The American Heritage Dictionary: Fourth Edition (21st Century Reference)

The American Heritage Dictionary: Fourth Edition (21st Century Reference) | Houghton Mifflin Company | The Gold Standard for Writers

books:

The American Herit...

	The American Heritage Dictionary: Fourth Edition (21st Century Reference) Houghton Mifflin Company Dell, 2001 - 960 pages average customer review:based on 70 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

* Over 70,000 entries
* Thoroughly revised and updated
* 1,000 new words and meanings
* Over 400 photographs and illustrations
* Expert guidance on correct usage

Based on the bestselling American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

American Heritage® dictionaries are widely known as the most innovative and informative dictionaries in today's market. This all-new fourth edition of the best-selling classic continues that tradition with its clear and precise definitions, its expert usage guidance, and its wealth of illustrations. Newly updated to reflect our changing language, this revised edition is the most up-to-date and authoritative dictionary available today.

* More than a thousand new entries for such terms as e-tailer, zine, bioreserve, chatroom, red card, domestic partner

* More biographical and geographical entries than any other paperback, thoroughly updated for the new millennium

* The most lavishly illustrated dictionary on the market -- with over 400 images

* Expert usage guidance based on the American Heritage® Usage Panel

* Regional notes from around the country

* Hundreds of synonym lists, fascinating etymologies, and much more

American Heritage® Dictionaries. Setting a new standard.

for more information click here

A Fine Little Dictionary

The dictionary is very compact, yet has many entries and is a good value. The only way to improve it would be to add a visual alphabetical index.

The Gold Standard for Writers

I am a budding writer. As part of my research for developing a freelance commercial writer practice, I read "The Well Fed Writer" by Peter Bowerman. In his discussion of writer tools, Bowerman recommended The American Heritage Dictionary above all others. He called it "THE happening dictionary out there."

How do you measure a dictionary? I looked up current usage of words not in common use when I bought my Webster's Collegiate twenty-odd years ago. I found a definition of "hip-hop" [n. 1. A popular urban youth culture, closely associated with rap music and the style of innre-city African-Americans.] There is a brief discussion of the distinction in use of the words "Hispanic" and "Latino." Though not an encyclepedia, American Heritage lists prominent historic figures with the source of their fame and life years.

I bought the paperback version for the price. Next time, I will buy the trade edition [larger paperback] or hard cover version to take advantage of the larger type. The paperback is pratical for carrying around. I use my dictionary in my office.

for more information click here

Quality has decreased over the years

I own the 2nd paperback edition of this dictionary that I've had since around 1989. It was getting quite worn out on the covers, but pages are fine but simply yellowed. Since I've liked this dictionry for so many years, I thought it's about time to get a new edition. When I got this new 4th edition, it looked about the same size but bit thicker, of course they better have added some new words over the last 20 years. So I put the old one away and started using the new one. After a couple of months of using it, the binding have almost splitted in half and some pages are starting to fall out just from normal flipping and looking up words. I'm quite careful with books, and the old 2nd edition still has it's binding and all pages intact. In terms of the number of words, it was really not necessary, at least for me, to have this new edition, because I've learned these so called "new" words from TV, newspapers, magazines, friends, co-workers, colleagues, and Internet increasingly for the last two decades. I think it would be strange for someone today in the 21st century needing to know a supposed "new" word like email(e-mail), unless he or she has been living in a cave or a coma all these years.

for more information click here