The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary (Hardcover)

~ Editors of The American Heritage Dictionaries (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–In a world in which medical and health literacy are increasingly important, an accessible medical dictionary is an asset. This revision of the 1995 edition contains over 45,000 jargon-free terms that will help intelligent consumers understand what the doctor says, as well as the increasingly ubiquitous messages and acronyms in ads, self-help publications, TV shows, and social conversation. Thirteen hundred terms are new to this edition, including biographical entries, abbreviations, and commonly prescribed medications. The introductory guide succinctly explains the book's organization, syllabication, pronunciation, inflection, and sequencing of information. A "Compound Word Index" lists nouns found in more than one entry. Each entry in the index includes every adjective that precedes it in the dictionary (e.g., "abortion" appears eight times, including "incomplete abortion," "spontaneous abortion," and so on). Illustrations of specific anatomical features and anomalies appear throughout for clarification. Appendixes include measurements and metric conversions, RDA recommendations for vitamins and minerals, a periodic table of elements, and full-body illustrations of skeletal muscles, bones, and both the vascular and nervous systems. While the print format poses limitations (the book cannot keep up with every breaking medical issue, such as the Vioxx recall), this volume is nonetheless a fount of information and terms clearly–but not simplistically–defined.–Mary R. Hofmann, Rivera Middle School, Merced, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

This spinoff of Stedman's Medical Dictionary (Williams

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 921 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; Indexed edition (November 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039569955X
• ISBN-13: 978-0395699553
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,613,247 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for Spelling Only, March 26, 2000

By A Customer

I am a medical transcriptionist and not only need to be able to spell medical terms but also need to know how medical terms relate contextually to what I am typing. What I liked about Stedman's is the in-depth illustrations...for instance, nerves, skeleton, muscular structure. If I know the word is a kind of nerve but cannot quite understand the doctor, I can look at these illustrations, read over the names and then listen again with a better knowledge of what I am listening for. Also, Stedman's has a unique feature which I use all the time. Under "disease", there are listed many types of diseases. Under "test", there are listed the names of many standard medical tests that are given. This book is invaluable to my work!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for Spelling Only, March 27, 2000

By	A Customer - See all my reviews

I am a medical transcriptionist and not only need to be able to spell medical terms but also need to know how medical terms relate contextually to what I am typing. What I liked about Stedman's is the in-depth illustrations...for instance, nerves, skeleton, muscular structure. If I know the word is a kind of nerve but cannot quite understand the doctor, I can look at these illustrations, read over the names and then listen again with a better knowledge of what I am listening for. Also, Stedman's has a unique feature which I use all the time. Under "disease", there are listed many types of diseases. Under "test", there are listed the names of many standard medical tests that are given. This book is invaluable to my work!