Customer Reviews

Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary: Fully Revised and Updated

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4 star:		(1)
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This dictionary, with its $20 price tag, is, given its affordability and lexical scope, literally the best you can buy today. It will be especially useful for entering or current college students, although it could serve well anyone from a high school freshman to a university professor.

I had the opportunity to hold a 2001 edition of Random House Webster's Unabridged, of which I believe the volume under discussion is some kind of facsimile or near-facsimile. Though the content of both dictionaries is literally exactly the same, the Random House lexicon is very heavy compared to this tome, which can easily be lifted using only one had by anyone of average strength.

I used the NOAD (New Oxford American) and the tenth edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary before this one. You don't have to use Webster's New Universal for long before you notice that the definitions are much more comprehensive than those of M-W and the NOAD (and, I suspect, other general purpose US dictionaries). For example, WNU lists three senses of 'phantasmagoria,' a detailed etymology, and a host of inflected forms (including variants). NOAD lists a single definition of phantasmagoria, to the effect of 'a dreamlike series of images constantly in flux' (sorry--can't quote from it because I don't have it with me: I gave away already after getting WNU!), in effect combining the first and second senses listed in WNU, and completely ignoring the third, which has a phantasmagoria as an optical illusion created by a light source in which shadows behave unreally. M-W's doesn't fare much better: though it lists three senses, they are all fairly unspecific and do not match the detail and specificity (for lack of a better word) of the WNU definition.

Also, WNU (qua unabridged dictionary) will have words that the other two dictionaries simply cannot due to their size (e.g., philosophaster (a pretender to knowledge of philosophy), etc.).

It might be asked why I am comparing this dictionary to two others which are clearly not intended to be compared with dictionaries of the depth and scope of WNU. The reason is that WNU sells for only $20 (at the Barnes and Noble website at least, or in-store: you can call them up and have it delivered to one near you), whereas the list price of the NOAD is an outrageous $60, and M-W's Collegiate is $24.

However, there are a few complaints about this dictionary I might reasonably entertain. First, it isn't as portable as a collegiate dictionary (again, qua unabridged, but if you want a good desk dictionary, this one is best). Again, this isn't to say that the dictionary is inordinately heavy or unwieldy--it is literally lighter than the NOAD, a much smaller dictionary (of only 250,000 words, cf. WNU's 350,000, with more comprehensive definitions at that) and much lighter than the 2001 edition of the Random House Unabridged (of which, again, I _think_ this edition is some kind of facsimile or partial facsimile). Second, the senses are not listed in historical order and the synonym lists are too few and far between. Admittedly, the last complaint is minor and probably idiosyncratic--I like synonym lists and historical ordering of senses aids the conceptualization of a new word--for me at least. However, none of these minor complaints should detract significantly from WNU if all you need is a desk dictionary.

Finally, I would like to note that I believe that this dictionary will be especially useful for entering or current college students. The 'collegiate' or 'college' label on most abridged dictionaries intended for university students is diminutive and insulting. College students need the breadth, quality, and (especially) number of definitions associated with unabridged dictionaries. The only person I can imagine who would benefit from the popular 'college' dictionaries on the market today rather than an unabridged would be (a) someone who needs a dictionary of smaller size for some reason, say ease of transport, ability to fit into a backpack, etc., or (b) high school students or even middle school students for whom an unabridged is just too much.

No fancy bells or whistles in this dense tome, but just about everything I was looking for in a dictionary: etymology, grammar, style guide, historical info, etc. The format is plain, and no color plates or atlas, but I already have an atlas, and now I have a very good dictionary for a low price.

This book is the "big gun" in deciding Scrabble disputes, looking up odd terms or archaic expressions. I have found that it is not comprehensive, omitting some Victorian cant expressions and coming before some new-speak technicalese expressions were coined. That's okay. This represents the best compromise possible in 2003 (the year of publication) in terms of combining useful vocabulary at an incredibly affordable price.

There's no color plates, but the black and white line drawings are informative and clear.

In addition to the glorious dictionary, there's some other nice stuff between these covers. The full texts of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States come right upfront, even before the introduction. That's because Webster was a great American and publishing one's own dictionary is another way to liberate yourself from Mother England. The introduction makes a few telling points about the evolution of English and Shakespeare and regional dialects. There's a brief course in how to use a dictionary, which I've been meaning to read some time. I dread to discover that I have been using my dictionary the wrong way, i.e. to look up words...

On the very last page (2230) there's a chart of "Words Commonly Confused". This is a wonderful tool, clear and simple and something my spell-checker never checks for.

There's one danger in resorting to this great reference tool: distraction. I have gone to it to look up a word and gotten lost in it for hours.

I love this. It replaced a dictionary that was much older, and definitely didn't have as many words. It's a 'coffee table' item, and it's used frequently.