Download MerriamWebster Collegiate Dictionary MerriamWebster 9780877798095 Books

Product details Hardcover 1664 pages Publisher Merriam Webster; 11th edition (April 23, 2008) Language English ISBN-10 9780877798095

MerriamWebster Collegiate Dictionary MerriamWebster 9780877798095 Books Reviews

• For my needs, this Collegiate is a much better dictionary than the more simplified others, such as the dictionaries bundled with . Its definitions are more extensive and nuanced, especially useful when reading older material where the meanings of words (and the words themselves) have changed over time. Many times I have have found the more nuanced meanings of better authors in their selection of words.
  It is simple to make this the default dictionary in instead of the bundled one.
  At its heart, It is a standalone full copy of the Collegiate Dictionary, and can also be fully accessed as a separate book within . This makes browsing enjoyable, not just of its listings (including such pictures as dictionaries have) but also its supplemental materials.
  When using it as a writer (I know the word, but not its spelling, nor if I completely understand the word I seek to use) and not as a reader, I would have been more pleased if those who had added electronic usability had also made it more intuitive to those of us with poorer ability to spell by more simply allowing the browsing for a word as is done with a paper dictionary. Yes, the pages are there exactly as they are in the paper version, but, for me, the electronics are not as good as the physical movement of the pages or groups of pages. It might be that adding a line which could be dragged at the top to change the pages displayed would further improve this.
• Although this is a fantastic dictionary, the kindle version is flawed. If you are planning to use this as a kindle dictionary, you'll often run into definitions that contain the word itself. Even in hard copy dictionary this is a bit of a pain, but nothing significant as you can quickly do one more lookup for the root word. A simple example, happiness entry in this dictionary is "the state of being happy". This is not going to work in kindle as it's not easy to perform secondary/tertiary lookup. I often find myself switching back to default in kindle (especially oxford american dictionary, which gets this right.)
  
  I've always wondered, why and how dictionaries get away with this. Obviously the reason I am looking up a word is that I do not know what it means, so the definition should probably not include the very word itself.
• As a native Chinese who has never lived in an English-speaking country, this dictionary, though still a bit tough for me, is fantastic and enormously helpful for my English study. I am a graduate student now and have learned English as a second language for almost 15 years. Unfortunately, however, the English training I have received these years is not only boring, but also troublesomely unbalanced. It largely serves the aim of passing the exams held by Chinese education ministrative authority, thus making our Chinese learned a set of Chinese type English named as "Chinglish", which is characterized by an abundance of oddly ingenuine usages of words, phrases and sentences. I have gradually realized this matter and been dying for tasting the relish of genuine English, especially American English. Therefore, until one day I saw a highly recommended comment at Quora, about what a Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary could do for you, I just realized this dictionary is what I need. I was deeply fascinated by it at the moment I got it and saw its gorgeous cover, decent printing and rich items. After that, I almost opened it every day and spent quite much time reading it. It is proved to be the best and most helpful dictionary with most genuine American usage, and I can not help myself loving it!!! That is why I scored it as five stars.
• The dictionary is very useful. I have Merriam-Webster Android version also, however I wanted hardcover type one. Because; 1) I'd like read/check preface, explanatory chart, explanatory notes, and so on this dictionary (it meaning, I'd like to read preface and appendixes of Webster). It's useful and important for deeply understanding. 2) I have Oxford paperback type. I love both dictionaries. But, hardcover type is more better for a a long time to keep good condition.
  So, I recommend hardcover type dictionary even it's very heavy ) However, when I opened the dictionary at first... I'm very shocked for so bad condition/quality... One page is severely corrupted (It's not second hand). I think is not bad. It's just publisher's problem. In actually, I'd like to request to change. But, I'm in Japan... so let it go (If I request to change the new one, I have to wait 2 more weeks... I need the dictionary "NOW", it's not next month). I know it's very rare case, it's not so much (I had never seen that condition on English books. It's first time). I think dictionary is the most important book in all books. If this likely rare condition is on a kind of novel, I was not so much shocked. So, I recommend that if you want to buy a dictionary, real book store (not online) is better, because we can check the condition before buying it.
• Perfect, you can't find a hard cover dictionary in many stores anymore, and this is just what I was looking for. FYI laminated just means it has a high gloss finish with a very thin plastic coating to make it shine. I like to create quick tabs out of post-it notes they do not come with the dictionary.
• I bought this after being unhappy with some of the New Oxford definitions. Unfortunately, this one is worse because none of the defimitions are viewable in the book page due to the excessively long pronunciation section completely filling up the definition window, requiring me to exit the page and view the definition in the dictionary.