Chambers Compact Dictionary Book

Dictionaries have come a long way in terms of user-friendly clarity since the dense, esoteric abbreviation-heavy days of some of the older efforts--and the attractively uncluttered Chambers Compact Dictionary is no exception. We use dictionaries for at least three purposes--to find out what a word means, to check its spelling and to ascertain the origin or etymology of the word. Chambers Compact Dictionary sets each of its 170,000 words in a clear emboldened sans-serif font so you can quickly see the word you're looking for and how to spell it. Then there's a straightforward definition--an omnivore, for example is "a person or animal that eats any kind of food"--and, pleasingly, the etymology is printed below in blue. So you can see precisely what's what--at a glance. The emphasis is on contemporary English so, on the whole, archaisms are out. In their place come "halterneck", "megastore", "disco", "e-mail", "byte", "squeegee" and the like. Occasional inset boxes in blue draw the user's attention to potential pitfalls such the confusion of "serial" with "series" or "compliment" with "complement." Hundreds of standard abbreviations--such as PE, DTP, BMA and ANC--are explained as they occur alphabetically and there are some handy maps and geographical data at the back. There's also useful guidance on those phrasal verbs which cause non-native speakers such agony--the not so subtle difference between, for example, "sit back", "sit down", "sit in", "sit out" and "sit up". Or between "make off", "make out", "make over" and "make up". Meanings are appended as part of the entry for the root word under a clear heading, "phrasal verbs". --Susan ElkinRead More