Oxford Concise English Dictionary 11th Edition

Other products by Oxford University Press

Product Features

• A major new edition of Oxford s world-famous dictionary.

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Note: Gift-wrapping is not available for this item.
• ASIN: B0009PH9CS
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 24, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,372 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

Product Description

Product Description
A major new edition of Oxfords world-famous dictionary.  Find relevant informationinstantly! Set the Dictionary to float on top of your current application and you can consult it with a simple double-mouse click. Personalize other features such as font size, window position, and more from the options panel.

Just point your cursor over a word in your web browser (or any Windows® application like Word or Excel), double-click with your mouse and the results are instantly displayed in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

The hypertext based search engine cross-references every word in the definition.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary is firmly established as the foremost authority on current English, and for decades has been the most popular dictionary of its kindselling throughout the English-speaking world. Using a radically more accessible style for this major new edition, Oxford lexicographers have rewritten every word and entry to represent the richness, complexity, and beauty of the English language as never before.
240,000 words, phrases and definitions.

• The clearest, most accurate definitions, from the foremost authority on English.

Thousands of new words and senses.

• Up-to-date coverage from Oxford's unrivaled new word research.

Over 50,000 spoken pronunciations.

• Plus hundreds of extra notes on grammar, punctuation, and usage.

Includes interactive word games.

• Amusing word games provide hours of learning and fun.

Intelligence at your fingertips!

• More than 240,000 words, phrases and meanings with definitions from the largest language research program in the world.

Extra features:

• This CD-ROM includes spoken pronunciations for over 50,000 headwords and hundreds of extra notes on grammar, punctuation, and usage. Plus, interactive word ga

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even better than I'd hoped for, January 26, 2006

By	boudicca "boudicca" (lala land) - See all my reviews

I bought this sight unseen (unheard?) in hopes the audio pronounciation announcers have British accents, and they do! It's a hoot to heard the English version of "la-BOR-a-tory" and "al-um-IN-ium" for example. It contains American versions of terms, also.

It also has a lot of british slang so I can look up terms I don't understand while watching BBC America or Masterpiece Theatre.

Be advised, though, if you want an American Talking Dictionary, this may not be the best bet for you. If you are an Anglophile, however, you can't miss with this one.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatly improved; a pleasure to use!, June 21, 2008

By	T. D. Welsh (Basingstoke, Hampshire UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This new version is not only updated to include the contents of the 11th printed edition; its software has been rewritten to provide a more pleasant, intuitive user interface. With nearly quarter of a million words, spoken pronunciations, usage advice, and explanations of where US and British usage differs, it's already outstanding value. Because you only see a single window on your screen (or a minimized icon) it's surprising to learn that the printed book runs to over 1600 pages - all of which are at your fingertips through the search field.

You get the first 14 pages of the printed dictionary as an indexed PDF, with the introduction, explanations of how everything is laid out, and sections on grammar, spelling and inflection, and pronunciation. Appendices cover countries of the world (each with its capital, area, population, and currency), Prime Ministers and Presidents, Kings and Queens, weights and measures, chemical elements, the solar system, collective nouns, types of language, English in Electronic Communication, and a Guide to Good English. Some of these might seem quirky or irrelevant, but it's nice to have so much information at your fingertips.

The COED still runs in 16-bit compatibility mode, but that is transparent to the user. It can be run from the CD or (more conveniently) installed to hard disk; and there are options to have it running permanently in background, and even to bring up the relevant entry when you double-click on any word in common applications such as Word or your browser. Two text sizes are available - slightly bigger and slightly smaller - but neither is hard to read for anyone with reasonable vision. The copy feature is slightly eccentric, but easily understood and (the main thing) it works fine.

It may be worth stressing that the COED is the definitive reference to *British* English, although it does a good job of identifying American variants and usage. (Indeed, it's particularly useful if you need to use both "dialects" and want to confirm which words end in "-ize" instead of "-ise", for example).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Oxford 11 Dictionary, March 29, 2008

By	J J Olm "Ornax" (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews

For the price paid, this is a good English dictionary. It has an easy-to-use searching device, and a rather comprehensive word bank. I myself would be ready to buy a full Oxford dictionary in DVD as soon as it is available.