Concise Oxford American Dictionary

Book excerpt: "The Concise Oxford American Dictionary is a brand-new concise dictionary, offering Oxford authority in a handy desktop size. In addition to thorough coverage of the core English vocabulary, including new words and senses, with definitions that are concise and easy to understand, the Concise Oxford American Dictionary also includes more than a thousand word histories that illuminate the lives of words. Features: more than 180,000 entries and definitions; hundreds of word histories about the fascinating lives of words; more than 300 carefully chosen illustrations; Ready Reference section with information about weights and measures, chemical elements, U.S. states and presidents, punctuation, frequently misspelled words, and much more."--BOOK JACKET.