The Oxford New Russian Dictionary: Russian-English/English-Russian [Mass Market Paperback]

I'm studying Russian in college and I bought this dictionary because it was cheap and it looked like a decent dictionary. I have to say that I definitely got what I paid for, which isn't a whole lot. It doesn't always have the semi-common (English) word I'm looking for, but instead it has some weird (English) words that I've never heard of. Some of the entries are incorrect as my professor has corrected me several times. I swear she could tell which students had this dictionary and which student had other dictionaries. All of my classmates who had this dictionary were disappointed in it. If you are going to seriously study the Russian language, I would recommend spending more money and getting a better dictionary.

In contrast to the previous reviewer who was disappointed by her purchase, I didn't want this dictionary and I didn't buy it. It came bundled with my first-year Russian textbook. I assumed it was one of those inadequate little dual-language dictionaries that introductory students buy, carry around for a while, and then throw away.

I was wrong. The more I use it, the more I like it. Yes, it has all of the obvious limitations of a small, paperback foreign language dictionary. To me, the only disappointment is that it rarely gives the gender of Russian words, which makes life harder for first-year students. But in fairness, neither does the glossary of my Russian textbook. And my professor, who co-wrote the textbook, said that since gender is reasonably predictable in Russian based on the form of the word, it is both customary and reasonable to omit gender except in cases in which it isn't obvious.

Otherwise, this is an excellent reference book for beginning students. One way in which the publishers are unnecessarily hurting themselves is by describing it as a "new" Russian dictionary, implying that it is the first edition. It isn't. According to the copyright page, it is the sixth edition of a pocket dictionary that Oxford University Press has been publishing and updating since 1995. That's a huge advantage; I wouldn't want to use the first edition of any dictionary since the editors need time to get the bugs out.

I should mention one unusual feature of this dictionary that I particularly appreciate as a beginning student of Russian. The roots of Russian words are extremely useful to know, because a variety of words with similar meanings can share a root which is easy to identify and instantly aids in understanding an otherwise unfamiliar word. This dictionary does an excellent job of building on that concept. It is not uncommon to find three or four words with the same root defined under a single head word. (Just to be clear, most head words have only one definition.) It is easy to spot the word you are looking for, but at the same time you are getting a very helpful 10 second lesson in etymology -- seeing how a variety of Russian words closely relate to one another.

I confess that pretty soon after starting Russian I bought a second-hand copy of an older edition of the large Oxford Russian Dictionary from a third-party seller on amazon for help with the gender of unusual Russian words and with writing in Russian and translations from English into Russian, which require far more depth than any pocket dictionary can offer and which apparently led to the previous reviewer's negative review. But for most routine classroom work, I reach for this one first. It's easy to carry around, easy to use, and packed with useful information.