This is a very good English dictionary with simple understandable definitions. The word histories (derivations) are also fairly simple and easy to understand. It is new dictionary and not a republication. Consequently, you may occasionally find a definition missing that you would have expected to be there.
Also included is a wonderful computer dictionary with very clear definitions and comparison charts.
The dictionary will install itself to disk, however you still need the CD in the drive to hear the pronunciations.
Overall, a very good product.
2012: Sadly this dictionary is now out of print in paper and CD. For the CD if you get a used deluxe edition encyclopedia set the product it has the dictionary CD as part of the set. You might be able to find an older single dictionary set butthe older you go back the more you might have problems with more modern version of windows.
Why be uncertain about a word? With a dictionary installed on your hard drive you can look up a word in seconds.
Click here to see what this dictionary looks like.
My copy of Word looks up the word in Microsoft's own online Encarta dictionary. The definitions are split, in this case, into both the noun transitive verb version of doughnut. Other words, such as cold, may also have an adjective or adverb meaning which will be listed under similar subheadings. Microsoft Encarta 2009 related downloads. Dixio Desktop 2.0 Download. Complete encyclopedia dictionary which shows the definition of any term. Wikipedia Gadget 1.0.0.
'The dictionary I purchased is great. I use it guite often for work and personal interest. I especially like the audio feature.' M.N.
Encarta World English Dictionary 2001 includes six comprehensive, integrated reference works:
- New Encarta Thesaurus - An authoritative source of synonyms, phrases, and equivalent expressions.
- Expanded Encarta World English Dictionary - An additional 10,000 headwords and over 18,000 new audio pronunciations have been added to this up-to-date, global dictionary.
- Expanded Encarta Book of Quotations - Now with nearly twice as many clever and profound quotes for all occasions.
- Updated Encarta 2001 Almanac - A quick reference for facts ranging from election results to sports statistics.
- Updated Microsoft Press Computer and Internet Dictionary - Updated definitions for computer- and Internet-related words, technical terms, and acronyms.
- Encarta Manual of Style and Usage - A practical guide to grammar, punctuation, and style for more effective writing.
Word Keys: Provide usage advice, word origins, synonyms, and other useful information to help enrich your understanding of the English language.
Pronunciations: Audio recordings in which words are pronounced by a professional. A clear, intuitive pronunciation system that spells words the way they sound is also provided throughout.
QuickShelf® offers you one-click access to Encarta World English Dictionary's comprehensive resources from any Windows-based application. QuickShelf tools include:
- QuickDefine - Look up definitions and pronuciations promptly.
- QuickQuote - Find the perfect quote to suit your needs with QuickQuote.
- QuickSyn - Access thesaurus synonyms quickly to enrich your writing.
'Encarta will work splendidly for all ages; it invites exploration and is highly recommended for homes and libraries.' Library Journal, November/December, 1999
'Children will have fun with the dictionary as it expands their linguistic and cultural awareness.' Charlotte Sassman, Instructor, November-December 1999
Dear Philologist,
Welcome to Encarta® World English Dictionary 2001. I assume that you are fond of language, because you are reading a letter from the editor of a dictionary. You may already know that philology, the study of language in texts, comes from ancient Greek roots meaning 'loving' and 'word.'
Love of words is what editing a dictionary is all about. Lexicography is not usually viewed as an exciting profession. To people who love words, however, language gives endless thrills. Language changes more quickly than any other human activity. Does that seem an overstatement? Consider this: Language reflects and records all human change. If someone invents a new move on a snowboard, creates a new rhythm, markets a new computer game, or discovers a new species of beetle, that new thing will get a new name. Sometimes the thing vanishes, and the name is all that survives: millennium bug, for instance.
Right now, language is evolving more rapidly than ever before, because people can share it so widely and so quickly. Television can reach out to billions of viewers, but computers allow billions of readers and writers to reach one another. Philologists are delighted that the age of the Internet has been, so far, an age of texts. (Etymologists, aware that net comes from a word meaning 'to tie' and text from a word meaning 'to weave,' are not surprised to find the two braided together.) The sheer amount of new language makes keeping up with it a full-time job-fortunately for lexicographers.
Intake, change, growth, and reproduction mark language as a living system. Captured as computer files, millions and millions of words from all over the earth form a sort of verbal ecosystem. By studying words in this version of their natural habitat, the text, lexicographers can see much more than individual new words. They watch old words take on new meanings, join in new phrases, add or drop plural forms. And then they try to predict the future. Will mails survive and flourish? Will medias? Is cellular phone extinct yet?
The frozen bulk of a print dictionary preserves the results of predictions made several years ago. In e-lexicography, editors have more freedom, more opportunities. In the last year, working with our partner, Bloomsbury Publishing, Microsoft has added 10,000 new words and phrases to Encarta® World English Dictionary 2001. Computer technology enables us to bring you audio recordings, and we have added more than 15,000 new spoken pronunciations. To ensure that we sight and describe language changes, the entire dictionary has been closely reviewed, resulting in thousands of updates to previous entries. This, the first dictionary of global English created for the age of the Internet, has recreated itself at Internet speed, to mirror the development of English as the world's way of talking to itself.
Encarta Dictionary Free Download
You will also find here the brand-new Encarta® Thesaurus of 250,000 words and phrases, with all these synonyms linked to the dictionary for instant look-up of definitions, pronunciations, and usage notes; a newly expanded version of theEncarta Dictionary Exe
Encarta® Book of Quotations, with 12,000 added epigrams, apothegms, bons mots (as you see, using the thesaurus quickly becomes a habit); the Encarta® Almanac
, updated for 2001; an updated version of the Microsoft Press Computer and Internet Dictionary; and the Encarta® Manual of Style and Usage, which explains, among many other things, where to put commas and semicolons in a sentence like this one.Amid these busy changes, some truths remain constant. I should like to close this letter, therefore, with a paragraph from the letter written to greet owners of this dictionary last year:
Language is the human condition. The power of language contained in Encarta® World English Dictionary and its associated titles gives you the power to sound as smart as you are. For the hundreds of people who have worked on this product, I welcome you and offer our hope that this reference gives you pleasure, knowledge, profit, and the same excitement in language that it has given all of us.
Best wishes,
Richard Bready
Senior Managing Editor
Encarta® World English Dictionary
Restrictions: This software can only be shipped to the US and Canada. Because Microsoft refused to sell an international version we gave up selling this product and Microsoft quite selling it separately also because it did no sell well. Could it be Microsoft's own policies killed a good product?