Rating: 
Summary: The best general-purpose dictionary
Review: Although it is perennially outsold by the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - whose red cover will be familiar to Reference shelf browsers, thanks to M-W's large advertising and distribution budget - the American Heritage is far and away the superior product: (in descending order of importance) unmatched clarity of definitions, cleanliness of layout (better than even the AH Unabridged, in this respect), and currency of coverage. This dictionary will meet your lexicographical needs in fine style 99.9% of the time. For that 1-in-1000 occasion, you'll have to go the library and suffer through the Oxford English Dictionary's fusty definition style.
Rating: 
Summary: A Little More Thrilled
Review: An update for interested Mac users. There is a way to get audible pronunciations without having the CD-ROM loaded:1. Insert the AHD CD-ROM. 2. Launch the Mac OS utility Disk Copy. 3. Select Image > Create Image from Disk. 4. In the dialog box, choose the AHD CD-ROM. 5. Once created, double-click to mount it. 6. Eject the AHD CD-ROM. 7. Open the AHD disk image on the desktop. 8. Make an alias of the AHD application. 9. Double-click that alias and presto! Having discovered that trick, it's a keeper.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Thrilled
Review: As for the book, earlier reviews that warn of tight inner margins are absolutely correct -- I have to sit on the book to read the innermost words. Further, it's not called "College" for nothing -- children will be amused with entries like "son of a b----" and "motherf---er." As for the Mac software, there are two problems. 1. The old version, while limited in vocabulary, allowed all four windows to be displayed simultaneously; definitions, synonyms, anagrams and word list. With this version you have to choose one at time, via pulldown menus or hotkeys. 2. Although you can transfer the ~15mb dictionary to your hard drive and get definitions without having the CD-ROM mounted, this does not apply to pronunciations: First, the sound data is another 300+ mb. Second, after transferring all that, it still wants to use the CD-ROM, and there's no way to point it to the hard drive. I'm pondering a refund on this one...
Rating:
Summary: Best Dictionary!!!
Review: As my title states this is the best dictionary you will ever find. I used to think that Webster was all there was. Thank goodness for my 8th grade teacher telling me different. Webster comes no where to comparing with The American Heritage College Dictionary. If you want consise definitions then I definately suggest this Dictionary. Or if you just can't let go of Webster or other Dictionarys then I guess just miss out on an excelent tool for writing or just looking up words for your own knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: The American Heritage® College Dictionary, Fourth Edition
Review: Completely revised (3rd ed., 1997), the fourth edition includes 7,500 new words and thousands of new meanings. The new words derive chiefly from 21st-century vocabularies in fields like digital technologies ("metatag," "chat room," "dotcommer," "netiquette," "cyberpunk" incorrectly spelled "cyperpunk"), medicine, sports, military, social sciences. The September 11th attacks generated the "9-11 or 9/11" entry. The editors consulted with language specialists and experts and relied on a usage panel of 200 writers and scholars. Following some words are usage notes that warn about nonstandard meanings, plurals, or pronunciations ("beside," "handicapped," "hardly," "kudos," "Scottish"), while regional notes address local usage ("krewe," "milk shake," "run," "scoot"). Controversial terms for specific social groups ("Anglo," "Hispanic," "Chicano," "black," "gay," "homosexual") examine various connotations accepted among group members. Synonym notes present illustrative examples that compare senses and connotations. Some entries are enhanced by etymologic notes. Biographical sketches about prominent people from around the world and all walks of life have been updated. Data on US cities and states reflect the 2000 census. The 2,500 black-and-white photographs, drawings, diagrams, maps, and charts enhance definitions. Libraries are urged not to weed previous editions; keeping old editions of language dictionaries helps document changes in the language. Attractive page design (with 1.5-inch margins reserved for illustrations), thumb indexes, and low cost make this a dictionary that belongs on everybody's desk.
Rating: 
Summary: The American Heritage College Dictionary is difficult to use
Review: David A. Jost, The American Heritage College Dictionary's senior lexicographer & project director says the tome is "meant to be readable and companionable, so the reader will be drawn within it to linger and learn". Indeed, a worthy goal. I personally have always enjoyed reading dictionaries. Learning the rubric of a subject, the jargon and the lexicon has always proved a wonderful way into genuine understanding. All dictionaries should be easy to read. Unfortunately, The American Heritage College Dictionary is NOT! For some impossible to understand reason the editors decided to run an inch wide column along every page where they sometimes (but not always) put perfunctory illustrations and photographs. This bewildering compositional choice meant they had to force the small printed words (it's a dictionary after all!) into the inner margins where they cannot be read without bending the spine of the book! It's a useless travesty of a reference volume and a waste of editorial talent. Every time I open it I cannot help but feel ripped-off. And it's got at least one strikingly funny error on page 998 where the moronic illustration for the word "passant" has the heraldic lion looking the wrong way - by AHCD's own definition! It's as if no one really thought about what they were doing from a reader's point of view, even though that was the express intention of the project director. Had I a chance to examine this book before I bought it I wouldn't have.
Rating:
Summary: Tied for best
Review: I as an intern at a book publisher, and I also used to shelve books in the reference section of Borders, so I've had a chance to form an opinion about the best dictionaries out there. American Heritage is one of three dictionaries I think are worth owning and one of two that I think are tied for best. Describing all three in chronological order (and also in order from okay to great): Merriam-Webster is the original Webster's dictionary; their collegiate dictionary is an abridgement of their Third New International Dictionary, the biggest dictionary of American English. Therefore some people, including the publisher I worked for, consider it the most authoritative dictionary. I used to think so too, but not anymore. I think it is too conservative and slow to embrace change. My M-W Collegiate Dictionary has a copyright date of 2000, but doesn't include words like "webcam" or "webmaster," which A.H. includes. Webster's New World Dictionary has been around for about 50 years and I've heard that it's the dictionary most often used by journalists. It's as good as A.H. or any other college/desk/general-use dictionary you'll find. In a couple ways, W.N.W. is actually better: it does a really great job of cataloguing idioms, and a pretty good job with synonyms too. Definitely worth buying. American Heritage has been around for about 20-25 years, I think, and to me what makes it most unique is its progressiveness and its quickness at cataloguing language change. "Webcam" and "webmaster" are in A.H. It's got great photos, too (especially the color photos in their unabridged edition, of course, but even in their college edition the black and white photos surpass anything in M-W or W.N.W.). When I look at a definition in A.H., I feel like I am seeing something relevant and up-to-date. I originally bought the unabridged A.H. dictionary, but I exchanged it for their college dictionary because personally I need a dictionary that's light enough that I can whip it off the shelf in a flash without the risk of injury (grin). I own all three of the above dictionaries. When I worked at a bookstore, I recommended either A.H. or W.N.W. as being the best. To me it is a matter of taste which is the best. If I had to choose one, I'd be a tough choice. I guess I'd pick W.N.W. just because I think it gives you more content for your dollar, but I'm glad I own A.H. too. As you can see from my rating, it is a 5-star dictionary, and in some ways it is the best.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be suckered by the CD Rom
Review: I love American Heritage dictionaries. As a novelist, they are my reference of choice. I bought this edition because of the CD-ROM, which promised the complete text of the hardcover -- just what I needed for writing on my laptop when I wasn't within reach of the American Heritage on my office shelf. But, loading the CD-ROM was a nightmare. It tried ten times to get it loaded onto my hard drive (and I'm no computer neophyte), and it didn't load correctly once. And when I tried removing it through the setup program, it would just load it again -- and lock up my laptop every time I booted. The interface is clunky, it didn't work with Microsoft Word as promised, and the pronunciation feature must be run from the hard disk. .... . The books isn't even the new edition -- it's the third (1997) edition, and not the fourth (2002). ... I will no longer urge my writing students to purchase American Heritage products.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent dictionary--one of my favorites.
Review: Ignore the previous review. This is a gem of a dictionary. It has the most helpful usage rules of any of the dictionaries commonly sold and is a delight to use.
Rating:
Summary: Great space saver
Review: This book is exactly what A.com describes in its review. Margins are a bit of a problem, but you get an almost unabridged dictionary in one tenth the space. I am still searching for a fine print version at one half the size of this one.
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