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The American Heritage Dictionary: Fourth Edition (21st Century Reference)
by: Houghton Mifflin Company

Amazon.com's Price: $5.99

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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 423
EAN: 9780440237013
ISBN: 0440237017
Label: Dell
Manufacturer: Dell
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 960
Publication Date: June 26, 2001
Publisher: Dell
Release Date: June 26, 2001
Sales Rank: 26684
Studio: Dell

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Product Description:
* Over 70,000 entries
* Thoroughly revised and updated
* 1,000 new words and meanings
* Over 400 photographs and illustrations
* Expert guidance on correct usage

Based on the bestselling American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

American Heritage® dictionaries are widely known as the most innovative and informative dictionaries in today's market. This all-new fourth edition of the best-selling classic continues that tradition with its clear and precise definitions, its expert usage guidance, and its wealth of illustrations. Newly updated to reflect our changing language, this revised edition is the most up-to-date and authoritative dictionary available today.

* More than a thousand new entries for such terms as e-tailer, zine, bioreserve, chatroom, red card, domestic partner

* More biographical and geographical entries than any other paperback, thoroughly updated for the new millennium

* The most lavishly illustrated dictionary on the market -- with over 400 images

* Expert usage guidance based on the American Heritage® Usage Panel

* Regional notes from around the country

* Hundreds of synonym lists, fascinating etymologies, and much more

American Heritage® Dictionaries. Setting a new standard.

Amazon.com Review:
The latest edition of the American Heritage Dictionary is out, and that's hot news--not just for the resolute followers of lexicographical minutiae, but for the general reading and writing public as well. Why? Because the American Heritage is a long-standing favorite family dictionary (never underestimate the value of pictures) and one of the prime dictionary references for magazines, newspapers, and dot.com content providers. For scads of writers and editors across the U.S., it sets the standard on matters of style and lexicographical authority.

So this new edition is exciting and noteworthy, but how good is it? In its favor, the fourth edition is as current a dictionary as you can get. It's six years fresher than the 1994 version, with 10,000 words and definitions you won't find in the still venerable but now slightly dated third edition. For example, unlike its predecessor (and also unlike the 1996 Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary), this fourth edition covers dot-com, e-commerce, and soccer mom, Ebonics, Viagra, and a surf definition for cruising television channels and the Internet.

Its panel of special consultants includes authorities on anthropology, architecture, cinema, and law, plus military science, music, religion, and sports, and that is reflected in an impressively comprehensive coverage of the arts, culture, and technology. Sadly, however, there are no medical consultants on the panel, and that loss is felt in some substandard medical definitions. Other flaws: there's a greater than usual tendency to define a word with a form of the same word--for example, fuzzy, whose first two definitions are '1. covered with fuzz.' and '2. of or resembling fuzz.' And some definitions seem needlessly wordy, such as the entry for furious, which is 'full of or characterized by extreme anger; raging.' Compare that with the more succinct Oxford Encyclopedic entry: '1. extremely angry. 2. full of fury.'

On the other hand, there are valuable entries throughout the dictionary supplying additional information on synonyms, usage, or word history, and these extras, such as the history of diatribe and the usage notes on discomfit, are interesting. The layout is easy on the eyes, with dark blue/green bold type setting the words apart from their definitions, and 4,000 color photographs, maps, and illustrations that are both useful and delightful. On one page, the margin provides color depictions of Francis Bacon, bacterium, and a Bactrian camel. Theodore Roosevelt and a rooster share another margin, while a third page offers Isak Dinesen, a dingo, and dinoflagellate. It is a fascinating book to peruse, and a compellingly scholarly addition to the American Heritage Dictionary line. --Stephanie Gold

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Appears to be comprehensive....
The print is way WAY too small! There are a lot of entries. However, they are sparce on information. Some very nice extras - pictures, tables, etc. if you need that kind of information.

Rating:

- A Fine Little Dictionary
The dictionary is very compact, yet has many entries and is a good value. The only way to improve it would be to add a visual alphabetical index.

Rating:

- Frustrating and disappointing
The fourth edition hardcover version of The American Heritage Dictionary is my favorite desk dictionary by far. But the paperback -- which I bought for reading in bed -- does not measure up. At least three quarters of the words I look up are not in the paperback. I've almost given up trying. Too bad the hardcover is so heavy and my bedside table is so small. Otherwise, I would have two hardcovers and happily dump the paperback.

Rating:

- The Gold Standard for Writers
I am a budding writer. As part of my research for developing a freelance commercial writer practice, I read "The Well Fed Writer" by Peter Bowerman. In his discussion of writer tools, Bowerman recommended The American Heritage Dictionary above all others. He called it "THE happening dictionary out there."

How do you measure a dictionary? I looked up current usage of words not in common use when I bought my Webster's Collegiate twenty-odd years ago. I found a definition of "hip-hop" [n. 1. A popular urban youth culture, closely associated with rap music and the style of innre-city African-Americans.] There is a brief discussion of the distinction in use of the words "Hispanic" and "Latino." Though not an encyclepedia, American Heritage lists prominent historic figures with the source of their fame and life years.

I bought the paperback version for the price. Next time, I will buy the trade ... Read More

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