The Oxford Essential Dictionary
The dictionary, which is also being issued in paperback as the Oxford Essential Dictionary (Berkley, ISBN 0-425-16420-9. $6.99), pronounces, syllabifies, and briefly defines about 30,000 common words and idioms. Definitions occasionally include clarifying examples, and biographical and geographical entries are listed at the back of the book along with a variety of quick reference information. The thesaurus, an updated edition of the Oxford Paperback Thesaurus (Oxford, 1994), is equally basic, offering simple lists of synonyms for roughly 10,000 headwords. Much of the material in both these lexicons can also be found in the recently published Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus: American Edition (LJ 1/15/97). While potentially useful for individual consumers, these abridged works are not a necessary purchase for libraries.?Ken Kister, author of "Best Encyclopedias," Tampa, FLCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.