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Title: The Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words by Archie Hobson ISBN: 0-19-514673-5 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 15 December, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.50

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Average Customer Rating: 2 (2 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Not for the well-read or well-educated
Comment: I couldn't agree more with the previous reviewer. This dictionary had a great premise, but fell far short in the execution.

I would expect to see some words included that are often misused, such as "affect" and "effect". But "Gentile", "civil", or "rotund"? There are a number of words that I can understand being included, if only for their similarity to other words (as above) or because the are actually foreign words (nom de guerre, for example). But most of the words included are not particularly confusing, much less difficult.

The good thing? The definitions are clearly worded.

In a nutshell, there's a reason my local library has it shelved in the juvenile section. For them, it would be a dictionary of difficult words. Advice: peruse it first. See if the majority of the words are truly difficult for the user.

Rating: 2
Summary: Definitely Not An Ineluctable Dictionary
Comment: What a brilliant idea this was: publish a relatively small dictionary that defines the difficult words, and eliminates words like "cat", "mouse" and "dog". I need never again plod over to the bookshelf and drag down one of the two hefty volumes of my Oxford Shorter Dictionary.

Well was I surprised. I decided to give it a test run using the book I was currently reading as a source for words to look up. Indeed "cat" and "mouse" are not to be found in this dictionary, but neither are "juridical", "ineluctable", "sibylline" and just about every other lesser used word that I came across in my reading. What the Oxford Dictionary of Difficult Words (ODDW) does is take a slice out of the middle, so to speak: no simple words, and yet no really difficult words. The sample words that I used above ARE to be found in my Oxford Pocket American Dictionary, a book of about the same physical size as the ODDW. Here are some so called difficult words that are found in the ODDW: "absolute", "intelligence", "privilege", and "anxious". If you find those words to be difficult then maybe this should be your choice.

This might be a good selection for a middle or high school student, but, in my opinion, is of no value to an adult who is a fairly avid reader of non-fiction. Not recommended.

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