The Newbury House Dictionary of American English, Updated Edition with CD-ROM

Rating:
Summary: Great American dictionary for beginners of English!
Review: I am a professional ESL instructor and this dictionary is the most popular one with my students.

The definitions are clear and easy to understand. The pronunciation key is given in IPA format (the one used in most countries), not the American format.

The book has lots of pictures, but I wish it had more--pictures are extremely important for people who are learning English.

One last thing--this dictionary is a little bit simplified, so you will probably need to buy another dictionary when you learn more English. For example, my students who are studying for the GRE, GMAT, or SAT need to use a bigger dictionary since this one does not have very many advanced words in it.

Rating:
Summary: Information at Your Fingertips
Review: I am an ESL Instructor and I use this dictionary with my students. What I like about it is that the defining vocabulary is limited so the definitions are easy to understand. Furthermore, there is a sample sentence with each word to help you better understand the meaning. For people who need to get acquainted with a dictionary, there are about 50 pages of dicitonary activities located in the front. AND there's a CD-ROM that comes with the dictionary which defines and pronounces each word. This is a wonderful resource.