Advanced Learners’ Dictionary

The Wordsworth Advanced Learner´s Dictionary is unique in that it combines the elements of thesaurus, usage guide, lexicon and historical survey in one volume. As well as the usual features of a dictionary, this book includes expository panels which present a point of usage, the history of the word, the area of vocabulary or the nuances of a definition. As David Crystal says of the book in his Introduction, ´The test, quite simply, is to open it, at any page, and see if you can stop yourself browsing. I couldn´t.´ The surprising origins of words and phrases such as ´Beefeaters´ ´between the devil and the deep blue sea´ and the disease named after a shepherd in an Italian poem mean that The Wordsworth Advanced Learner´s Dictionary is of enormous use to both foreign students and to those whose mother tongue is English.