Cambridge International Dictionary of English

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional clear pronunciation & Huge examples
Review: I have purchased several similar products on CD-ROM format. And none of them can be compared with the uniqueness of this dictionary.

The main selling points:
Pronunciations of headwords are really exceptional clear (British and American). Many of them are provided with ample examples to the point that second language learners know how & when to use new words from its contexts. With over 50,000 definitions and over 100,000 examples sentences, it should be adequate for day-to-day reading task. You may use different searching criteria to find specific word. But the search engine is intelligent enough to give you ample related words on its default setting. For example, when you input the word 'dictionary' you got 52 of related words from its outcome instantly. This is a revolution in lexicography over traditional method.

This is not a perfect dictionary and none in our world. I hope in the future edition, there will be much larger headword entry, more learner-oriented features and more pictures and illustrations in fancy cartoonish format.

Rating:
Summary: A word for thoughts
Review: I haven't find any better dictionary than this, and I have bunch of them at home to proof it. I rather search through this one then the rest of my dictionary collection if I need a definition offline. This will never die out in my list. I even have been using it since highschool, when my english teacher recommended it for us, of course then we have to use it for the rest of our high school years, and surprisingly, for the rets of our life, as it may seems.

Thank Teacher for recommending this one for us.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent dictionary, nice CD but...
Review: The dictionary is perfect! It has pronunciation for British, American and Australian English. It has an extensive list of usage examples for each entry. It also has some sections with subject-correlated words; for example, shows all different cars and describe their names, shows the car parts and some expressions related to the issue.
It comes with a CD that was intended to be interesting, since it has a voice engine that pronounces the words for you. BUT the application takes power from the computer, takes forever to startup and is excessively slow.
In a brief, only the dictionary is worth it.

Rating:
Summary: So what ?
Review: This dictionary is more or less good, but I expected more when I bought it. Yes, it has many words, some useful illustrations and a good pronunciation guide. It also shows the reader the difference between American English and British English, and has some sections with subject-related words.

But... so what?. I think you can do much better. To start with, the "Cambridge International Dictionary of English" doesn't include a thematic wordfinder. It also lacks examples of the different kinds of letters you might need to write, making that task more difficult. As if that were not enough, the accompanying cd is too slow to load, and doesn't always work well enough.

On the whole, I don't recommend this dictionary. It isn't bad, just not good enough. Keep looking and I am sure you will find something better...

Belen Alcat