The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is a treasure of words and information, the one dictionary "no writer, and no serious reader, can afford to live without," according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard. "The publication of the New Shorter OED is among the major events of the last half-century," enthused the Chicago Tribune. And noted scholar Harold Bloom wrote that the Shorter, "in its immense reach and profound wealth, has no rival for utility and potential enlightenment." With half a million definitions, and over 7.5 million words, the Shorter is surpassed only by the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary for the depth and breadth of its scholarship.

Now the vast resources of this acclaimed reference are available at the touch of a fingertip, with The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on CD ROM. From literary English to street slang, historical to contemporary vocabulary, scientific to legal terms, the Shorter covers the entire English language in all its complex diversity as it is written and spoken around the world. This superb electronic edition allows users to explore the Shorter and the vast amounts of information it contains in ways that were previously unimaginable.

Indeed, its powerful search and retrieval machines will let you explore the dictionary in a staggering number of ways, and it locates the information you seek within seconds. Questions which would have taken ages to answer using the printed edition can now be answered almost instantaneously, from simple single word definitions to complex searches. For example, you can find all North American nouns first used in the 18th century (including cuspidor and chowder). You can pick out quotations by Anthony Burgess which contain the word love (there are three). You can locate every headword which became obsolete in the mid-sixteenth century (a list which includes ey, ofhungered, and terve). Or you can search the text of the definitions, enabling you to find the word which means "rain on a cloudless day," or the name of the tree under which Buddha received enlightenment (the bo tree). Or, with a click of the mouse, a reader can look up a quick definition using an easy keyword search, and then cross-reference to related words or look up any word within the text of a definition. Finally, a special rhyming index and an anagram solver make this the ultimate reference for crossword enthusiasts, Scrabble players, limerick writers, and word buffs of all kinds.

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is the world's best unabridged dictionary of English. Whether you use it for scholarly research, as a detailed reference work, or purely for enjoyment, this new CD ROM edition allows you to explore this wealth of information in ways you never imagined possible, and at a convenient and affordable price.