The Chambers Dictionary - Hardcover

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Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0550101853 ISBN 13: 9780550101853

Publisher: Chambers Harrap Pub Ltd, 2007

Encompassing more than 300,000 definitions, this up-to-date reference of the English language includes more than five hundred new entries and covers both old and new words, the commonplace and the unusual, with information on idioms, etymologies, and more than 200,000 references.

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About the Author:

This internationally renowned reference publisher continues its celebrated tradition of excellence into the present day with such informative and authoritative works as the Chambers Crossword Dictionary, Chambers Encyclopedia, Chambers Biographical Dictionary and the all-new Chambers Dictionary of Quotations.

Chambers is based in Edinburgh, as it always has been, and employs editors with a wide range of skills on dictionaries and other titles for a variety of users, including students and teachers of English as a foreign or second language. As well as the core business of publishing dictionaries and thesauruses, Chambers also publishes a range of titles on grammar and usage, single-volume reference titles on science, history, biography and quotations, as well as titles for Scrabble� and crosswords.

From Booklist:

Completely revised and updated, and designed to be used more for finding the meaning, rather than the spelling, of a word, The Chambers Dictionary is the official dictionary for U.K. Scrabble tournaments and succeeds The Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English language (1952) and The Chambers English Dictionary (1988). It was published in the U.K. in 1993.

Changes from the 1988 edition include the front matter, which no longer provides a justification for Americans using a British dictionary, but rather a commentary on the importance of grammar and standard English. Other changes include a revised list of abbreviations, which reflects modern usage (e.g., labels for American Indian and West African have been added, the label for ablative has been deleted), and addition of a list of rules for English spelling. Main entries include derivatives, compounds, and phrases within a headword's etymological family (a signature characteristic of the Chambers dictionaries), cross-references (215,000), pronunciation keys, alternative forms of headwords, inflections, and part-of-speech and classification labels. Definitions (300,000) are generally ordered from the most common to least common, and abbreviations are alphabetized within the main A-Z text; there are no biographical entries. Appendixes include a list (with meanings) of first names; five pages of phrases and quotations from Latin, Greek, and modern foreign languages; the Greek and Russian alphabet; Roman numerals; books of the Bible; plays of Shakespeare; the chemical elements; temperature and measurement conversions; and international paper sizes.

The 25,000 new entries reflect modern usage (AIDS is now defined under its acronym rather than within the definitions for acquire), science and technology (added words include virtual reality, CD-ROM), current societal concerns (ecotourism, sexual harassment), and even American slang (rad, yo). In the Chambers tradition, definitions are clear, print is small but readable, boldface is effectively used to help find words, and an international focus is evident.

This is a superior dictionary that belongs on the shelves of academic and public libraries, alongside the various American Webster's

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