The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary

Binding: CD-ROM
EAN: 9780192683021
Edition: Windows CD-ROM
ISBN: 0192683020
Label: Oxford University Press
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 1997-08
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Studio: Oxford University Press

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
In hardcover it takes up two thick volumes, but on CD-ROM you get the same 7.5 million words of text (with half a million definitions and 83,000 quotations) on a thin compact disc. The computerized New SOED is a great pleasure. It readily accomplishes the simple task of looking up a word, providing definition, usage, and simple etymology. But the program also searches by anagram and by rhyme, by quotation and by etymology. Perusing the headword group is like flipping the pages. In this fashion, I ran across "nesh" (soft--in consistency, mind, or morals), "convell" (refute completely) and "xoanon" (primitive carved statue of a deity). My Scrabble game is getting less nesh all the time. --Stephanie Gold

Product Description:
The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is a treasure of words and information, the one dictionary "no writer, and no serious reader, can afford to live without," according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard. "The publication of the New Shorter OED is among the major events of the last half-century," enthused the Chicago Tribune. And noted scholar Harold Bloom wrote that the Shorter, "in its immense reach and profound wealth, has no rival for utility and potential enlightenment." With half a million definitions, and over 7.5 million words, the Shorter is surpassed only by the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary for the depth and breadth of its scholarship.

Now the vast resources of this acclaimed reference are available at the touch of a fingertip, with The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on CD ROM. From literary English to street slang, historical to contemporary vocabulary, scientific to legal terms, the Shorter covers the entire English language in all its complex diversity as it is written and spoken around the world. This superb electronic edition allows users to explore the Shorter and the vast amounts of information it contains in ways that were previously unimaginable.

Indeed, its powerful search and retrieval machines will let you explore the dictionary in a staggering number of ways, and it locates the information you seek within seconds. Questions which would have taken ages to answer using the printed edition can now be answered almost instantaneously, from simple single word definitions to complex searches. For example, you can find all North American nouns first used in the 18th century (including cuspidor and chowder). You can pick out quotations by Anthony Burgess which contain the word love (there are three). You can locate every headword which became obsolete in the mid-sixteenth century (a list which includes ey, ofhungered, and terve). Or you can search the text of the definitions, enabling you to find the word which means "rain on a cloudless day," or the name of the tree under which Buddha received enlightenment (the bo tree). Or, with a click of the mouse, a reader can look up a quick definition using an easy keyword search, and then cross-reference to related words or look up any word within the text of a definition. Finally, a special rhyming index and an anagram solver make this the ultimate reference for crossword enthusiasts, Scrabble players, limerick writers, and word buffs of all kinds.

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is the world's best unabridged dictionary of English. Whether you use it for scholarly research, as a detailed reference work, or purely for enjoyment, this new CD ROM edition allows you to explore this wealth of information in ways you never imagined possible, and at a convenient and affordable price.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- RICH CONTENTS; LACKLUSTRE FEATURES
Incredible! The praises many reviewers showered on this "The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary CD-ROM", (NSOED CD-ROM), makes me wonder if the item they were describing is different from the one I saw. Not at all!
As regards English references and definitions, this CD-ROM presents unsurpassed coverage. But of what use is a good item that remains elusive? Minimal features and stunted flexibility ensured that the potentials of this NSOED e-book cannot be fully exploited. It is hard to understand ... Read More

Rating:

- A good resource
I have never been compelled to write a review before, but I want to clear up something in an earlier review.

This dictionary represents the British pronunciation, so the pronunciation of 'weird' is correct - no /r/ because it is not pronounced in this position in British English.

I have used this resource at my univerity library and am seriously considering buying it because it is so useful.

Rating:

- Excellent, but not perfect.
I also really like The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on CD-ROM (NSOED). It's not perfect, but if you really appreciate a good dictionary, this one will satisfy you.

Some notes:
1. My main complaint about using NSOED is that the pronunciation key is not intuitive. For example, NSOED pronounces weird as "wi*d", while my Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary shows the pronunciation as "wi(*)rd". To gain any useful information from the NSOED pronunciation key, you must remember ... Read More

Rating:

- Shorter OED
A very impressive dictionary - hardly justifies 'shorter'. I have the full unabridged OED on CD at work and bought this version for my own use at home. I've found the shorter version just as good in practice. The search and hyperlinking facilities are good, better than on the full version in mt view and of course even those can't be compared to using the reference on paper, which will surely become a lost art before long. (At a full bookshelf's worth of paper the unabridged OED doesn't even have the usual ... Read More

Rating:

- The New SOED doesn't work within WordPerfect 8.0 or 7.0
I got the SOED as a gift. It ran fine as a stand alone program. When I tried to install it to work as a macro within WordPerfect 7.0 it was not compatible. I sent an e-mail to the Oxford English Dictionary and they offered to "post" a diskette patch to me. Gee, why wasn't it included? I'd rather use the books instead of having to constantly cut out of WordPerfect 7.0.