Cambridge Dictionary Of American English

The authoritative guide to American English as it's really used today. The Cambridge Dictionary of American English CD-ROM contains the full text of the printed dictionary, as well as spoken pronunciations for every word in the text to the entry where that word is defined; tools that allow users to add their own notes to the dictionary; and sophisticated lookup tools that let learners search by grammar code, part of speech, and usage label as well as by word. The CD-ROM can also be linked with Microsoft?? Word to allow fast lookups from word processing documents. Based on the Cambridge International Corpus, a database that includes more than 200 million words of spoken and written American English, the paperback edition contains more than 40,000 definitions of words and phrases. Entries are organized by meaning, and words with more than one meaning are clearly marked with a boxed guideword, so there's no guesswork involved in finding the right entry. Definitions are written using a carefully controlled 2,000-word defining vocabulary, so they are clear and easy to understand. Authentic, full-sentence examples show learners how words are typically used. More than 3,000 common idioms are defined, and an Idioms Index makes it easy to find them. Language Portraits provide in-depth explanations of difficult grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation. The dictionary also includes coverage of important Canadian and British words and meanings.