The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus: The Ultimate Language Reference for American Readers

Book Synopsis: We all know the feeling: trying to find a synonym for a word, we turn to a thesaurus and find a group of words that might be right, but the thesaurus doesn't provide us with definitions. So, we then turn to the dictionary to check the meanings for the entire list of new synonyms and, after much flipping back and forth between thesaurus and dictionary, finally decide upon an alternative. Neither book, by itself, provides the full range of word choices. But now, The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus offers a thoroughly integrated blend of entries from the dictionary and the thesaurus. This unified approach, treating meanings and related words within the same entry, makes it easy to find--in one place--an abundance of information about words, and provides a far more thorough analysis of the variety and nuances of our language than is possible in a dictionary or thesaurus alone.

Oxford's American dictionary staff, along with an international team of lexicographers, have drawn on the unparalleled lexical resources of Oxford University Press, the world's most respected authority on English language and dictionaries, to make The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus the most wide-ranging resource available. It includes:

• More than 200,000 entries and definitions and 300,000 synonyms thoroughly integrated for ease of use
• Hundreds of new words and senses such as shareware, downsize, grunge, sidebar, and hypertext
• Full coverage of English from around the globe--brassed off, merrythought, billabong, Charles's Wain, high tea

Valuable appendices, including:

• Selected Proverbs--more than 1,000, including both old favorites and less-familiar bits of wisdom such as "Handsome is as handsome does," "A trouble shared is a trouble halved," and "There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle"
• Terms for Animal Groups (a clowder of cats, a skulk of foxes, a parliament of rooks)
• Weights, Measures, Scientific Units, and Formulas
• Chemical Elements and Periodic Table
• Musical Notation and the Orchestra
• Presidents of the U.S.; States of the U.S.
• Countries of the World
• Helpful points on English usage, and much more

No American dictionary or thesaurus offers as much as The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus. It not only combines an up-to-date and thoroughly reliable dictionary of American English with full thesaurus coverage, but it also provides a unique global perspective of English, the lingua franca of the late twentieth century.