The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Product Description

This newly updated edition of America’s favorite dictionary features revised biographical and geographical entries as well as up-to-date charts and tables for topics such as world currencies and chemical elements. Among the 500 entries new to this update are Amber Alert, blogosphere, gravitino, halo effect, hawala, lycopene, malware, micropolis, proteome, Qi Gong, SARS, shout-out, speed dating, sudoku, Texas hold’em, text message, and wiki.

the renowned American Heritage® Usage Panel, a group of more than 200 distinguished writers, scholars, and scientists, offers advice on problems of grammar and style; engaging notes explain word histories and clarify differences among synonyms; thousands of quotations and example sentences show words in context; and elegant definitions are enhanced by 4,000 full-color photographs, drawings, and maps, making this one of the most readable dictionaries available anywhere.

This dictionary can also be purchased with a fully loadable Windows® / Mac® CD-ROM that contains the entire text of the updated Fourth Edition, 68,000 audio pronunciations, 1,000 full-color photographs and illustrations, and a college-level thesaurus with more than 260,000 synonyms. the CD-ROM has spell-check capability and can be used in conjunction with any Microsoft® Office application to get definitions at the click of a mouse.

This is a big book, but a great one. It has loads of illustrations and pictures. I also bought the M-W 11th Collegiate as a companion. The pictures-in-the-margins format takes some getting used to, but all-in-all this is a comprehensive and wonderful reference book.


For 36 dollars I first thought it would be more like a pocket dictionary, but it's HUGE! The definitions are really handy, and it fits not only for english words, but for some foreign words, technical words, for example medical words, and also important people. And some of the difficult words to explain got also a picture or drawing. Very good quality paper, its harcover, and there's also a sof cover(which you see on picture) to protect the hardcover( a black one)


This is the third time I've bought the unabridged American Heritage Dictionary; I first picked up the 2nd edition at the recommendation of one of my grad school professors in 1976, bought the 3rd edition for my office a few years ago and picked this 4th edition up as a tool for my translation business. I wanted something with very current terminology in order to nail down recent words stemming from technology where I understood the German meaning from context but wanted to confirm that the English equivalent was as I suspected in spite of my unfamiliarity with the term.

The AHD is really a "desert island dictionary" -- the one to choose if you've got to pick the one you can't do without: not quite as bulky as the unabridged Webster but so large as to be all but comprehensive. In the past, there has been some criticism of the AHD's lack of prescriptiveness: that it doesn't identify a "right" usage and/or spelling but rather presents the alternatives with an explanation of what those alternatives entail so that the careful user is prepared to choose amongst them. For me, that's ultimately the best way to proceed ... the information that I need and want when consulting a dictionary. If I could, I'd give it more than five stars and this is the one I'll want my children to take with them when they go off to college.


1. Many missing highly intellectual words, however I'm paranoid about the death of English

2. Otherwise of dictionaries pleasant to read, useful, durable, and with extensive and useful etymologies [e.g. I became curious and developed a psychic intuition for old french, although I didn't take it in school]

3. Otherwise, creativity is the only way to really change the dictionary: a different organizational system would be more useful for some creative uses


I just bought several of these for my adult kids. I got one for myself last summer, and have been thrilled with the quality.
My last dictionary was 25-30 years ago, and this new book has pictures of many people who have starred in my lifetime as legendary in entertainment, science, and politics. {as well as those from the past}
The descriptions are easy to follow and quite adequate for my purposes. I highly recommend it.


The American Heritage Dictionary has a great selection of words. I love having the word origins. It large and heavy, but offers a lot of information.


I've always enjoyed using (and just browsing) the American Heritage Dictionary, and this new edition is better than ever with all the color photos! The usage notes are very interesting and informative. I like it so much that I'll be giving this beautiful dictionary as a gift to some family members.


This is a great dictionary! It is updated with computer words included and those word/phrases are included in the main text, not as an appendix of new words. It has great ease of use, reader comprehension, layout and design,and a wonderful use of graphics. This is truly the best up-to-date dictionary that I have discovered. I am extremely happy with it as a resource!!


We had bought the D&K dictionary, and you'll note the bad reviews. Hmmm wonder why I didn't see those before wasting my money. This dictionary is more thorough and I suspect big enough to get my 9yo through highschool. The letter tabs are more user friendly than the cheaper D&K color the pages version. The best part is my kid willingly looks up words and is pleased to be rewarded for her efforts.


This is the best dictionary on the market. I have one at work and all the staff use it instead of the more common Merriam Webster dictionary. I just got one for home and my kids love it. It is easy to use and the word explanations and origins make sense.

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About The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition detail

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8412 in Books
• Brand: Houghton Mifflin
• Published on: 2006-04-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 2112 pages

Read more The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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