Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged: Amazon.ca: Inc. Merriam-Webster: Books

Product Description

From Amazon

If big is better, the unabridged Webster's Third New International Dictionary is among the best. Weighing 12.5 pounds and measuring 4 inches thick, its 2,662 pages define more than 450,000 words spanning "a" to "zyzzogeton," including words ("disselboom" for instance) not found in other dictionaries, plus clear definitions, comprehensive etymologies, interesting asides, literary usage quotes, and a comfortable typeface. More than 150 years of accumulated scholarship helped collect the 10,000,000 usage examples that accurately provide definitions, and $3,500,000 went into producing this impressive volume. With Webster's Third you get a lot of dictionary for your money.

Book Description

The largest, most comprehensive American dictionary available! Over 476,000 entries, including an expanded and updated Addenda Section of new words and meanings. Also includes a complimentary one-year subscription to the new Merriam-Webster Unabridged Web site.

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Customer Reviews

45 Reviews

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

4.0 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but needs a revision, April 29 2004

By

sadhana444 "sadhana444" (Anchorage, AK United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (Hardcover)

I bought one new in 2003 - this edition has an addenda section of new words in the front (89 pages) with a 2002 copyright and then the main text of the dictionary with a 1961 copyright.

The new words in the addenda are not listed in the main text, so if you look up a word in the main text and can't find it, you then have to double check the addenda section. The layout of the text looks like it remains the same as the 1961 template, and it is not easy to read. In contrast, the layout of the Shorter OED is quite nice and a pleasant alternative.

The words and definitions of the Webster's Third New International Dictionary are extensive, authoritative, and a slight bit dated.

In addition to the hard copy, I also have a subscription to the online version, which I have found to be very user-friendly and very useful. I find that if I'm online, I'll use the online version of this dictionary as my first choice (followed by OneLook Dictionaries).

If I use a print dictionary, my first choice is usually "The New Oxford American Dictionary" for a quick sense of core meanings and related senses. My second choice is usually the 2 volume "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary" for a more historic sense of the word. My third choice is the 20 volume OED. My fourth choice is usually this dictionary.

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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Descriptive Rather Than Prescriptive -- a Major Flaw, Jun 19 2004

By

Hayford Peirce (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged (Hardcover)

None of the other Amazon reviewers, even those who only give this book 1 star, seem to mention what was an enormous controversy in literary circles when this book first appeared in 1961 -- that it was "descriptive" rather than "prescriptive."

The great Second Edition Webster's Unabridged, originally published around 1930, had set the standard for dictionaries but was unashamedly prescriptive -- it told you clearly what each word meant and which words were correct to use and which words were not. It didn't matter if millions of people used the word "ain't": it was incorrect usage and that's all there was to it.

The Third Edition, of 1961, switched this around. It said that if enough people used a word a certain way, then it was, at the very least, acceptable usage.

As I recall, the eminent critic Dwight Macdonald immediately wrote a long, scathing article about the Third Edition in The New Yorker and absolutely trashed the book. Jacques Barzun and others wrote similar reviews. And in a detective novel that followed not long after, that beloved fatty of West 35th Street, Nero Wolfe, sits in front of his fireplace and tears his copy of the dictionary to pieces page by page, feeding them into the flames. Its crime: saying that "infer" could be used in place of "imply."

But not to Dwight Macdonald, not to Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe, and not to me, either. I found a used copy of the Second Edition in a bookstore in Harvard Square around 1965 and have carried its enormous bulk around the world with me ever since. If you want to find out the *correct* usage of a word, get the Second Edition -- if you can possibly find it....

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5.0 out of 5 stars ignore all querulous quibbles and cavils, July 22 2007

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Sears Braithwaite (of Bullard) "SB" (burlington ON) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Webster's 3rd New International Dictionary, Unabridged, CD-ROM (CD-ROM)

Never mind all the picky stuff written by some of the previous reviewers. After all, these are Dictionary People.

Was the 2nd International better? I don't know. But it's not available for my laptop. The OED is expensive and probably overkill. And then there's Random House, and who knows what else.

Shakespeare didn't even have a dictionary.

For a decent price you get a fast, easy, flexible search tool that contains almost any English word you will ever look up. And you will look up more words than ever, because the program loads quickly and searches lightning quick. It is easier even than reaching for a small dictionary, yet more rewarding, because the word will almost always be there.

Install this on your laptop and your paper dictionaries will become doorstops.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Dictionaries are supposed to settle arguemnts, not start 'em
W2 has been controvercial since the day it came out. It makes no distinction between correct and non-standard words, it's pronuciation guide is non-standard, it's emphasis marks... Read more

Published on July 9 2004 by Rod Keys

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't be fooled: This dictionary is from 1961!
The Webster's Third New International Dictionary is a huge and wonderful resource that has more than 400,000 word definitions. Read more

Published on April 4 2004 by Traveler