The Macmillan Visual Dictionary: 3,500 Color Illustrations, 25,000 Terms, 600 Subjects - Hardcover

Corbeil, Jean-Claude; Archambault, Ariane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0025281607 ISBN 13: 9780025281608

Publisher: *Webster's New World, 1992

Synopsis

A revolutionary dictionary provides precise color illustrations of everything created by man or nature--from human anatomy to airplanes--labeling each picture with the correct terminology of its parts. 100,000 first printing.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

The Macmillan Visual Dictionary Here is one of the most extraordinary and useful reference books ever published: the first comprehensive visual dictionary in full color. Covering 600 subjects, it identifies more than 25,000 terms by the use of thousands of detailed, accurate illustrations. You can use The Macmillan Visual Dictionary in many ways:

• to find the correct term for something you can picture but not name (such as the whatchamacallit on the thingamajig);
• to find out what something looks like when you know its name but can't picture it;
• to build vocabulary;
• to browse in wonder through a universe of information not available to you until now.

Astonishing in scope, The Macmillan Visual Dictionary identifies everything from the components of the human circulatory system to the various types of electrician's tools, from the parts of a train station to the different styles of furniture, from a bird's anatomy to a flower's physiology, from the interior of the Earth to the constellations in the sky. The book's twenty-eight chapters give exhaustive coverage of:

• The Human Body
• The Animal Kingdom
• Music
• Geography
• Architecture
• Sports and Games
• The House
• Symbols
• and many other subject areas

An extended table of contents lists every illustration, and the thorough index lists every term depicted. The variety and abundance of illustrations and terminology make The Macmillan Visual Dictionary an indispensable work for both specialized research and everyday life.

Reviews

Grade 8 Up-- Clear, explicit drawings and diagrams provide either exterior views or labeled cutaways of a variety of objects. The entries are arranged in broad subject categories with a color-coded bar on the page to facilitate browsing, but some of the colors are very similar. Many subject areas are covered: geography, architecture, anatomy, plants, animals, satellites, etc. The last section, symbols, provides easy access for some of those hard to find reference questions. The table of contents lists the 28 categories and the types of items illustrated. The index provides access when one knows the term and wants to identify its use. Browsing is addictive: students will eagerly seek out sections on weapons, transportation, and sports. An important source that helps to fill a gap in most collections--there are many word dictionaries, but very few pictorial ones.
- Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

First published by Facts on File in 1986, and in a French-English version the next year, this visual dictionary enjoys a new life with color illustrations and a boosted price. The introduction by Jean-Claude Corbeil, who edited the previous versions, curiously fails to mention the Dictionary 's earlier incarnations and whether and how it has been expanded. Over 3500 precise, computer-produced illustrations of objects, places, devices, and machinery in the natural and human-made world make up the entries, which are divided into subject categories like Animal Kingdom or Creative Leisure Activities or Weapons. "Kettledrum," for example, listed under the heading Percussion Instruments, which in turn falls under the general subject Music, is pictured with its various components identified and is listed in the index. The use of colored tabs allows the subject categories to be identified along the right margin of the book. Some inconsistencies in the naming of objects are immediately evident. "Condominium," pictured as an apartment building under the subject Architecture, is a kind of ownership rather than a style of architecture; and "pierced earrings," under Personal Adornment, would better have been named "Post Earrings for Pierced Ears" since the page also features "hoop earrings" and "drop earrings" for pierced ears. The Symbols section in the back is particularly helpful. Another dictionary to consider (though not as comprehensive) is What's What: A Visual Glossary of the Physical World (Hammond, 1981). If libraries already own the previous Facts on File visual dictionaries, this version hardly seems necessary; if not, this would make a fine reference addition.
- Amy Boaz Nugent & Jean Peters, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: *Webster's New World
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0025281607
• ISBN 13: 9780025281608
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 862