New Oxford American Dictionary by Erin McKean (Editor)

From Barnes & Noble

This new dictionary has more than 300,000 entries, compiled using the expertise of Oxford University Press's renowned dictionary department. Oxford's speciality is etymology, and this dictionary provides some of the best word histories available. It also features precise usage guidance, such as Informal, Derogatory, Humorous, and Dated.

From the Publisher

An American dictionary--in the Oxford tradition. Produced by Oxford's U.S. Dictionaries Program, and drawing on the expertise of scores of American scholars and advisors, The New Oxford American Dictionary sets the standard of excellence for lexicography in this country.

Here is the most accurate and richly descriptive picture of American English ever offered in any dictionary. Oxford's American editors drew on our 200-million-word databank of contemporary North American English, plus the unrivaled citation files of the world-renowned Oxford English Dictionary. We started with American evidence--an unparalleled resource unique to Oxford. Our staff logged more than 50 editor-years, checking every entry and every definition. Oxford's ongoing North American Reading Program, begun in the early 1980s, keeps our lexicographers in touch with fresh evidence of our language and usage--in novels and newspapers, in public records and magazines.

To provide unprecedented clarity, the entries are organized around core meanings, eliminating clutter and confusion, especially in longer entries. Rather than a litany of numbered senses, the structure of each entry plainly shows the major meaning or meanings of the word, plus any related senses, supplemented by illustrative, in-context examples of actual usage. In short, The New Oxford American Dictionary is designed to serve the user clearly, simply, and quickly, with a full measure of information value and precise guidance.

Truly a revolution in the art and craft of dictionary-making, The New Oxford American Dictionary provides the in-depth and up-to-date coverage that all users need and expect--for reading and study, for technical terms, for language guidance. It continues the tradition of scholarship and lexicographic excellence that are the hallmarks of every Oxford dictionary.

William Safire

Oxford has always been so good at dictionaries, and lexographical publishing ...I'd give NOAD to a person looking for a quick answer.

Choice

Oxford's new dictionary not only examines modern American English vocabulary and usage, but presents a new model of how dictionaries may be written...Entries have a clean appearance; definitions are readable and understandable...A well-designed dictionary, recommended for all libraries.

Library Journal

Preserving the first edition's unusual approach of using a core meaning focused on recent usage, this new edition maintains its uniquely clear definitions, with especially easy-to-read progressions from core meaning to subsenses. For example, the definition of "flame" includes the sense of sending a provocative, angry email message. As in the 2001 edition, all entries incorporate grammatical information, usage examples, word origin, syllabication, and pronunciation. "The Right Word," a brand-new feature, supplements some definitions by outlining differences between the word's synonyms. Perhaps because the first edition was published fewer than four years ago, the ratio of new words is relatively low: approximately 2000 of 250,000 entries are new (including "Al Qaeda," "9/11," and "blog"). However, quotes about the number of new entries conflict greatly: the jacket's back flap cites "more than a thousand new entries," the editor's preface "nearly 3000 new words, senses and phrases," and the publisher's marketing material, including the web site, "more than 2000 new entries." Bottom Line Libraries with tight budgets already owning the well-received first edition may prefer other "new word" books, such as Oxford's New Words (edited by Orin Hargraves). On the other hand, this new edition is being heavily marketed and both preserves and builds on the high quality of the original, making it a solid purchase for most libraries.-Marianne Orme, Des Plaines P.L., IL Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Booknews

Most striking about this dictionary is its immediate reader friendliness: small but crystal clear type, entries with the spelled- out categories DERIVATIVES and ORIGIN, easy-to-find lexical categories, and occasionally, supplemental information about usage, events, or national histories. Eighteen appendices include the history of English, usage and punctuation guides, presidents with terms and party affiliation, selected proverbs, and hall-of- famers from America's major team sports (a list of Hollywood stars not included). Drawings of animals, maps of countries, and photos of famous figures (mostly political) punctuate the volume. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

What People Are Saying

Helen Gurley Brown
"I have never seen quite such a wonderful compilation of words in my life and that would even include Shakespeare and Tolstoy...wow, what a dictionary! We badly need the dictionary at home because we are using two raggedy Websters that don't contain one-twentieth of your references. David looked under 'Brown' and found me and we are thrilled about that as well. Thank you for such a fabulous present. There has never BEEN such a dictionary, as you well know, and its creation has to be joyous for people like me - magazine editors, writers, etc."
—Editor-in-Chief, Cosmopolitan

Ken Kister
I received THE NEW OXFORD AMERICAN DICTIONARY (NOAD) yesterday and have spent several hours today examining it. Everyone who worked on the new dictionary deserves kudos for a job very well done. NOAD is clearly a superior dictionary, displaying an admirable editorial intelligence throughout. I was especially impressed by its thorough, readable, and up-to-date treatment of American English as used at the beginning of the 21st Century. For instance, it includes many everyday terms not found in MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY (10th ed.), such as "cutdown," "death knell," "eye level," "inner sanctum," "love life," "never-ending," and "piss-poor." I haven't been so enthusiastic about a new dictionary since the publication of Bryan Garner's DICTIONARY OF MODERN AMERICAN USAGE in 1998; in this connection, I was delighted to see that Garner is a NOAD subject consultant.

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