Rating: 
Summary: Serves its purposew well!
Review: Being, a person, whom has a strong inclination and liking towards reference works, this title, i.e., Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. The work starts out with a well writen preface, by Danniel j. Hopkins (whom is the editor) and is followed by explanatory notes; abbreviations and symbols; map projections, map symbols; list of maps; world map; pronunciation symbols; a dictionary of place-names; glossary and geographical terms in other languages. This book is a must have for a college student studying geography and other subjects related to this field; and costing under 30 dollars; then this book should be seen as quite atainable and a bargain for all the information that it, i.e., Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary provides.
Rating: 
Summary: Good general resource, but lacking in some areas
Review: If you only need a general resource for looking up countries, cities and such, this book will do just fine. If you need specific information about a continent or region, find a more detailed book dedicated to that area. In most cases the lat/long of places was fairly accurate but many of the things I needed to refer to needed a finer coordinate. It also will go out of date fairly qucikly with the fast changing political climates of some areas. Great for stable areas, well developed countries, large to medium cities but not very effective beyond that.
Rating:
Summary: Good general resource, but lacking in some areas
Review: If you only need a general resource for looking up countries, cities and such, this book will do just fine. If you need specific information about a continent or region, find a more detailed book dedicated to that area. In most cases the lat/long of places was fairly accurate but many of the things I needed to refer to needed a finer coordinate. It also will go out of date fairly qucikly with the fast changing political climates of some areas. Great for stable areas, well developed countries, large to medium cities but not very effective beyond that.
Rating:
Summary: Superior geographical reference
Review: It is devoid of color and pretty representations of topography, but it has the best political maps I have ever seen and things like mountains, rivers, plateaus (I never knew there was something called Cockpit Country in Jamaica.), plains, bays, etc., etc., etc. indicated just with words, not artwork. To give the Jamaica example:
the map shows more than 20 cities and towns, plus South Negril Point, Portland Point, South East Point, Montego Bay (of course), Bluefield Bay, Dolphin Head (1,788 ft), Blue Mountain Peak (7,393 ft), the Blue Mts., Dry Harbour Mts, Pedro Plains, Portland Bight, three named rivers and a passel of smaller ones not named on the map, and Jamaica Channel.
There is a very good introduction on map projections, and clear symbols on the maps. 48,000 geographical entities are listed and described. Some no longer exist, but a thumbnail history is given, e.g. Nineveh, Lourenco Marques, now Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Total of 252 maps, mostly of the countries of the world (with insets to show where the country is located in the world) and the states and provinces of the U.S. and Canada. The map of Japan, where I live, has an inset showing all 47 prefectures, numbered and identified in a list.
The only drawback is that the size of the pages is B5. This makes the maps a little small, but they can always be increased in size with a magnifiying glass or a copy machine (being careful not to violate copyright laws, of course). They have such fine detail that increasing the size, say from B5 to B4, does not blur the details. And being the size of a Webster's Collegiate or maybe a little smaller, it is not exactly something you can balance on your little finger, but you could carry it in a backpack or small LL Bean canvas bag pretty comfortably.
Finally, any place mentioned in one entry also has an entry of its own. For instance, I looked up Castellorizo, which is the English name for a Greek island that is the last in the Dodecanese chain and actually would logically seem to belong to Turkey from its location. This included references to the Dodecanese and to the island of Rhodes, both of which have their own listings. In addition, there is a bit of history of Castellorizo (and it's various spellings in the appropriate languages) indicating that it had been Greek, then Turkish, then Italian (1923) then back to Greece (1947). Your average atlas won't have that.
As I said, it is not a beautiful book and it is not a textbook. But it has helped me many times to find where a place is, even places or areas easy to look up elsewhere but hard to see once you get the map because the lettering is obscured by artwork of brown mountains, green plains and blue lakes. This book assumes that you know that mountains are high, plains are flat and lakes have water in them that looks blue when the sky is clear.
Rating: 
Summary: The best consice geographical dictionary with a big mistake
Review: Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary is an excellent source of information on more or less important places. It has everything a geographical dictionary should have - very good concise descriptions (icluding all important historical data!), and useful maps (contributed by Encyclopaedia Britannica), especially those of the states of the USA (because of the borders of all counties shown on each map).It's not surprising that in such informative book there are some mistakes, but despite that it's still definitely one of the most authoritative geographical dictionaries available, and is worth every single penny or cent (just like its twin brother Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary is in its field - see my review there!). I use it pretty often and hardly wait for a new edition with new entries, updates, and, of course, some necessary corrections (some of them contributed by me). And mistakes? One of the worst is an article on the Balkans where it's written that Slovenia is part of the Balkans and that it was conquered by Ottoman Turks in the 14th and 15th century. That is simply not true! Slovenia has never been part of the Ottoman Empire. On the contrary - it was a bastion of Christian Europe in the era of Ottoman Turks' expansion. And Slovenia lies north of the line Upper Sava River - Rijeka (Croatian port), which marks the northern border of the Balkan peninsula (compare with my review of Encarta 2003). I think the editors of Merriam Webster should know that.
Rating:
Summary: far, far from complete
Review: Missing many place names (I could only find half of the ones I needed). Especially weak for small countries, ethnic parts of other countries (Brittany, Basque names, etc.) and for eastern european countries. Weak for place names that might be in more than one language (German and Polish border place names, for example). I needed only European place names; I have no idea how this book measures up for other continents, if it is so mediocre for Europe.
Rating:
Summary: Like a Leatherman tool for geography
Review: The Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary is quite good desktop reference for matters of geography, and it offers a fairly thorough resource for place names, a bit of history and background, and enough maps (more than 250) to be helpful for the everyday user. It features the customary characteristics of any dictionary such as pronunciation guides, explanatory notes, and a bevy of abbreviations and symbols. The maps are more detailed than I expected, but certainly this text will not supplant anyone's atlas. (And if your atlas is one of the larger ones, then you probably do not keep it at your writing desk.) This dictionary is especially useful for writers and editors who, perhaps on tight deadlines, need to check spellings and other general overview information or find out where a river, bay, mountain range, or other natural feature is located. Many small, obscure locations and features are not included, likely because the publisher had to decide between utility and thoroughness, and utility won. And this utility is, in fact, the strength of this publication. One should not purchase it instead of, but in addition to, an atlas. That's why I consider the functionality of this dictionary to be like a Leatherman tool: it will not do everything, but it's the best single resource of its type.
Rating:
Summary: Serves its purposew well!
Review: This book is very useful and as complete as can be expected for awork of its kind. Obviously it will be quickly outdated but will continue to serve a purpose for years to come. The level of detail is adequate given the limited scope that its size mandated. For smaller, less common places, a state place names index or local atlas, even a highway map would be a better resource. For international locations, perhaps National Geographic has a more detailed atlas. But these limitations must be expected and should not detract from the overall usefulness of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Geographical Dictionary
Review: This book is very useful and as complete as can be expected for awork of its kind. Obviously it will be quickly outdated but will continue to serve a purpose for years to come. The level of detail is adequate given the limited scope that its size mandated. For smaller, less common places, a state place names index or local atlas, even a highway map would be a better resource. For international locations, perhaps National Geographic has a more detailed atlas. But these limitations must be expected and should not detract from the overall usefulness of this book.
Rating:
Summary: For the Geographically Challenged
Review: This is an all-around good reference. It is well organized with readable sized print, and an excellent bargain. I use it for spelling purposes, clarification (where in the world is that?), population, and solving the odd crossword puzzle and acrostic. I use it far more than I thought I would, and it hasn't failed me yet. I am writing as an average consumer without specific professional needs in this reference. Judging by the easy format and the understandable structure, I would say I was the type of user the editors had in mind. I believe it would earn its keep on your reference shelf.
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