Amazon.co.uk Review
Twelve synonyms for
obsequious, a recording of the Congolese national anthem and Al Gore's phone number are just a few of the things you'll find in this update of Microsoft's exhaustive reference. Business people, students and those in need of a comprehensive dictionary will find that Encarta delivers the goods and then some, while philologists will feel they have died and gone to Word Heaven. There are so many quotes, reference materials, pictures and sounds to devour that compulsive dictionary readers will lose track of time as they explore the program.
This CD-ROM includes an almanac, a book of quotations, a style manual and the fourth edition of the Microsoft Computer Dictionary in addition to Encarta's dictionary. Global communications, computers and the Internet are keeping lexicographers busy: Microsoft has added 10,000 new words to the 2001 edition. While there will always be those who prefer the heft and venerability of the Oxford English Dictionary, high-tech word hounds will thrill to the speed and multimedia capabilities of Encarta's dictionary. Microsoft editors say this product contains five hours-worth of audio clips and 3,000 pictures. This may be the only dictionary that can let users know what an anteater sounds like!
Utilising Encarta is elegantly simple. The cursor always seems to be exactly where it needs to be. As the word is entered, a list of possibilities shows below it; a double click produces the desired word or topic in an instant. This revised edition of Encarta may render alphabetisation obsolete. --Anne Erickson, amazon.com
Manufacturer's Description
Encarta World English Dictionary contains the first all-newly written English dictionary published in 30 years, giving you a broader command of the English language as it is written and spoken in different English-speaking countries around the world. For school or business, Internet use or international travel, this is an indispensable guide to modern English.