Collins English Dictionary - Essential Paperback Edition (9th edition)

Most all the words I've wanted to look up were in my new Collins English dictionary, I'm really liking using it.

An easy to use dictionary, unhampered by a complex user's manual found in other dictionaries. It's straight to the point and has one of the clearest manner of defining words. The paper is opaque and has good thickness. It tends toward British English but Americanisms, including regional terms and slang are plentiful.However, it does not have pronunciations except for confusing words. It lacks those little helpful supplements (chemical elements, weights and measures, etc) and drawings included in other handy dictionaries like Meriam-Webster. English learners might find this lacking and the text size is rather tiny, which may require reading glasses for some.For its price it's a decent dictionary made in the UK in 2019. Not the most recent but it does maximize space for as many entries as possible. It's said to feature real world examples of usage from the massive Collins Corpus. I have the 14th Edition Collins Unabridged English Dictionary (2023) in case I needed a deep dive. For quick access, this smaller volume does the job and is fun to use. Highly recommended for those who enjoys leafing through paper and ink instead of almost endless scrolling on a phone screen.

In these days of near-universal access to the internet and its numerous free resources, one has to look for something to merit a paperback dictionary aside from the 'what if there is a power-cut and I'm stuck on a crossword?' situation. I think this volume achieves that quite well and justifies its existence with offering and easy access layout, an introduction for those who are confronted with a paper dictionary for the first time on how to use it and a useful section at the end on common mistakes and current controversial English usages.A random glimpse inside tells me that 'inkling' comes from the Middle English 'inclen' meaning to hint at and that there are no fewer than eighteen different ways to use 'play' as a verb ( and a further eight ways to use it as a noun). It will tell you what an MP3 is - though not an MP4, but no tree-book dictionary can be completely up to date.If you want an easy to use and decently comprehensive dictionary of UK English (as opposed to US English or any other version) as it is today, this is a good choice.