Rating: 
Summary: An old friend past but well past it's prime
Review: The Merriam-Webster's dictionaries are supposed to reflect the language as it is not the language as is might be or should be. At least that was what Noah Webster's intentions were. This sequence of dictionaries has gone through 4 major editions: 1890, 1909, 1934 and 1961. (I am excluding the earlier editions which are really quite different than those versions called "international".) As you can see every 20 years or so, G.C Merriam published a major update. We should have seen the Fourth edition sometime in the Reagan administration. Dictionary enthusiasts would already be saving their pennies for the fifth edition. The main body of the dictionary is out of date. Unlike the 20 vol. OED, this was never meant to be a scholar's dictionary. It is meant to be current. The editions since the late 1960's have all included addenda, but that section does not address the problems with existing entries. It is also quite cumbersome to use.
If one wants to see what a well done modern dictionary looks like that does not need a bookcase of it's own, one need only look to the recent editions of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't be fooled: This dictionary is from 1961!
Review: The Webster's Third New International Dictionary is a huge and wonderful resource that has more than 400,000 word definitions. It's probably the second most comprehensive listing behind the Oxford English Dictionary.I have a copy of this same dictionary from 1981. The primary copyright is 1961. The book listed here is supposedly published in 2002. All three editions are in fact the _third_ edition of the same dictionary. One only need to look up certain words. Take "negro." This dictionary defines this as acceptable term for common useage. The term "anti-Semite" is defined not just as someone who has hostility towards Jews, but also anyone who opposes Zionism or sympathizes with who those who oppose Israel. Talk about a loaded political definition. Look the same term in any other modern English dictionary and you'll see a simple "Hostility towards Jews" definition. Who knows how many other severely dated terms and definitions are in this dictionary. A recent newspaper article stated that they don't plan to release the fourth edition of this dictonary for another 7 to 10 years. We're already looking at a dictionary that's 45 years old and it'll be 52+ years in age before it gets an update? If you're looking at a dictionary of this magnitude my recommendation is to go for the "Short Oxford English Diciontary."
Rating:
Summary: Don't be fooled: This dictionary is from 1961!
Review: The Webster's Third New International Dictionary is a huge and wonderful resource that has more than 400,000 word definitions. It's probably the second most comprehensive listing behind the Oxford English Dictionary. I have a copy of this same dictionary from 1981. The primary copyright is 1961. The book listed here is supposedly published in 2002. All three editions are in fact the _third_ edition of the same dictionary. One only need to look up certain words. Take "negro." This dictionary defines this as acceptable term for common useage. The term "anti-Semite" is defined not just as someone who has hostility towards Jews, but also anyone who opposes Zionism or sympathizes with who those who oppose Israel. Talk about a loaded political definition. Look the same term in any other modern English dictionary and you'll see a simple "Hostility towards Jews" definition. Who knows how many other severely dated terms and definitions are in this dictionary. A recent newspaper article stated that they don't plan to release the fourth edition of this dictonary for another 7 to 10 years. We're already looking at a dictionary that's 45 years old and it'll be 52+ years in age before it gets an update? If you're looking at a dictionary of this magnitude my recommendation is to go for the "Short Oxford English Diciontary."
Rating: 
Summary: W3 or OED?
Review: There are only two definitive English language dictionaries: Webster's Third (W3) and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The OED has the advantage of scholarship, prestige and preeminence: it is generally regarded as the gold standard in the definition of English words. It achieves this primarily by citing historical books and manuscripts, going back in many cases to the dark ages, when the language itself was evolving. Comprising some 22 volumes and requiring more than three feet of shelf space, it is an impressive addition to anyone's library, albeit at a high cost. It is available, again at high cost, on CD ROM. W3 is a single volume about four inches wide. It offers a precise definition of every word you will ever encounter (450,000 are listed) except for slang and jargon, obsolete words, technical vocabularies and recent additions to the language. It is not above providing an occasional literary allusion. It defines the English language. Suppose you want to look up the word "synecdoche." Which of the following scenarios do you prefer? (1) Find volume 10 of the OED and learn that Wyclif (1338) defined it as "whanne a part is set for al, either al is set for oo par . . ." (2) Start computer, find CD ROM, load CD ROM, go to OED, step through program, find information, unload CD ROM, turn off computer, file CD ROM, go back to what you were doing in the first place. (3) Open W3 and read "a figure of speech by which a part is put for a whole (as fifty sail for fifty ships) . . ." W3 is THE dictionary. It belongs in everyone's home. At the listed price it is an incredible bargain. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Dictionary on CD-ROM is Good -- However, this Disappoints
Review: There aren't all that many choices for dictionaries on CD-ROM yet, at an affordable price. The price was right, but after using this dictionary for about a month now, I must say I am very disappointed by what is missing from this reference "book"! There are no: geographical names, biographical names or even names of Ivy League schools (such as Yale)! When I tried to look up "Master's" and "Masters" for the proper punctuation when speaking of a master's degree, even this was not listed! The software design seems already old-fashioned, slow and a bit clumsy, reminding of the kind of software that was more common eight to ten years ago. When installing the software, one is given the choice of whether to install it into WordPerfect or Word software -- but there is no choice of installing into both. When I tried installing into WordPerfect after installing into Word, the CD-ROM would only let me do this if I were willing to uninstall the copy in Word! (The company is aware of this flaw, and they told me the next version will have this corrected.) I have carpal tunnel problems and my wrists are very weak. This is the main reason I need a dictionary on CD-ROM rather than book form. So I am glad to have one in my computer at all -- but really, for the price I do not feel this dictionary was worth it. I hope they will try to improve it.
Rating:
Summary: A delight for the those who enjoy words
Review: This book was a birthday gift to me from my husband. When the box arrived I was so excited, from the presentation in the box to the feel of the buckram covers how could anyone not enjoy this book. That night my husband and I spent a couple of hours just looking through the book, reading the definitions, looking up words, reading about Noah Webster, what a treat. We use the book every day, looking up words we thought we knew and realizing how limited our knowledge is. This book is a tremendous gift for anyone who values knowledge and loves words.
Rating:
Summary: Must-have
Review: This is an old gem that every serious writer must have. I
remember the stir it made when it first came out 40 years
ago. In recent years my paper dictionaries gather dust and I
use the cdrom versions more than ever. The OED is online at
many colleges and Oxford will soon release version 3.0 on
cd-rom (...)
It's useful only for major reserarch projects. For ordinary
lookup I have been using the Shorter OED and the Random
House. Both are OK, but the Random House quotations are
mostly made up, and the OED ones are from British
literature. The MW-3 has much richer and more sophisticated
definitions, and its quotations are marvelous. Bellow,
Updike and Capote are well represented (but only one Rushdie
and one Naipaul) Historians are well covered-about 150
quotes from Oscar Handlin, 40 from Schlesinger, 30 from
Woodward, 25 from the Beards; good magazines abound, with
400 quotes from the New Republic, 600 from Newsweek, and 740
from the New Yorker; they added some newer cites for the
cd-rom edition. The search routines are superb. MW and Random House both integrate with WORD. How did I miss the cdrom version when it came out two years ago?? Dunno--they have not promoted it very well.
p.s. online you can use a good 90-year old unabridged
dictionary: the CENTURY ....
Rating:
Summary: The king of American lexicons !!!
Review: This is in response to the fellow who claims it to be a peice of junk. This is an excellent dictionary. I personally own the Random House dictionary (Unabridged) as well as the American Heritage dictionary and neither of these even come close to the breadth of information in this dictionary. It has many more entries defined and lot more usages explained. It has lots of obscure and interesting words you will not find defined in any other American dictionary besides probably the Websters 2nd international (1934) or Johnson's Dictionary. Granted that it is somewhat old (1961) and some of the definitions are a little outdated, but it's scholarship is unmatched by any other dictionary besides the great oxford English dictionary (20 volumes). If I were given the choice to own only 1 dictionary it would be this one. Hope this helps.
Rating: 
Summary: Very usable but could be improved
Review: This review focuses on aspects of the software, not the quality of the dictionary content. The software is fairly usable. When installed onto your hard drive (80 MB) it starts up in 4 seconds. You enter sufficient characters to identify the word and/or choose it from a filtered list. The entry (including stress and pronunciation symbols) is displayed typographically like the printed edition. Illustrations are not included with the entries. Any word in the definition can be double-clicked to jump to its definition. The software supports advanced searches and includes online help. Anything supporting faster lookup would improve usability. This includes faster startup (nearly all of the startup time is spent in the splash screen). Since the program consumes 1--3 MB of RAM, it is reasonable to leave it running. Improved support for looking up words from other programs would be nice. The software includes macros to facilitate lookup from Microsoft Word and WordPerfect, but support for alt-clicking any word (à la GuruNet/Atomica) would be more useful. The GUI isn't "polished": Background colors don't abide with your desktop color scheme, window size-position is not retained when restarting the program, old style WinHelp is used instead of the newer HTML-based help, etc. These are simply annoyances; the software is stable and bug-free. The software is an improvement over the online dictionary available at Merriam-Webster's website in that you don't need to be connected to the Internet and that the dictionary is unabridged.
Rating:
Summary: Good CD dictionary that can be better
Review: This review is for CD version. I agree with most of previous reviewers that this is top notch American English dictionary.
Some previous reviewers complained that the new words are not inserted into the main body of the dictionary. This could be a problem for the printed version. For CD version, this is not a problem. When looking up a word, I cannot tell if it is from the original or from the new word list.
I do not understnad why the multimedia function is not on the CD. If it uses too much hard disk space, it can be made available from CD, as Random House did. No pronouncing symbols can compare with the real sound.
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