What's Your Dictionary?

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Could have been Taking Sides: Oxford vs. Webster, but obviously there will be cross-Atlantic differences. Plus, I want to know about the indies. And also, Dictionary vs. Thesaurus, FITE!

― Citizen Kate (kate), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Depends entirely on whether I'm using a computer or not.

I tend to use the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.

here.

But if I'm at home and not online, then I'll use the concise Oxford.

― MarkH (MarkH), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Collins muthafuckas

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I have always sworn by (and often at) the Oxford Shorter English Dictionary. I persisted in this, even when I was in exile in the States, hence my poor spelling.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

See, HSA has both the Collins *and* the two-volume Oxford. I prefer the Oxford, because the dichotomy of A-M and M-Z reassures me.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

concise oxford

― robin (robin), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:53 (twenty-two years ago)

*points to own head* < / showing off and lying >

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

i had to look up "palpebral" for rainy's x-word last week: work dict = shorter xof, home = chambers (and the cover totally came off abt six weeks ago)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Surrounded by dictionaries at work though most are targeted at EFL students obv. Usually I head for the two volume Shorter Oxford too, or use Merriam-Webster online.

Concise Oxford at home.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 17 November 2003 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to have "The Little Oxford English Dictionary" when I was a kid. It was adorable! So wee!

― Citizen Kate (kate), Monday, 17 November 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

bah kate you haf reminded me of the year when i got 12 dictionaries for xmas: USE OTHER PRESENTS PLZ oh relatives of LAME IMAGINATION!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 17 November 2003 13:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha ha ha, I am imagining the look on Mark S's face as he opens all these book-shaped packages, and the look of glee turns to disappointment then anger as he realises ALL OF HIS PRESENTS ARE DICTIONARIES!!! It's like the myth about the lump of coal.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Monday, 17 November 2003 13:19 (twenty-two years ago)

oxford -- feels so right it can't be wrong.

― enrique (Enrique), Monday, 17 November 2003 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

dictionary.com i am too lazy to open up the oxford one;

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 17 November 2003 14:04 (twenty-two years ago)

oed or collins canadian.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 17 November 2003 14:24 (twenty-two years ago)

oed also

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 17 November 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed.

― Lee G (Lee G), Monday, 17 November 2003 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

dictionary.com -- it's there, I use it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 November 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

urbandictionary.com -- it's quite funny

― enrique (Enrique), Monday, 17 November 2003 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I had occasion to use urbandictionary.com the other day when a Japanese student questioned me on the etymology of 'blow job'. Ah, the warm glow of working in education.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 17 November 2003 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I have the "Nuttall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language", I think it was publsihed in the late 1940's.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 17 November 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

OED whore here.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 17 November 2003 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

some words in the addenda of my oxford concise:

bionic
go-go
martial arts
modem
one-night stand
punk rock
rastafarian
sexism

― jones (actual), Monday, 17 November 2003 18:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Online I use merriam-webster.com, offline I usually use the OED.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Monday, 17 November 2003 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

xpost - It's the Kill Bill thread in 11 words!

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 17 November 2003 18:13 (twenty-two years ago)

American Heritage. The latest edition is gorgeous; the best design of any dictionary I've ever used.

― quincie, Monday, 17 November 2003 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Online I use onelook.com, which searches loads and loads of other dictionaries including specialised ones in arts, science, medicine, philosophy and so on, which are usually what I seem to be after.

Offline I have a Collins and a New Enflish Dictionary, but that's more accident than choice.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 17 November 2003 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

the Web10, when it's on hand. dictionary.com, if i have to.

― ethereal cereal (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 17 November 2003 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

i went to the shop and bought a New Enflish Dictionary by accident, next time i shall read the cover more carefully!

actually we shd test these so-called dictionaries scientifically ie by no.of mistakes we find in em

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 17 November 2003 21:57 (twenty-two years ago)

my dream is to get a subscription to the OED online. i wish i was still at uni where i could use it all the time.

i recommend getting on the oed newsletter. they have a cool bit where they list antedatings and postdatings that they are looking for.

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, that was a good place for a typo.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I really rate the Cambridge International Dictionary. It's ostensibly for foreign learners of English, but it's ram-packed with fun facts. For example, it's got a false friends section for 16 languages, offering help with easily confused words that look like words in the student's own language. So French learners of English will see a big F next to the word 'sensible' showing them it doesn't in fact mean 'sensitive' and they are referred to the false friends list. Endless amusement.

To answer the original question, do we have to take sides between dictionaries and thesauruses (thesauri?)? They seem to me to serve two quite separate, albeit related, purposes.

― Daniel (dancity), Monday, 17 November 2003 23:24 (twenty-two years ago)

thesauruses are all useless until someone invents a synonym for "jazz hands"

― jones (actual), Monday, 17 November 2003 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary is available for free online, along with the very handy Dictionary of Idioms.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 08:46 (twenty-two years ago)

My school (I teach English at a Japanese public high school) for some reason has a 1931 edition of the OED, and none of the younger teachers even know it's there, but some particularly nerdy days, I spend my lunch break writing down weird words, like BEES-WING (the scaly film that forms on old port wines).

― soylent greenberg (soylent greenberg), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't see why thesaurusez should come into this - they are an entirely different thing. And surely everyone goes for Roget anyway.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

No, I had a different thesaurus, but I can't rememeber what it is any more. (As I've taken to using "shift-F7" more and more.) Plus, Roget is strangely sectioned according to meaning, rather than being straight alphabetical, which I find weird.

And whoever said that taking sides had to occur between things that are EXACTLY THE SAME anyway? I mean, robots and kittens, you wouldn't use one instead of another, would you?

― Citizen Kate (kate), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

We have an alternative at work called The Synonym Finder. Sometimes I have a chuckle about needing a synonym for 'thesaurus'.

GOD MY JOB IS DULL.

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I never ever find the word I am thinking of with a thesaurus. Roget and I are just not on the same wavelength.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I only need to know if a word is a word or not THEREFORE I use Chambers Official Scrabble Words International edition.

If I need to find a word at work I use dictionary.com. At home I use Lixi's mentalist Shorter Oxford which is short as Long John McLong Winner of Last Years Mr Long Contest for Longness ect ect.

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Roget's is not a proper thesaurus anyway.

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

You with your "definitions".

I have forgotten what "astones" means.

― Sarah (starry), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:50 (twenty-two years ago)

TS kittens v robots! Kittens every time.

Compare 462 vb. contrast, liken...

By the way, has anyone ever come across the Wordpower Activator, which is both a dictionary and a thesaurus combined? It's great fun.

― Daniel (dancity), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 19:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Does anyone have a translation software or know about an online translator without any words limit? There is this rather long text in german that I want in english but the free online translators that I tried like at dictionary.com or at systran are only allowing about 10 000 words each time and I would like to spare me the trouble of cuttin' 10 000 words, paste to translate, paste the result in a new file, search the location of the last sentence translated, cut another 10 000 etc: repeat about 30 times.

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Monday, 1 December 2003 09:37 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

I'm going to buy a new dictionary, and am wonder what kind I should get. (I want a small pocket size one)

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 30 April 2005 14:02 (twenty years ago)

also English grammar reference books?

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 30 April 2005 14:04 (twenty years ago)

This looks good:
Practical English Usage

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 30 April 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

Fowler's Modern English Usage is still my favourite English grammar book, by a long way.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 30 April 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

when not online, I still use the pocket Oxford that i got in second grade. it has a giant "KIM D." written in wobbly magic marker across the whole the page edge side.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 30 April 2005 18:06 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

I want to buy a new English dictionary. I don't want a pocket-sized one, brick heavy is fine. I just want one that, next to extensive explanation of words, also has a proper grammar section (proper as in expert level). Which one should I get? Is there a 'standard' dictionary?

― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, 22 November 2009 22:05 (sixteen years ago)

I'm using a very old Oxford dictionary now btw

― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, 22 November 2009 22:06 (sixteen years ago)

What country are you in, Bateau? Thought most copy editors in the US and lots of other people used the Merriam-Webster 11th, but I guess the many copy editors of ILX can tell you better themselves when they logon.

Used to steer clear of the Oxford American but now am starting to like it.

― Welcome To The King Pleasure-dome (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 November 2009 22:22 (sixteen years ago)

Thanks for asking, it does indeed matter. I'm in The Netherlands, and UK English focused. I don't know of any existing differences between UK and USA based dictionaries (because I don't know any of the latter), but if there is a difference I'd prefer a UK focused one.

― young depardieu looming out of void in hour of profound triumph (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, 22 November 2009 23:39 (sixteen years ago)

In that case maybe you need the Sluglords to help you.

― Welcome To The King Pleasure-dome (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 November 2009 06:12 (sixteen years ago)

I bought the American Heritage dictionary app for iPhone, it's pretty good but I've been able to stump it a few times. you can get the complete Webster's for more $$$ but the reviews said the interface wasn't as good. MW is my personal preference but it seemed like all the iterations on the iPhone weren't as nice as the American Heritage. don't know if the AH includes a grammar section tho

― 囧 (dyao), Monday, 23 November 2009 06:17 (sixteen years ago)

As a non-writer I thought the Oxford English Dictionary or Chambers were the main dictionaries in the UK, but I've just looked and the Guardian and The Times both name Collins in their online style guides, so I guess for journalism (and maybe other things too) Collins is the way to go?

I don't know if they have an edition which is good for grammar, but a lot of their dictionaries seem to offer a deal where you get a year's access to the online edition too, which may or may not be handy.

Since none of the UK posters there have posted here yet, it might be worth bumping the ATTN: Copyeditors and Grammar Fiends thread to ask there.

PS if you get (or since you already have) an Oxford dictionary it may be worth knowing that the OED and The Times prefer verbs ending in -ize where most other UK publications would use -ise iirc, but again, that's something that a copy editor and/or grammar fiend could tell you more about should you wish to know

― subtyll cauillacyons (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 23 November 2009 21:43 (sixteen years ago)

I wsa gonna mention that Copyeditors thread but I can't make my way through it anymore. It's like a Teenpop/Hairmetal/Glasgow/Aussie thread, rolled into one!

― Welcome To The King Pleasure-dome (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 November 2009 21:48 (sixteen years ago)

Skipping 2693 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

― Welcome To The King Pleasure-dome (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 23 November 2009 21:48 (sixteen years ago)

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