In the United States, 20 percent of the adult population is marginally literate. Of these roughly 30 million people, approximately 1.8 million are enrolled in basic skills literacy programs. Webster's New World has created a dictionary that is uniquely designed to help these beginning readers. Webster's New World Basic Dictionary of American English defines 49,000 of the most commonly used words in the American English lexicon. These are the words adult readers are most likely to encounter in newspapers and magazines, on job applications and product instructions, on advertising billboards and their children's school progress reports. The dictionary defines these words in clear, easy-to-understand language, using only words that are themselves defined in the dictionary, but never condescending to the adult reader. Definitions are liberally supplemented with example phrases and sentences that put words in context and help new readers understand meaning and usage. Special notes on synonyms help new readers differentiate between words with similar meanings. And selected illustrations help readers identify and remember words. This quality paperback book is designed for ease of reading and use, as well as for durability. Primarily created for native English speakers, it is also a valuable reference for more advanced readers of English as a second language. From the editors of the prestigious Webster's New World College Dictionary, the Basic Dictionary of American English brings the full scholarship behind that work to this important new offering in the field of literacy.

The phenomenally popular compact dictionary has been newly revised and updated—the perfect reference for school, office, and home. Webster’s New World dictionaries have been defining American English for more than fifty years. This perennial bestseller is sure to draw in even more readers with its updated materials—including new biographical, geographical, scientific, and vocabulary entries reflecting our rapidly evolving language. The Webster’s New World Dictionary is ideal for students and adults of all ages.

Portable, Affordable and Up-to-Date Completely revised and updated for 2006, this compact volume provides clearly written definitions for the most commonly used words in the language today. Affordably priced, this is the ideal dictionary for home, school or office. Features of this Book Over 40,000 clear, concise definitions in this 2006 edition Pronunciations and variant spellings More than 1,500,000 sold!

Webster's New World College Dictionary is a favorite of newsrooms and copyeditors nationwide, and it is the official dictionary of The Associated Press Stylebook.This dictionary features a clear and accessible defining style, abundant synonym notes, full-page tables and charts, hundreds of drawings that complement the definitions, and authoritative guidance on usage and style points. It also includes extensive coverage of Americanisms (words, phrases, and senses coined by an American or first used in the United States). It has added nearly 5,000 new entries, including terms from the areas of arts and sports, science and medicine, computers and the Internet, food, business, politics, and law. Tens of thousands of revisions have been made to existing senses, to bring them up-to-date and to reflect current usage. A reference supplement includes: Rules of punctuation, Roman numerals, Calendars, Monetary units, Currency symbols, Names for large number, Books of the Bible, Meteorological data, Commonly used weights and measures, Planets of the solar system, Geologic time scale, and Periodic table of the elements.