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RR 2006/424 Longman Exams Dictionary Pearson Education Harlow 2006 xiv + 1831 + 88 pp. ISBN 1 405 81860 3 (pbck) £20.95 Also available as hardback with CD-ROM (ISBN 1 405 829508) and paperback with CD-ROM (ISBN 1 405 829516)
Keywords Dictionaries, English language
Review DOI 10.1108/09504120610709592
I am impressed by the modern youthful vocabulary in this book. An enjoyable browse through the Ys came up with yuppify, Y-fronts, y'all, yucky, Yo-Yo, yummy, yob, yonks, yoof, and yeah. Plenty here for my spell-check to choke on, but all are words in regular use by the dictionary's target audience of students. Not that words for the older generation are entirely omitted, witness: yammer, yard-stick, yarn, yaw, ye, yea, yearn, yen, yeoman, yield and yore. More regular words such as yard, year, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet and yoghurt also feature of course, but here I must sound words of caution and concern. The last seven words are highlighted, which indicates that they are seven of the most common words in spoken and written English. Yellow is followed by the cryptic "S2" and "W3" which, decoded, tell us that it is one of the 2,000 most common words in spoken English, and one of the 3,000 most common words in written English. In contrast, other highlighted words are followed...