's obvious lack of skill in the interface department. Also, the screen presentation looks pretty good, so there's that.

I also discovered a Very Cool Thing you can do, which is to copy the CD subdirectories to your hard disk -- if you have the room -- and access the app without needing the compact disc. This improves performance immensely, plus frees your CD drive for something else; Microsoft Bookshelf 98 in my case. Don't laugh -- it's a cool tool too.

If you're a dictionary junkie like me, you'll want to get this one. Not perfect, no, but well worth the price.

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shorter OED, December 21, 1999

By 

Richard Flanaman - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (CD-ROM)

A very impressive dictionary - hardly justifies 'shorter'. I have the full unabridged OED on CD at work and bought this version for my own use at home. I've found the shorter version just as good in practice. The search and hyperlinking facilities are good, better than on the full version in mt view and of course even those can't be compared to using the reference on paper, which will surely become a lost art before long. (At a full bookshelf's worth of paper the unabridged OED doesn't even have the usual 'you can read it in the bath' benefit of printed books when compared to CDs - it wouldn't even fit in my bath).

All in all I rate this as the best dictionary available in its price range - in any format.