Your favorite Dictionary?

[daisychics]

I tried to searching through some old threads but nothing came up.

 

Thanks

[ubermomto5]

ohh, i'm curious too. the one we have is websters II children's and its just kind of eh.

[skueppers]

Do you mean a dictionary for children, or a dictionary for the whole family?

 

I've always been happy with the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Within the space available (it's no OED), it provides a good amount of information, including information about word origins.

 

Hmm, makes me wonder if I should get a new edition, the one I have is getting pretty ratty...

[BridgeTea]

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate: This is a classic favorite. Dd11 has learned that this is our most useful dictionary.

 

Webster's II: I agree with the PP poster who said "eh". This looked promising for the early years, but the kids pretty much ignored this one.

 

The Merriam-Webster and Garfield Dictionary: :) The Garfield cartoons every other page or so drew my child in, and after that she started reading the entries just for fun. She took this to bed to read for years. I don't even care for Garfield, but it's a great kid's dictionary.

[plimsoll]

Here are the dictionaries we use:

 

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language - useful for quick look-ups of definitions. Etymology not as good as the others. Ours is a 1981 edition. Unless we're looking for etymology or literary usage examples, we most frequently use this dictionary.

 

Oxford American College Dictionary - this is more current. We have occasionally found that a word that is not in the American Heritage can be found in this Oxford. Where the Oxford will give one short definition, the American Heritage gives several definitions, showing nuances of meaning better. This is our choice only if the word is not in the American Heritage.

 

Oxford Universal Dictionary - by William Little, H. W. Fowler, and J. Coulson from the 1950s. It is the best we have for etymology. Not only are the Greek and Latin roots shown, but also the progression through Welsh, Old French, German, etc. We use this dictionary when we want to see the etymology of a word.

 

American Dictionary of the English Language - 1828 Edition - this is a facsimile reprint of Noah Webster's original dictionary. Some of the definitions and usages are outdated. However, it provides excellent examples of the word being used in literature by famous authors. For etymology, it mostly shows only Latin/Greek derivations. We use this dictionary to see eloquent examples of the word in use.

 

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms - this is not really a dictionary, rather a thesaurus supplement. For various roughly equivalent synonyms, it clearly explains the subtle differences between the words and what they imply. Most thesauri will provide synonyms that include all meanings of a word, so not all words found in the thesaurus are appropriate to use as synonyms. The Merriam-Webster clarifies the differences between the synonym choices and explains each word's usage clearly.

 

Hope this is helpful.

Edited February 6, 2010 by plimsoll

[Dawn E]

For dd I have had American Heritage Children's Dictionary, and we just purchased the American Heritage Student Dictionary.

 

I think I am going to order Websters 1828 Dictionary to add to our reference library if the budget allows this next year.

[nmoira]

I love, love, love our Shorter Oxford (oh, that I could afford the OED). We have both the print and CD-ROM versions, and I've got to give the edge to the CD-ROM, if only for the audio pronunciation and the ability to search for Latin stems for derivatives study.

[ChicoryChick]

For the elementary level, we have been very happy with Scholastic Children's Dictionay.