Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd Edition: Amazon.ca: Inc. Merriam-Webster: Books

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Since 1970 South Africa ended apartheid; Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president of Haiti, deposed by military coup then reinstated; San Francisco suffered a major earthquake; and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved. So it's a good thing Merriam-Webster updated its geographical dictionary to include more than 48,000 alphabetically arranged entries of mountains, lakes, towns, and countries. The third edition had a lot of catching up to do, what with the social, political, financial, and physical upheavals that have taken place since the second edition was published, and the result is a modern and sophisticated reference.

From Library Journal

This classic lists more than 48,000 mountains, lakes, towns, and countries. For each place, it gives pronunciation, location information, and brief textual data. Retain older editions as they are useful for historical research; their larger maps are excellent for photocopying.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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9 Reviews

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4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Simply outstanding, May 13 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

This is an excellent reference book that covers a myriad of geographical locations. The maps are also excellent. I highly recommend this book. A previous reviewer claims that the editors made an egregious mistake by including Slovenia as part of the Balkan states. Maybe that person should do a little research because virtually every resource, including Microsoft Encarta, includes Slovenia in the Balkans. And yes, the Ottomans did conquer Slovenia. The Ottomans had to surrender Slovenia, Hungary, and Croatia to the Hapsburgs in 1699. The editors of this book got it right on the money. As for that reviewer -- a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Like a Leatherman tool for geography, Sep 18 2002

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loce_the_wizard "loce_the_wizard" (Lilburn, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

The Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary is quite good desktop reference for matters of geography, and it offers a fairly thorough resource for place names, a bit of history and background, and enough maps (more than 250) to be helpful for the everyday user. It features the customary characteristics of any dictionary such as pronunciation guides, explanatory notes, and a bevy of abbreviations and symbols. The maps are more detailed than I expected, but certainly this text will not supplant anyone's atlas. (And if your atlas is one of the larger ones, then you probably do not keep it at your writing desk.)

This dictionary is especially useful for writers and editors who, perhaps on tight deadlines, need to check spellings and other general overview information or find out where a river, bay, mountain range, or other natural feature is located.

Many small, obscure locations and features are not included, likely because the publisher had to decide between utility and thoroughness, and utility won. And this utility is, in fact, the strength of this publication. One should not purchase it instead of, but in addition to, an atlas. That's why I consider the functionality of this dictionary to be like a Leatherman tool: it will not do everything, but it's the best single resource of its type.

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4.0 out of 5 stars The best consice geographical dictionary with a big mistake, Sep 9 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary is an excellent source of information on more or less important places. It has everything a geographical dictionary should have - very good concise descriptions (icluding all important historical data!), and useful maps (contributed by Encyclopaedia Britannica), especially those of the states of the USA (because of the borders of all counties shown on each map).

It's not surprising that in such informative book there are some mistakes, but despite that it's still definitely one of the most authoritative geographical dictionaries available, and is worth every single penny or cent (just like its twin brother Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary is in its field - see my review there!). I use it pretty often and hardly wait for a new edition with new entries, updates, and, of course, some necessary corrections (some of them contributed by me).

And mistakes? One of the worst is an article on the Balkans where it's written that Slovenia is part of the Balkans and that it was conquered by Ottoman Turks in the 14th and 15th century. That is simply not true! Slovenia has never been part of the Ottoman Empire. On the contrary - it was a bastion of Christian Europe in the era of Ottoman Turks' expansion. And Slovenia lies north of the line Upper Sava River - Rijeka (Croatian port), which marks the northern border of the Balkan peninsula (compare with my review of Encarta 2003). I think the editors of Merriam Webster should know that.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior geographical reference
It is devoid of color and pretty representations of topography, but it has the best political maps I have ever seen and things like mountains, rivers, plateaus (I never knew there... Read more

Published on Sep 8 2001 by Loring Ivanick

5.0 out of 5 stars Serves its purposew well!
Being, a person, whom has a strong inclination and liking towards reference works, this title, i.e., Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. Read more

Published on May 23 2001