Webster's New Explorer Medical Dictionary includes the latest terminology in a rapidly changing field. Medical professionals and laypeople alike can use this book to find complete and accurate definitions of medical terms in current use. More than 35,000 entries include definitions and pronunciations for terms used in all aspects of human and veterinary medicine. There are Latin and common names for conditions, organs and medicines, and definitions of common prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms that create medical vocabulary. Additionally, trademarked names of medicines and their generic equivalents are listed.

Who could complain about this dictionary when it costs less than ten dollars? Running to 35,000 words, and two-and-a-half inches in width, this is similar but not identical to the Merriam Webster's Medical Dictionary available free on the web from Johns Hopkins Health Information (http://www.intelihealth.com). Definitions are brief; the longest, at about 70 words, are for such words as dura mata, radiation, and depression. Procedures like hysterosalpingography are defined, but proton beam therapy is not. Mitochondrion is defined, but apoptosis (programmed cell death) is not. Virtually all entries include a pronunciation guide, ranging from eponymous diseases, such as Saint Anthony's fire, to commonly found words, such as lung, and acronyms like CABG. The text also defines many veterinary terms, such as scrapie (but not bovine spongiform encephalitis, commonly called BSE or mad cow disease) as well as the most prescribed generic and brand names of drugs; for example, diazepam has a cross reference to Valium. There are no illustrations, and though the book is nicely bound, the quality of the paper is low. Clearly not meant to take the place of such standard works as Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary (Saunders, 1994) or Stedman's Medical Dictionary (Williams & Wilkins, 1995), this dictionary is recommended as a quick reference for school libraries, for public libraries where dictionaries are in constant demand, and wherever web access is problematic.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　AMartha Stone, Massachusetts General Hosp. Lib., Boston

Merriam-Webster has been creating America's best-known dictionaries to the highest standards of quality and reliability for over 150 years. The distinguished editorial staff is committed to innovation and scholarship in an ever-growing list of dictionaries and other language reference books and electronic media.

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