Which dictionary do you use most?

Haven't used a book dictionary in eons. I have "Atomica" on my computer, and that is sufficient for 99% of my needs. The only time that I use a book dictionary is if I am looking up medical terms, and will check a medical dictionary.

An electronic Oxford

I use online dictionaries too, but I'm old fashioned in that I love to use this old thing.

I use Atomica as well.

I have--and use when necessary--a paper&ink unabridged Random House. Far more frequently I use a paperback New American Webster to check spelling.

The lighter the book, the more likely an indolent intellectual is to use the book.

Phoenix and Montana you actually pay for it?

No, it's free.

I use a book dictionary, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (two volumes.) I bought it a few months ago at a discount from Amazon.

Good grief, Edgar, me too, except that it's the 1955 edition! The dictionaries which get the most use are those which I keep on the shelf over my desk but they're there mostly because they fit on the shelf. They are the above-mentioned Am.Coll. Dict., a variety of foreign language dictionaries, and a Concise Oxford (which is the one I always use first). Elsewhere in the house are various Larousses and dudenbooks, an odd but lovely dictionary published by Houghton Mifflin called the American Heritage Dictionary, and weighing down a bunch of shelves, a 1927 (? too lazy to doublecheck) OED. Which is enormously useful now and then. I like to know the origins of words. I've never been tempted by an online dictionary, even though just about everything I do is done on line. Well, not EVERYTHING...

There are 3 or 4 Concise Oxfords around the house. I can't seem to resist them when I spot them at Goodwill. 2 Scrabble dictionaries that i hate (they were gifts) - when Scrabble happens at my house, we go by my rules, and my rules say the Oxford only. A couple of old English-German dictionaries, and a few French-English - including one that is strictly related to ornithology. One French-German picture dictionary from about 1910 meant for about a grade 2 or 3 level student. The last one is definitely the most attractive and interesting of the bunch.

Dictionaries
I have three on my desk including Websters College 2nd ed. The thing I always reach for first, because it is fast and easy, is my Franklin pocket electronic dictionary.

I have a Frankllin pocket electronic dictionary - bought it for my daughter. After she completed school she gave it back.

Websters and dictionary.com

Ditto SP but my fav is Oxford Complete

currently i'm using my imacs,you see, it's just there, only a click away but does it satisfy me? Does it have parched yellowing pages that flick with old authority in the wake of all that is new and midas?

if both a dictionary and a computer,over a period of time had spiderwebs all over them , i would trustfully turn to my websters...because I know it would still work. And such is the nature of the web.

At home I have the Random House second edition, a leather-bound tome. That's my fave. Also one of the smaller Oxfords, I think the Compact or the Shorter. Here at work I use the American Heritage College Dictionary; it serves basic utilitarian needs.

I go on-line for words in other languages...

In the everyday life I prefer the automatic dictionary I have downloaded from Babylon Web site (despite of the name it has no connection to either ancient or modern Iraq). For deeper checks I use The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.

American College Dictionary, etc.


This is strange. I didn't think anybody else used this dictionary. I suppose my is the '65 edition. The spine reads "The Most Authoritative Desk Dictionary Every Published".

Normally, I go to my paperback Oxford American, but I also keep the American College on the shelf above my desk, for cases when the OA doesn't suffice. For more extreme cases, I have a two-volume OED.

I don't know how anyone can get by with an online dictionary. Even if you're on broadband, it seems like it would be easier to use a book.

But yes, the American College is a great dictionary. I got it for a couple bucks at a Salvation Army. Couple of the best dollars I ever spent. I don't trust these new dictionaries. Too many worthwhile words are dropped out of the listings altogether because people on the editorial board didn't find them in a New York Times article or a John Updike novel.