Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition, is an extremely useful tool. I use this dictionary every single time I write a review, without fail. It even comes in handy when I'm composing a letter to a friend and don't want to look like a complete moron that can't spell. I think everyone should own a dictionary and this one seems so complete, in my eyes. Even though it's not the newest edition available it isn't obsolete, unlike how a computer of its age would be.

Ok, so I admit that I'm not a scholar by any stretch of the imagination, or a dictionary expert either. Granted I never failed English class, but my grades and efforts were as inconsistent as the stock market. The varying levels of boredom in class coincided with the varying span of my attention. That being said I'll do my best to review this dictionary. Hopefully a clear and concise one at that. I also have intentions of including commonly used vulgar words. That being said, if you are easily offended please turn back now while you still can.

Technical Junk:

It has 1559 pages. The copyright date is 1994 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. ISBN 0-87779-709-9. It is a genuine Merriam-Webster. Inside the book it says:

"The name Webster alone is no guarantee of excellence. It is used by a number of publishers and may serve mainly to mislead an unwary buyer.

Merriam-Webster is the name you should look for when you consider the purchase of dictionaries or other fine reference books. It carries the reputation of a company that has been publishing since 1831 and is your assurance of quality and authority."

Background:

Just to give you a little background on Merriam-Webster and it's importance, I will quote what is on the back of the cover.

"Noah Webster, America's greatest lexicographer, created the original work that laid the foundation for the Merriam-Webster dictionaries of today. But it was George and Charles Merriam who took on the responsibility of revising and updating Webster's dictionary after his death in 1843 and established Merriam-Webster dictionaries as the standard. For 150 years the Merriam-Webster staff has specialized in making dictionaries, working under the constant responsibility of maintaining Noah Webster's standards of integrity and clarity. Today, many publishers use the name Webster, but only Merriam-Webster has the accumulated knowledge and experience of those 150 years that enable us to produce the most authoritative, accurate and well-designed dictionaries in the world. On this, the advent of our 150th anniversary, we are proud to say that Merriam-Webster dictionaries are the ones that scholars, educators, writers, students, professionals - people from all walks of life - turn to most often for the Voice of Authority."

What It Offers:

I believe that buying a Merriam-Webster dictionary is the way to go. The copy I have is excellent for its time and is still very good even for today. Although, if you don't already have one of these dictionaries you might want to invest in a newer edition.

Rather than give you an English lesson/lecture and describe what verbs and nouns are in detail, thus boring you to tears, I will just give you a run down as to what you will find in this dictionary. Besides, I don't know about you, but listening to it once in school was one thing, listening to it in college will be another thing, and reading it in a review is just torturous! The dictionary itself gives you step-by-step instructions as to how to fully understand the entries. You don't need me for that.

That being said, let's try to quickly run through these things. The book has a page titled preface that talks of the history of the dictionary in general and such. The explanatory chart come next and they show you what page in your dictionary to refer to for further explanation. The next section is the explanatory notes, which is the section that the explanatory chart refers you to for each aspect of a definition.

The explanatory notes cover entries, main entries, order of main entries, homographs, guide words, end-of-line division, variants, run-on entries, pronunciation, syllables, stress, variant pronunciations, parentheses in pronunciations, partial and absent pronunciations, functional labels, inflected forms, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, capitalization, attributive nouns, etymology, Old English, Middle English, Modern English, languages other than English (all this falls under etymology), words of unknown origin, etymologies of technical words, compression of information, related words, dates, usage, usage labels, illustration of usage, usage notes, usage paragraphs, definitions, division of senses, order of senses, omission of a sense, information at individual senses, names of plants and animals, cross-reference, synonyms, combining forms, prefixes and suffixes, and lists of undefined words (self-explanatory words).

The section thereafter is a lengthy section about the English language in the dictionary. It talks about the systems of language, variation and change in language, the history of English, the dictionary and the systems of English, the history of English in the dictionary, semantics in the dictionary, and grammar usage in the dictionary. I don't know about you, but I could use some work yet on my grammar.

After that there is the guide to pronunciation. It shows the letters and symbols used in the dictionary and how to pronounce them. You turn the page a couple of times and you see a list of abbreviations used in this dictionary and the full word these abbreviations represent. There's a page for pronunciation symbols that goes hand in hand with the guide to pronunciation. The next section is the dictionary of the English language.

Located in the back of the book is abbreviations and symbols for chemical elements, foreign words and phrases, biographical names, geographical names, and signs and symbols for a variety of things (astronomy, biology, business and finance, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, miscellaneous, physics, reference marks, stamps and stamp collecting, and weather).

It then goes on to A Handbook of Style which explains all the many things that go into punctuation such as apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, exclamation point, hyphen, and all the other things that relate to this subject. Not one of the most exciting topics in my opinions, but it's good that it is there. I still need work in this area as well. I forget some of the uses and rules of punctuation.

Capitalization follows that and it tells you what you should capitalize and why. The dictionary also goes in italicization and what should be and why.

The last three sections are documentation of sources, forms of address (clerical and religious orders, college and university officials, diplomats and consular officers), just to name a few, and last but not least the index.

The last page offers you a service. It is called the Merriam-Webster's Language Research Service. They will answer specific questions about words and their origin, spelling, pronunciation, meaning, or usage. Pretty nice service if you ask me. All you have to do is write your questions and send a self-addressed stamped envelope with them. They ask that you ask no more than three specific questions in any one letter. To take advantage of this unique offer send your questions to:

Language Research Service

P.O. Box 281

Springfield, Massachusetts 01102

Why Your Kid Will Love It:

I remember the first day I ever saw this dictionary. It's my mother's dictionary and she bought it about six or more years ago while we were living in in New York. She was just as surprised as I was to find curse words in the dictionary. We both laughed in disbelief.

I flipped through the dictionary and looked up every vulgar word I could possibly think of. To my amazement, I found almost every single one that popped into my head. I couldn't believe it! I had never showed such enthusiasm toward a dictionary before this. You know kids, they always relish the thought of reading something bad or something they shouldn't.

I was between the ages of thirteen to sixteen when I first saw this dictionary. I say this because I was thirteen when it was published. I will also admit that I thought it was the coolest thing. I'm not condoning curse words and other poor choices of words, but if showing your kid that there's curse words in the dictionary gets them interested in the dictionary, then maybe it isn't such a bad thing.

I'm sure most of you have either said these words before in the heat of anger or maybe even just for the heck of it. If you have not spoken these words yourself I'm sure you have heard them. Whether the neighbors across the way are arguing, a couple of teenagers at the mall talking, or listening to some of the music of today; it's every where. It's part of the English language whether we like it or not.

Even though Merriam-Webster isn't censored, I will censor myself so not to ruffle too many feathers or have someone's child stumble upon this review revealing things you'd like them to know about at a later date. The truth is, I don't need to spell these words out for you to know what I am talking about. I can find better ways to shock and offend people than that.

The dictionary gives the definitions for f*&%, f*&%ed-up, f*&%er, f*&% off, f*&% up, motherf*&%er, c*!t, c*&k, and a whole bunch more. One that I did notice that doesn't seem to be in the dictionary is jack sh*!. I thought it would be there, but I couldn't find it. Needless to say everything else seems to be present. The definitions for these words do make mention that the words are considered obscene, vulgar, along with giving the definition.

Conclusion:

A dictionary is such a handy and useful tool to have around. Merriam-Webster dictionaries do seem to be the best. More than one million words were supposedly collected and added to this edition. The definitions are clear and concise. The definitions and pronunciations are well-crafted. The information is accurate and authoritative. There is extensive cross-referencing, stories behind the words, clear and informative illustrations and tables, guidance and examples on many aspects of the English language. They even assist and help you in using your dictionary to its full capacity. Oh, and let us not forget you can write in to the Language Research Service with up to three questions. I'm thoroughly satisfied with its quality and would definitely recommend owning one.

Recommended:
Yes