Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage

Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage Merriam-Webster, Inc. 2002. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster. [ISBN 0-87779-033-5. 799 pages. $10.95 USD (softcover).]

A usage dictionary can be a handy reference work to consult when you do not wish to pore over a selection of your other dictionaries, grammar textbooks, style sheets, spelling lists, and writing guides. Within the pages of a usage guide resides a huge amount of information, readily available. Afgmam-Webster's concise dictionary of English usage, with its entries arranged alphabetically and including functional cross-references, enables easy access to solutions to many common usage issues.

You would use a usage dictionary to leam which prepositions are used with insist (on or upon), whether more important is more correct than more importantly (there is some dispute, but they are essentially equally correct), and how to pronounce-and whether to use-hiccough (pronounced the same as hiccup and still correct although not as often used as the shorter word).

Depending on the issue being discussed, entries in the dictionary can be as short as a pronunciation note on the word junta or a paragraph on precede versus proceed. Other entries expound on particular items at greater length, such as the entry at lion's share, which discusses whether the term means "the larger part" or "all, or nearly all." Still longer entries might be considered full articles, covering a topic in more depth and over several pages, such as the entries concerning the use of the possessive with gerunds, the advisability of using woman instead of lady, the difference between enormity and enormousness, and the placement of only in sentences. Several topics approach essay length, as in the subdivided and cross-referenced treatment of agreement-notional and formal agreement, noun-pronoun...