Dictionary Review
By Geoff Barton
Primary
Oxford Primary Dictionary, £9.99
Collins Primary Illustrated Dictionary, £8.99
Collins Primary Dictionary, £7.99
Jolly Dictionary, Jolly Learning Ltd, £5.95
Oxford Junior Rhyming Dictionary, £7.99
Black’s Rhyming and Spelling Dictionary, A&C Black, £7.99
Chambers Primary Rhyming Dictionary, £7.99
Secondary
Collins Student’s Dictionary, £6.99
Collins School Dictionary (“Gem”), £3.99
Chambers Mini School Dictionary, £3.99
Collins School Dictionary, £5.99
Chambers School Dictionary, £7.99
Chambers Study Dictionary, £9.99 [NOT MENTIONED]
Oxford School Dictionary and Thesaurus, £7.99
[Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary, £13.90] IS THIS ELT?
Chambers Pocket Dictionary, £8.99
Pocket Oxford English Dictionary, £9.99
Independent study
Compact Oxford English Dictionary, £14.99 [NOT
MENTIONED]Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, [NOT
MENTIONED]Bloomsbury Concise English Dictionary, £19.99
Bloomsbury English Dictionary, £30
Oxford Dictionary of English, £35 [any concise version???]
Oxford English Dictionary on CD-Rom
Chambers Concise Dictionary, £17.99
The Chambers Dictionary, £30
Chambers Dictionary & Thesaurus (CD-ROM), £30
You have to take your hat off to Dr Johnson, whose first English
dictionary is 250 years old this year. When he wasn’t dazzling London
with his conversational repartee, or kicking gravestones to demonstrate to
new age philosophers that of course the world does not exist only in our
minds, he was also penning the first English dictionary.
That first edition, which we are reliably informed weighed the same as a
large turkey, consisted of 2300 pages. It cost four pounds and ten
shillings, which would be around £300 today. The good Doctor harvested
some 42,773 words for which he was paid a handsome (something he
wasn’t, by all accounts) £1575 – around £10,000 today.
So here’s a survey of the current landscape of dictionaries, many of
which are designed particularly for school use. Making comparisons is
tricky because our taste in dictionaries is often as personal as our taste in
fiction – with dictionaries so much comes down to layout and
presentation. So to add a little credibility and nudge us away from my
own dictionary obsessions, I’ve called for the first impressions of
someone who straddles the target readership, one Nicholas Barton (aged
12) who was persuaded that it was a privilege to be asked to compare so
many dictionaries and may in due course wish to look up the word duped.
Developing pupils’ skills and confidence in using dictionaries is part of
the Primary Strategy from the earliest years. This is when we want our
pupils to develop a love of books and to learn how to use a dictionary.
Publishers respond with a collection of texts which are vivid and varied.
The Oxford Primary Dictionary shows its Johnsonian roots by including
many citations from literature. Topically, many of these come from Harry
Potter and other popular children’s books (“Malfoy gave Professor Lupin
an insolent stare” . Definition: “Very rude and insulting”. The visual mix
of two-colour printing, boxes for word origins and word families makes it
very easy to use.
The Collins Primary Dictionary (age 9+) is similarly clear and lucid,
though primary teachers may be attracted to the Illustrated version (8+).
Whilst this doesn’t have pictures on every page, the images are used
judiciously and not just decoratively. For the definition of “rook” for
example the description “a chess piece that can move any number of
squares in a straight but not diagonal line” has a picture that really helps
our understanding.
Then there’s the Jolly Dictionary which blends development of children’s
dictionary skills with their distinctive emphasis of teaching synthetic
phonics. There’s no reference to “insolent” but here’s how it explains
“infection”: “infecshen: an illness caused by germs”. The book begins
with a colourful picture section, designed to teach pupils about word
classes, and a code to demonstrate pronunciation. The main dictionary
uses cartoon images for decoration. It’s hard to imagine they are for
educational reasons – for example the definition of a cow is accompanied
by a picture of a cow. Since I think we can assume most readers will
know what a cow looks like, the illustrations are chiefly, well, illustrative
At primary level there are also the hybrid dictionaries, such as rhyming
and spelling dictionaries, and these show more variation than their more
strait-laced relations. Oxford’s Junior Rhyming Dictionary comes from
the ubiquitous John Foster. Looking for something to rhyme with “boss”?
Try “moss” or candyfloss”. Throughout there are lively, not to say
wacky, pictures and short poems by John Foster. These both help to
illuminate word meaning and to make learning fun, as in this example for
“jug”:
“A slimy slug drank from a jug.
A grubby bug drank from a mug.
Then the slug gave the bug a hug.”
Shakespeare it isn’t, but the rhymes throughout, and perhaps especially
the illustrations (by Melanie Williamson and Rupert Van Wyk), reinforce
an important sense of this being a reference book to enjoy rather than
leave to gather dust.
Black’s Rhyming & Spelling Dictionary has a distinguished pedigree,
with one of its authors being Pie Corbett, well known to primary teachers
and a key architect of the National Literacy Strategy. This book has an
early section on how to use a rhyming dictionary and a brief summary of
different types of poetry (haiku, limericks, acrostics, and so on). The
pages themselves are organised by word endings (a page on “eece to eed”
is followed by one on “eek to eeen”. It’s simple, colourful, and
compelling.
Chambers’ Primary Rhyming Dictionary is a less colourful affair, using a
pink and black layout with black-and-white illustrations. What is striing
is its use not of words but suffixes or rhyming sounds, such as “-ision”, “isk” and “-ister”. Its unique selling point is sixty sample poems written by
Benjamin Zephaniah, like this one: “I wrote a poem with a twist / And
turned into a novelist” (helping to illustrate rhymes for “-ist”. The format
is perhaps the least appealing of the bunch, but Zephaniah’s presence
adds a lively and often unexpected tw-ist.
The secondary market sees a huge range of dictionaries reflecting the
different ages and needs of its readership. This is where we want our
students to become increasingly self-reliant in finding out the information
they need for study. Let’s start with the smallest, pocket formats. Collins
Student’s Dictionary packs a huge amount of information into a tight but
very clear format. It has brief definitions, guidance on usage, frequent
and useful panels on usage and word history: “The first people to wear
anoraks were Eskimos. In the Eskimo language anoraq means ‘a piece of
clothing’ and denotes a long, hooded jacket made from fur such as
sealskin or haribou skin” We admired the brevity of the definitions and
Nick appreciated the ‘survival guide’ at the back – a nicely-pitched
summary of grammar and spelling advice.
Collins also have their small Gem format in tiny print (and I do mean
tiny), ideal for quick reference, and also packing in an enormous amount
of information beyond just definitions, including grammar and spelling
guidance. The Chambers Mini School Dictionary does the same – an
extraordinary compendium of knowledge in a format that will sit easily
alongside the packed lunch (no vending machines, of course , now that
they have been given the Ruth Kelly life-sentence) in the school bag.
Then there is a range of medium size dictionaries for classroom and home
use. Collins’ School Dictionary has the clear format of their Student’s
Dictionary. The lucidity of the definitions is admirable and spot-on for
the target age group (for example, “gaudy – very colourful in a vulgar
way”) The Chambers School Dictionary is a direct competitor and has an
attractive two-colour format. It contains brisk, mostly clear definitions
(“gaudy – showy; vulgarily bright in colour”) , plus a heavy emphasis on
etymology and background to meanings. There are also regular
‘Language Study’ panels on issues like borrowed words, grammar, and
dialects.
The Oxford School Dictionary and Thesaurus divides each page into
dictionary (top half) and thesaurus (bottom half) – a neat and easy-to-use
format. There are examples for each definition to show usage in context
and a two-tone colour scheme that gives clarity. So in the top half you get
“fund” – “money collected or kept for a special purpose” and in the lower
part you get “pool, kitty, store, reserve, cahce, source and supply”. How
simple is that?
The Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary is similar, but with a colour picture
section in the middle labelling, for example, items in the bathroom. I’m
not quite sure what the purpose is, though ‘learners’ might benefit from
knowing that a cistern in the UK is a tank in the USA. My guess is that
the target audience more strongly emphasises overseas students. The
advice on studying, writing and spelling is eminently sensible and useful.
The real bonus for intermediate users of English is the CD which gives
pronunciation of every word and other PC-based resources.
Next there’s Chambers Study Dictionary aimed at students aged 15
upwards. Its distinguishing feature is a 48-page study supplement – a
very focused and relevant guide to writing essays and scientific reports,
plus advice on paragraphing, linking ideas, and choosing the right words.
It’s unpatronising, pitched at the right level, and very useful.
Chambers and Oxford have their hardback Pocket dictionaries, though
you’d need pockets like Fagan in Oliver Twist to carry these to school.
Both demonstrate the skill of contemporary lexicographers in providing
detailed information in a manageable format. The Oxford puts more
emphasis on word origins in most definitions (eg “jingoism – from by
jingo! In a song adopted by those who supported the sending of a British
fleet into Turkish waters to resist Russia in 1878), whilst the Chambers
uses small panels for interesting etymological facts (such as
“ombudsman” being a Swedish word for ‘administration man’). Both
would be an indispensable reference book in any classroom or study.
Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English describes itself as “the
living dictionary”. It’s full of illustrative examples (for example a total of
48 different meanings of “light”, each explained with a phrase, including
the rarely heard “I set off for work with a light heart”). There are
occasional pictures, panels of usage guidance, plus a CD version with
pop-up definitions and interactive exercises.
Simpler but hugely authoritative is the Compact Oxford English
Dictionary, a two-colour production with clear headwords, pronunciation
guide, real-life examples and a central supplement on “Effective English”
which provides high-level advice on writing accurately in various styles.
.
Then there are the heavyweights of the market, the dictionaries for fuller
reference, either at school or home. These are the books we want to be
able to reach for to clarify our thoughts or and sharpen our expression.
The Bloomsbury Concise English Dictionary was new to me. Like all of
the books in this category, it’s authoritative, comprehensive and
contemporary. It’s an adult dictionary, with embedded guidance on
spelling (“Do not confuse accede with exceed – your spelling checker
will not catch this error”), occasional tiny illustrations (how glaciers are
formed, what the ginseng plant looks like), usage, and biographical
information. There’s an impressive range of colloquial and slang words
(clobber and farkleberry jumped out, though I’ll leave it to you to look
upo the latter in case you’re eating as you read this), and a modernfeeling attention to technological words. Its full version, The Bloomsbury
English Dictionary is equally impressive – an asset in any home or
classroom.
The Chambers Dictionary is the official reference book for Scrabble, and
benefits from a clear page design that will be useful when looking to
settle a double letter score dispute over a word like zimocca (a type of
bath sponge). Its Concise version is more spacious, with less dense use of
text, and ideal for a student in further or higher education.
Finally, there’s the Oxford Dictionary of English which sets the standard
for lucidity and sheer range of reference. There are definitions, origins,
hints on usage, and an impressive quantity of biographical information.
Like its Chambers equivalent, there’s also a CD-ROM version, giving
users the capacity to interrogate a huge database of language.
For me – old-fangled that I am – I like a dictionary I can hold and browse
through, with the unexpected pleasure of stumbling across unfamiliar
words and origins (for example I’ve just learnt that ‘hantavirus’ is carried
by rats and causes kidney failure – another useful cocktail party opening
line).
With dictionaries, like cocktails, we all have our personal preferences,
many to do with layout as much as content. Overall I admire the unfussy
clarity of the Oxford English Dictionary. Nick goes for the Chambers
School Dictionary. But that’s as arbitrary saying whether one flavour of
apple is “better” than another: I comes down to how we like the texture,
taste, colour and bite.
What all of these books show is just how much in this online information
age the text has fought back, showing its versatility and, in many cases,
portability. It’s a reminder of what a great information technology source
the humble dictionary is. Long may it last.