Macmillan Essential English Dictionary

Author: Zheng Yuhe
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-12-01
Features: Macmillan Publishers Limited, established in London, UK in 1834, is a large-scale comprehensive publishing house with over a century of history. For many years, Macmillan Publishers has served society with high-quality books and journals, earning the admiration of readers worldwide. Currently, its business spans across major continents, with over 40 subsidiaries and sales offices in various countries, making it one of the three major English Language Teaching (ELT) publishing institutions in the world. Macmillan Essential Dictionary for Learners of English is a dictionary specially designed for elementary and intermediate English learners, first published in 2003. The compilation of this dictionary is primarily based on the World English Corpus, which allows the compilers to select language information suitable for elementary and intermediate learners from a large amount of authentic language material. Strong software support has also made their work more efficient. In addition, understanding the specific information needs of users is also crucial. To this end, they conducted extensive and detailed surveys, ranging from experienced teachers and textbook writers to students of varying proficiency levels. The reasonable feedback was then incorporated into the dictionary compilation process, resulting in this dictionary. The main features of this dictionary are as follows:
1. Contains over 25,000 entries, the most extensive among similar dictionaries.
2. Provides over 36,000 representative daily English example sentences, not only close to life but also offering the context in which the vocabulary is used.
3. Highlights the 3,500 most commonly used words in daily life in red and categorizes them into three levels—one-star, two-star, and three-star—based on usage frequency. Three-star words are the most common, such as "also" and "close," indicating that users should master them proficiently.
4. Features over 130 usage notes, explaining collocations, differences between synonyms, and various expressions for the same meaning. For example, the word "clean" provides as many as 7 expressions like "brash" and "wash," helping users learn and apply vocabulary effectively to expand their word bank.
5. Includes 24 pages of language learning inserts in the main body of the dictionary, offering collocations, word formation, and common vocabulary for daily life. For instance, the common vocabulary for "Applying for a job" () includes words like "vacancy," "post," and "fill in," helping readers master useful vocabulary and use natural English.
6. The book is also accompanied by 16 full-color illustrations and over 700 two-color illustrations. Additionally, it includes practical information such as lists of place names and country names with pronunciation guides at the end of the main body.