The World Book Dictionary

<:st> A previous edition of this two-volume dictionary is recommended in General Reference Books for Adults. The first edition was published in 1963, by Doubleday; and it's been reissued just about every year since then, with World Book taking over publication in 1988. Changes and additions to the current iteration are not identified. The first section comprises 124 pages of auxiliary material such as a brief history of English; a style manual; a section discussing five Western languages; alphabets for Braille, the American Manual Alphabet, Esperanto, and Semaphore; and multiple choice vocabulary inventories (with answers) for grades 3 through 12, and college level. The dictionary's strong point is its full, yet easy-to-read pages (due to adequate spacing and sans serif type). Entries are in boldface, with syllables clearly marked; various meanings of a word are easy to isolate because they are boldly numbered; when the word is defined for a particular field (say, mathematics or law) the field is italicized; and two synonyms are usually provided when appropriate. Biographical and geographical entries are not included. Small, clear line drawings illustrate some entries. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)