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Title: Readers Digest Illustrated Reverse Dictionary by Reader's Digest ISBN: 0-89577-951-X Publisher: Readers Digest Pub. Date: June, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Enamored with Words?
Comment: This is a muser's dictionary. You know, the kind of guy or gal who has no intention of finding anything specfically, but will hunker down and read what others consider reference.

Reference, schmeference! Dictionaries are not mean for bookshleves, but to be devoured and enjoyed! And with the "Readers Digest Illustrated Reverse Dictionary" you get a great book to do that with.

On one hand, it acts like the standard dictionaries. Look up a word, get a definition. It goes beyond this, though. Rather than getting bogged down by linguistics and pronuciation indexes, you'll be greeted by a bevy of charts and lists organizing words. It isn't quite a thesaurus, but it isn't a dictionary either. It is somewhere in-between, and something new in the midst of it all.

For those among us smitten by words and all the curiosity that goes with them, this is a book to feast on.

Be assured that the "Illustrated Reverse Dictionary" won't be the only dictionary you'll need. Far from it, but it is a lot of fun.

There are other great dictionaries to be reckoned with, from "The New Oxford American Dictionary," which defines words with clarity, to the big kahuna of them all, to the highly unusual "The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate."

Then there is the collection of esoteric but high-scoring words, the "Scrabble Dictionary," to the mighty "Oxford English Dictionary" (see my reviews on these elsewhere on Amazon). There is a wily world of wondrous words wisping whist you read... go get them!

I fully recommend "Readers Digest Illustrated Reverse Dictionary."

Anthony Trendl

Rating: 3
Summary: A Wonderful Book to Own...but, by fermed
Comment: I love to pick up this "reverse dictionary" and just browse it, something that I do frequently since it sits within reach, at my desk. It is without any doubt a rich and fabulous source of general knowledge, of trivia and of words. If you are at a temporaty loss about whether it is the "stamen" or the "stigma" of a flower, you might resolve your confusion with this book. I say you "might" advisedly, because the book is infuriating in its lack of correspondence between its list of words and those found in many of the lush and wonderful illustrations it contains. If you look up stigma, you will find no entry by that name; if you try "stamen" you will find only "stamens" with a cryptic "of a flower ANDROECIUM." Of course, there is no entry for "androecium." But if you persist and have the instinct of a dowser you will, sooner or later, come across a picture of a flower, in full color, with all of its parts neatly labeled, including the stamen and the stigma.

This is a tricky book, capable of giving you fits. It rates only three stars because its riches are very difficult to get to, so that it is an impractical book from which to extract specific information when you need it. I recently tried to remember "alb," and I approached it by looking at vestment, priest, miter, even Pope, but I could find nothing until (by chance) I found a picture of "Papal Vestments." In these days of computer ease there is no reason why the book should not contain a list including every single word that appears in the book and the page on which it is found. It is disgraceful that this one does not. But...did I tell you that I love this book?

Rating: 5
Summary: Find the word on the tip of your tongue.
Comment: Like a box full of chocolates with a surprise in every wrapper, this book is filled with delights.

The Reverse Dictionary is one of my favorite books, the place where I can always find the right word. Not only are words defined as they are in a standard dictionary, but this dictionary provides alternatives with their meanings as it relates to the selected word:

This is an example from the book:

deceive -- See also cheat

- deceive, pretending to be something or someone that is not -- masquerade, dissemble

- deceive or flatter with smooth charming talk-- blarney

- easily deceived, fooled, or duped -- credulous, gullible

The next entries in the Reverse Dictionary are for deception, then deceptive which give you additional routs to finding perfection.

In addition to the thesaurus quality of the book, there are charts, maps, and pictures. By using the quick table for German terms I discover that the meaning of Junker is "a former Prussian aristocrat." Also if you have wondered what the mathematical symbols or therapy (rolfing) terms mean the answer is in this book. One of the most interesting charts is a tree diagram of the Indo-European Languages.

Providing multiple variations of the same word and additional thesaurus options makes this book an excellent choice. When coupled with the many graphics and tables it is easy to see that this tool is for students, writers, teachers, lecturers, and everyone else.

This is such an interesting book that it is difficult to classify it as a reference tool.. It is, without doubt, worth five stars.

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