Electronic Dictionaries

Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1993 23:09:44 PDT From: Kee Nethery <kee@aol.com> Subject: CD ROM Dictionary (S) Survey Says: No one had tried the OED and several commented that it was way too expensive. The American Heritage Dictionary Professional version seems to be the current choice (and it's not a CD ROM). Random House might put out a CD ROM with their dictionary but not yet available. Thanks to all that replied. Highlights follow from some of the replies. Kee Nethery -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ABRODY@vax.clarku.edu -- -- -- -- -- -- -- I just found a telnet site that has the Webster dictionary without to much hassle: >Telnet chem.ucsd.edu >login: webster (all small type). This is a UNIX telnet site, so unforetunately it is case specific. When it asks for a word, hit question mark to get all the details about this dictionary. Biographic entries are sometimes out of date, as the dictionary still thinks Vladimir Horowitz is alive. Happy word hunting. BTW the AHED (American Heritage Electronic Dictionary) does still have something these Webster dictionaries don't: WordHunter which allows you to do a context search of a word: type lion AND eagle you get griffin as output. Essentially, any word that contains key words in your WordHunt in the definition/etymology can be searched. You could for instance get a list of every breed of dog by typing dog in WordHunter. For $50 it definitely is worth that special tool. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- rmoran@wiley.csusb.edu -- -- -- -- -- -- -- I've been extremely impressed with the American Heritage Dictionary III. There is a promotion being run currently where for $29.95 + $5.50 S&H you can buy that dictionary plus get a "free" copy of "Correct Quotes." If you've not received a mailer (or the MacZone catalog) you can place an order by calling 1-800-843-2204 "and ask for Operator 17." This is for the "Standard" edition which will take about 5 megs of drive space. It has that double-click on a word in a definition and it'll give the definition of the new word. It also integrates a thesaurus. It also does boolean searches of definitions so you can enter, for example "hat and bishop" and get "miter." If you have the disk space, I'd go for the 15 meg "Professional" edition which contains all of the text in the printed version including word roots, geographical dictionary, list of Colleges and Universities, etc. I received a promotion from WordStar for this version at $59 I think. Alas, this was after I'd already paid $49 for the upgrade from the standard edition. Unfortunately I've not yet seen the Professional edition advertized in any of the magazine/catalog mail order sources. Note that it is not a spelling checker per-se (though it does an excellent job in coming up with a list of possibilities if you misspell a word). You can install in FKEY which will open the dictionary and find a highlighted word from your current application. Oh, it is an application and not a DA. Finall…