Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary with CD-ROM (Hardcover)

~ Merriam-Webster (Author, Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

An invaluable resource for health care professionals in understanding the language of contemporary health and medicine. It is a comprehensive, easy-to-use guide of over 57,000 entries to today's most widely used health-care terms, abbreviations, medication names and more.

Features
• Entries include carefully researched pronunciations
• Thousands of examples show how words are actually used in context
• A single alphabetical word list makes it easy to find variant spellings
• Win/Mac CD-ROM includes more than 44,000 audio pronunciations and over 160 full-color illustrations

Product Details

• Hardcover: 928 pages
• Publisher: Merriam-Webster; Har/Cdr edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877790272
• ISBN-13: 978-0877790273
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,576,030 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Transcriptionist's Friend!, September 6, 2002

By	Donald S. Meador "imthman" (Novo Hamburgo, Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My wife just returned to doing medical transcription work from home. We needed a medical dictionary for the words she was not familiar with. We opted for Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary. We are very pleased with this medical dictionary, primarily because it is bundled with the CD-ROM.

The dictionary itself contains 57,000 medical terms with understandable definitions. The definitions are more limited than in Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. For example, the MW definition of sclerosis includes reference to one other disease (multiple sclerosis). Dorland's definition of sclerosis includes references to about 40 varieties of sclerosis (including brief explanations of each). Therefore, the MW medical dictionary is not the most exhaustive on the market. It certainly would not do for a Doctor, but it is quite sufficient for a home dictionary. The MW medical dictionary is not illustrated, nor does it include abbreviations for the terms defined.

We were very glad to find the MW bundled with the CD-ROM. The CD version of the dictionary includes a search engine. So, when doing transcription, the search engine can be used on the dictionary without having to pull out a book and sift through 57,000 definitions. This is a great bonus. The CD also includes abbreviations for the medical terms. They even included a feature allowing you to hear the word pronounced correctly. I only found one drawback to the search engine. When looking at the list of terms you have to click on a term to see the definition. Sometimes two words are spelled similarly and sound nearly the same. If the word you clicked on is not the word you need, you have to clear the search and start over - there is no way to return to the list of words from your original query. At least, we have not found a way to do so.

Overall, the Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary has met our needs. We are pleased with the purchase.