Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition, Laminated Hardcover, Plain-Edged - Hardcover

Merriam-Webster

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0877798079 ISBN 13: 9780877798071

Publisher: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2019

Synopsis

Newly Revised & Updated! The Eleventh Edition of America’s Best-Selling Dictionary defines the current, active vocabulary of American English and is updated on an ongoing basis. Features more than 225,000 definitions and over 42,000 usage examples. Includes newly added words and meanings across a variety of fields including technology, entertainment, health, science, and society.

Special sections include A Handbook of Style, Foreign Words and Phrases, Biographical Names, and Geographical Names.

New words include: bestie, truther, Bitcoin, listicle, binge-watch, ransomware, takeaway, woke, hack, clickbait, and immersive.

About this title

About the Author

For over 180 years, Merriam-Webster has been America's leading provider of language information. Each month, our award-winning websites, apps, and social media channels offer guidance to tens of millions of visitors. All Merriam-Webster products and services are backed by the largest team of professional dictionary editors and writers in America.

Reviews

*Starred Review* The first Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (M-W) was published in 1898, and the tenth edition had a copyright date of 1993.

Now for the numbers. M-W has a paper file of 15,700,000 citations from which their lexicographers chose 10,000 new words, for a total of 165,000 entries and 225,000 definitions. There are 100,000 "changes" from the tenth edition. Users asked for more usage examples and idioms and phrases, so there are now 40,000 examples and a "significant" increase in idioms. There are 91,000 pronunciations, 33,000 etymologies, 2,700 illustrative quotations, 650 foreign words and phrases, and 700 illustrations.

As the world rushes on, so does the time taken for words to become accepted. It used to be at least ten years before a new word was considered for inclusion; now it may take as few as four years. M-W staff certainly have become the purveyors of the words that we use. Terms added to this edition include Botox, comb-over, crunch-exercise, dead-cat bounce, dead presidents, dead tree, def, exfoliant, gimme cap, identity theft, phat, and tweener. As would be expected, some entries had to be eliminated because words are invented faster than they go out of favor. Anyone seeking definitions of record changer and pantdress will need an unabridged or older dictionary.

M-W still includes separate sections for geographical and biographical names, but abbreviations are now interfiled in the main section. Perhaps the next edition will interfile the other two sections.

Criticisms of the eleventh edition are mostly cosmetic. The use of photographs and shaded boxes for usage notes would make it more attractive to users. There are, however, more than 200 new black-and-white line drawings. The Col legiate Dictionary's closest competitor, the American Heritage College Dictionary (4th ed.), published last year, makes good use of photographs and illustrations in the margins. It contains a number of words (gangsta, goth) that are also new to this edition of M-W.

The most interesting option is the date feature. Paging through the words attributed to a particular year is a definite retrospective of recollections. Words of 1980 include balsamic vinegar, exit poll, NIMBY, and ziplock.

For serious dictionary collections and fans of dictionaries from this venerable publisher, now in partnership with Britannica, the eleventh edition is a definite buy.RBB
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Edition details

• Publisher: Merriam-Webster, Inc.
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0877798079
• ISBN 13: 9780877798071
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1664