Rating: 
Summary: Everything From "D-O-G" To "CANINE LEPTOSPIROSIS"!
Review:
Reviewed from "A" to "Z" :
A Bang-up, Crackerjack Dictionary - Etymologically Fabulous!
Gargantuan; Heavy!
It's Just Killer, Linguistically.
Material's Nicely Organized.
Paper Quality? Really Sturdy.
Terrific, Unabridged Verbosity.
With "Xeroradiography"? Yep, Zealously!
(* 1 Star deducted because it doesn't do the writing for me.)
Rating: 
Summary: The comprehensive dictionary I've yet encountered
Review: Always being somewhat of a logophile, I have always liked big, all-encompassing dictionaries--and this one will NOT disappoint those among us who have a keen interest in the English language. Not only does it contain virtually every word conceivable, but has definitions that are more complete (more defintions for EACH word) than other books, and many words contain a helpful list of synonyms with a concise explanation of nuances in meaning. The book seems to have only one disadvantage: it is truly a tome, (tipping the scales at 13 lbs!) and looking up words quickly becomes a physical burden, practically requiring to have its own stand. Having it published in two volumes, however, would render this fine work nearly flawless!
Rating:
Summary: Inadequate
Review: As a "constant student" of English I am fascinated with words in my writing and in reading pre 20th century works.Thus so I am always searching for the most complete dictionary available, finding the paperbacks and collegiate hardcovers woefully inadequate. I was hoping Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary would suffice but sadly it has not. After a little examination of the book and trying to learn about words which have stuck in my mind like splinters under the skin, I conclude this dictionary also is inadequate.An example of this is the word "parsee" used by Melville in Moby Dick. The book I have prints the word with no captial first letter - suggesting that Melville meant "parsee" as a metaphor and not a proper noun. In Random House Webster's Unabridged the word parsee is spelled "Parsee" with the first letter capitalized meaning a proper noun. For want of a proper dictionary I mistook the word to mean a ship cleric's as I noted in my erring review of the movie Moby Dick with Gregory Peck. According to this dictionary, Parsee refers to Persian Zorastrians. This suggest alright that Melville meant it as a metaphor and indeed Cliff's Notes on Moby Dick says it refers to Fadallah, the leader of the Asian harpooneers. The price of the book offered by Amazon as with all their products is a bargain compared to what one pays in retail stores. For what one pays in shipping, he may save half as much in (California) state retail taxes. Even so, I remain discouraged that this not the complete dictionary I was hoping for.
Rating:
Summary: The best dictionary currently available.
Review: As far as I know, there are only three dependable UNABRIDED dictionaries of English language: Oxford, Webster's 3rd, and Random House. And I find RH to be the most practical one of the three. Yes, Oxford and Webster's 3rd are much respected by the scholars for their "nobleness." But Oxford is way too expensive and excessive in content for every-day usage, and Webster's 3rd is too technical to read and unnecessarily descriptive. That leaves us only with Random House. It's not perfect; it requires many improvements as some of other reviewers have mentioned here. But please note, it's the least expensive, the smallest, and the easiest-to-read unabridged dictionary in the market. People shouldn't consider this book as the most incomplete UNABRIDED dictionary but as the most complete ABRIDED dictionary. It combines completeness and convenience in one. This book will be great for people who find abridged dictionaries too weak in information but find unabridged ones too much. Its etymologies and definitions lack clarity, however--RH should follow American Heritage in these aspects. Then it would be taking one step closer to being "perfect."
Rating: 
Summary: Good Basic Ditionary
Review: First drawback to this program is the very poor help function. Quite a bit of information about the program is missing in the help part of the program. Example X-Ref button, its displayed in the printed documentation, but no explanation of what it does. You cant find any reference to it at all by accessing help within the program. You can however find an explanation in the readme30 document on the cd-rom. The online help button in the program just links you to the Microsoft web site, WHY ? Second - poor integration into word. Even though there are explicit instructions I could not get it to integrate into Word 2000 under WindowsME. Perhaps it works under Windows98?
Good points:
1) No bugs or errors running the program itself.
2) Found every word I was looking for.
3) Excellent customizable dictionary. All things taken into consideration I dont think you will find a better dictionary for the price.
Rating:
Summary: Good Basic Ditionary
Review: First drawback to this program is the very poor help function. Quite a bit of information about the program is missing in the help part of the program. Example X-Ref button, its displayed in the printed documentation, but no explanation of what it does. You cant find any reference to it at all by accessing help within the program. You can however find an explanation in the readme30 document on the cd-rom. The online help button in the program just links you to the Microsoft web site, WHY ? Second - poor integration into word. Even though there are explicit instructions I could not get it to integrate into Word 2000 under WindowsME. Perhaps it works under Windows98?
Good points:
1) No bugs or errors running the program itself.
2) Found every word I was looking for.
3) Excellent customizable dictionary. All things taken into consideration I dont think you will find a better dictionary for the price.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to search, but...
Review: I already had the Random House Dictionary in hardcover and found it has all the words I want to know but it's time-consuming to search words in the book. So I ordered CD-ROM, which dramatically reduced the time to search as expected. But there are several problems and failures I didn't expected. First, it doesn't contain all the contents the original dictionay has and it says Entry count 221444 on the menu bar though the cover says it has over 300,000 words. It hardly shows examples. Second, every time I boot my computer, there appears a message on my Windows Me screen that Are you really sure to delete all the contents and folders related with Random House Dictionay. What's wrong with this? How can I eliminate the wrong sign? I'm looking forward to the editor's reply from Korea, the far East Asia.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but ultimately unsatisfying
Review: I bought the version without CD - if you own a Mac, you'll be in the same soup, so give a thought to that. I checked out other dictionaries for weeks, & decided an unabridged was the only way to go for definitive source-checking. If you want a very good, main-source dictionary, this is the cheapest, most-up-to-date one I found. Good news: It has a nice up-front section with all the new words & jargon, so you can check out how the language has changed (or how dictionaries are slow to change!). Bad news: the words are not incorporated into the main body of the dictionary - so if you can't find a new word, you have to flip to the front section. If you remember to. Because it may give you some idea of how important it might be to get an updated dictionary, here are some of the "new" words: timeline, slam (as in poetry), gravitas, green (as in ecologically-minded), bullypulpit. Bear in mind, I'm one of those who loves to browse a dictionary. Although I'll probably get used to its quirks, I find myself getting frustrated with this dictionary. Some of the definitions are wonderfully informative; many others seem so inadequate you're brought up short, wondering at the rationale. I think the bias is that if it's not a domestic word, you need more help with it & it's given. And then there's the etymology. It's a better dictionary than most for this, for sure. It tracks the development of the main meaning of the word & gives dates first used in print. OK, but it doesn't tell what some of the other meanings' sources are, the ancillary infusions of sense into our culture's vocabulary. It doesn't give the dates of the other meanings, either. Many, many words have multiple meanings that obviously weren't there in the beginning usage; many words have changed meaning or usage over time. I wish there was brief help in that. (Yes, I do have & use the OED, but that's cumbersome, right? And as far as you're concerned, expensive.) It's not that you won't be unhappy with this choice; you just won't be satisfied very long.
Rating:
Summary: A very impressive dictionary
Review: I do agree with Stuart regarding the CD-ROM (although I've not seen the MS-DOS version) in that the definitions are abridged (vis-a-vis the book) and the search engine is nothing to write home about. Apropos the book, the pros far outweighs the cons. I'm not a lexicographer but amongst the many dictionaries that I've come across, this one is the most exhaustive and definitive in terms of explaining the words, and it's etymology. But I think the book would have fared better had it included examples of common usages of the word in the context of current spoken and written english. Coming back to the CD-ROM, the clincher is the inclusion of recorded pronunciation of most of the words (reportedly some 120,000 of them) which helps in setting to rest most debates on how a word is to be pronounced ! All in all, if you want just one dictionary for your library, this is the one to have.
Rating:
Summary: Great Unabridged Dictionary for the Money
Review: I have only owned this book for a couple of months but have come to love this book so much more than my simple college dictionary. It is a little large but not as bad as one might think for an UNABRIDGED dictionary. The only drawback about this dictionary is that they list the new words in the beginning of the book instead of intergrading it into the bulk of the book. This seems like an awfully cheap way to update the dictionary without having to change the entire book. It wouldn�t be so bad but half the time I forget to reference this section when looking up a term. Overall this ia a must have for every home, especially any home with college students.
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