There is an issue with the dictionary. The dictionary does not have enough words for my daily use. Sometime even my third-grader cannot find the words she looked for from her text book. This caused major inconvenience and I'm switching to Oxford.
easy to understand to ESL people.......2007-03-08
I recommend this dictionary to new immigrants in their ESL study. Their definition to words are clear and easy to catch. Besides that,workbook and pictures are much help.
However, attached CD support by Apple itune software,it does not work alone unless you pay extra money.
This is not a DICTIONARY.......2006-06-01
This whatever it is was compiled by a LINGUISTICS professor by having his students wear tape recorders to record conversations for two weeks feed them into a computer and pop out a mess of words. This could have been accomplished by watching MTV for two weeks.
It lists ESPN as a NOUN!!! It's an ACRONYM. PBS is also a NOUN in this dictionary (?) which again is an acronym but even worse the definition is: "PUBLIC BROADCASTING SYSTEM; A COMPANY IN THE U.S. THAT BROADCASTS TELEVISION PROGRAMS WITHOUT ADVERTISEMENTS." Huh!!!? PBS is a non profit broadcasting company that broadcasts cultural and educational programs. It is not about whether it has advertisements or not!!!
Unless you teach a class that would require an example of bad reference material I would reccomend not wasting your money on this.
Great CD for ESL; needs math + science vocab........2005-11-17
If you want a dictionary to help ESL or LEP students, choose this! It's clear and practical and the CD has a zillion exercises to help practice English and pronounces every word. The only drawback: the dictionary contains too few technical math and science words; many people struggle to comprehend this type of vocabulary.
Student Friendly.......2005-09-19
The outside cover is inviting. The entry word is bold and easy to read. The language used in the definitions is easily understood by middle school students. The sample sentences adds to their understanding of word meaning. The addition of the section, "Study Notes" makes Longman more than 'just a dictionary'.
Customer Reviews:
A solid and practical dictionary of American English.......2007-07-17
The more I use Longman Advanced American Dictionary (LAAD), the more I find myself liking it. It is a highly practical reference tool on how to say things correctly or write something properly. Not as detailed as Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD), but less crowded and easier to use. In fact, for the type of audience it targets, LAAD is the closest competition to OALD solely dedicated to the American, rather than British, English. (Be it mentioned, however, that Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary overall will blow any competition out of the water).
The Strengths of Longman Advanced American Dictionary:
1. Generous and fairly comprehensive corpus of words and phrases with numerous clear examples of their usage and guidelines regarding the context in which such words/phrases are used in the American English.
2. A nice colored section on American trivia
3. A short but useful pictorial dictionary section
4. Short blurbs on famous people (artists, scientists, sports stars, actors, political figures) that shaped American history and culture, often with photos of these people; descriptions of important US places (cities, geographical areas and landmarks) are also included.
5. Two separate sections on TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) and TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) preparation. Even though they are of no practical use to me, it was still interesting to browse through these sections, and I can see how they might be helpful to someone who is planning to take these tests.
6. A descriptive pronunciation section that addresses subtle nuances of the American English (e.g. that in American speech, "dog" rhymes with "frog", but not with "cog").
The Drawbacks of Longman Advanced American Dictionary:
1. This dictionary is not for people who primarily need a dictionary for... well, word definition. Definitions are given in a very simplistic manner. It is surprising to me that a publication bearing the title "advanced" defines words on a grade-school level (e.g. in the entry for the word "peyote" one will find the following:
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Now compare this to the definition from Webster's New World Collegiate Dictionary:
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I realize that Longman Publishing House prides itself on defining all dictionary entries using only a basic set of 2,000 words, but I still strongly believe that such approach impoverishes the book as a whole. An advanced user should know full well what "hallucinogenic" means, and should be given definitions accordingly, on an advanced level.
2. The phonetic transcription is an awkward modification of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Longman either should have stuck with the IPA (the way OALD does), or utilized the phonetic transcription utilized in America by Webster's and American Heritage dictionaries.
3. It helps somewhat to know that A.A. Milne is a famous British writer of children's books, but it would have been quite a bit more useful to mention that he was the author of Winnie the Pooh stories.
4. No origin of the words (etymology) is included. Once again, a shortcoming for the advanced level.
5. The pronunciation of the verb to slough is listed as rhyming with "cow", instead of "puff". A somewhat surprising oversight on the part of Longman. The noun slough is transcribed correctly, however. I wonder how many more mistakes like these one may be able to find upon a more detailed perusal of the word entries.
Note: this article reviews Longman Advanced American Dictionary, 2005 Hardback edition without CD-ROM.
Best Dictionary on the Planet!.......2007-01-08
In my opinion this is the best dictionary on the planet.. bar none, not just for foreign language students but for everyone! It defines words very completely ,and without just using synonyms like most dictionaries, so that you have a very clear, conceptual understanding of the word. Surprisingly, practically every word I need to look up is in there and in a lot of cases it's the only dictionary that has the precise definition I need that I can't find in any of the college dictionaries!! The words it defines goes up to a college level but defined at a grade school level so no need to look up words in the definitions. Highly recommend this dictionary!!!
Longman Advanced American Dictionary with CD-ROM.......2007-01-05
Pretty good, it is easy to understand the meaning for non-English speakers.
Customer Reviews:
The Best Dictionary Because It's Practical.......2006-07-05
I think this dictionary is superb because generally there are no derivatives in the definitions of the words looked up. Most dictionaries are like this: FOXY -- someone or something that has the characteristics of a FOX. If someone is trying to discover the definition of the word "foxy," then most likely the person is not going to understand the word "fox," so what good is the dictionary's definition to that person? Longman's Dictionary might have something like this: FOX -- someone or something who or that is SLY. I have tutored/taught English at a college for nearly thirty years, and although we recommend Longman's Dictionary mostly for ESL students, I also recommend it for native speakers of the English language for the reason stated above.
Excellent Resource.......2005-06-01
This is a great English-English dictionary for intermediate to advanced students. The definitions are clear and easy to understand and are often offered by way of example--e.g., bereaved--if someone is bereaved, someone he or she loves has died. The illustrations are really nice, the layout clear. I strongly advise my students to use this as soon they can handle it--at higher levels I tell them they must break themselves of the habit of translating. I'm also a big fan of the Collins Co-build, which is more complete, but it's hard to get in the U.S., and the alternate British/American definitions could be confusing to all but the most advanced students. This is a winner. Given the bad reviews of the CD I haven't tried it yet, but this book stands on its own just fine.
5 stars for this book! Period........2003-04-10
This dictionary is better than any other American dictionary, CD does have problems but it'd be unfair not to reward it 5 stars for the content of the book. The only difference between this one and first edition is that this one comes with a CD - a bonus to me. (The picture of its first edition on Amazon.com shows the book with a CD, that picture i think belongs to this one as the title suggest). Book uses 2000 most common words of english to define meanings. The book is 5 star for sure, but the CD is irritating. The CD has to be in the drive all the times in order to run the rather cheaply programmed software. It takes ages to load to look up a single word no matter what super computer you've got while the noise from your computer will make you want to fasten your seat belt.
So the bottom line is..Buy the book. If you get the first edition for real lesser price then you should prefer the first one, otherwise go for this one.
CD Required all the time and slow to start........2003-01-31
CD required in the drive all the time and slow to start.
It is my first English-English dictionary..........2001-02-04
I'm Korean and here is Korea. I bought this dictionary last year. Thesedays I'm learning English myself very hard!
The good things of this dictionary are very simple, kind and clear.(not too many grammer codes and labels, definitions easy to understand and easy to see editing--> I feel so fresh this editing, my eyes are not tired..!)
Especially the best thing that I think is the USAGE NOTE! For example , "USAGE NOTE- desire, want, and wish- Use WANT to talk about things you would like to do or have....-Use DESIRE and WISH only in very formal writing or in literature:......(X) DON'T SAY-desire to do someting(X)"
Nobody who was my English teachers told me that things.. (of course I respect my English teachers...:) I think this dictionary is best one for foreigner who learns English as a second language like me. If you buy this one, you will NOT regret your choice... Good luck to your English learning.. from KOREA
Customer Reviews:
Missing piece.......2004-02-16
Do you have a good dictionary, a good thesaurus, a good idiom book, and a comprehensive grammarbook, and are you still fighting with the usage of words and phrases? Then is is probably the missing piece on your bookshelf, but make sure it doesn't stay there because this book is an indispensable tool for writing and even speaking. I am an ESL student and I bought this book two weeks ago. It's a great help and I use it often. It helps me to write what I think in concise English. This book goes beyond everything you can find in this category. Check it out, it's fantastic!
Essential when you want to write.......2002-10-16
Longman Language Activator is fantastic. Other dictionaries are useful when you're reading a book and don't know the meaning of a word. But when you want to write, they're useless.
With Language Activator you can find the right word for what you want to say. For instance, you want to say "X is guilty" but you're looking for a better way to put it into words. So you open your dictionary and find an entry for "guilty". You are presented with a lot of words and expressions to choose from. Guilty, responsible, culpable, the culprit, incriminate and so on. There's an explanation to help you choose the best word to express your ideas. Now you can confidently write "X is the culprit" or "X is responsible for...", whatever suits your ideas well. I use it all the time. My book is falling to pieces.
Buy Longman Essential Activator if you're intermediate users.......2002-06-09
For centuries, ESL learners have been familiar to use the traditional or "passive" dictionary but things have changed and things will be changed with the publication of this innovative or "active" dictionary. It gives the leaner the helpful tool to SPEAK and to WRITE actively.
I totally agree with a reviewer's statement that, we, as intermediate and advanced ESL Learners, always have the feeling that there must be at least a better/more suitable word to express exactly what do we really mean in a given situation, in writing or in speaking. We all have wondered where to find that word and more importantly, why to choose that word. This dictionary helps me get rid of that feeling by giving me the exact words I want to convey in every particular situation.
I strongly recommend its "lower-level" dictionary - Longman Essential Activator to intermediate or upper intermediate students. In building our strong vocabulary we all know that, for some words we only need to know its meaning but for some essential words, we must use actively and more importantly, make them our OWN words. All the words in the Longman Essential Activator are the crucial bricks which helps us build our strong wall of English vocabulary. In addition, this dictionary also has many word banks i.e. bank of basic words for popular topics. If you are an intermediate learner, buy this one, and believe me, you won't regret!
I believe this kind of dictionary has a bright future and it paves the way for other dictionaries of the same type in the future.
a must have for the advanced learner.......2001-08-02
The Longman Language Activator is a new kind of dictionary - it is a dictionary that enables language students to selectively encode what they want to state in English to a degree of linguistic accuracy that had hitherto been impossible using conventional dictionaries. Basically speaking, the Longman Language Activator is a dictionary of ideas. These ideas are the1052 key words that have been distilled from a spoken corpus of 10 million words and a written corpus of 30 million words. From these key words, the student is presented with options to help guide her in homing in on the most semantically relevant word for a particular context or situation. All the options are common, and are shown in order of frequency. The great strength of this dictionary is that it gives clear guidance on how words are normally used, and in which context they are appropriate, whether it be spoken or written, formal or informal, child or adult, or American or British. I particularly liked the dozen or so illustrations that demonstrate how proper use of the dictionary can train the learner to select words and phrases that a native-speaker would use, and perhaps I would have liked to see more of them. The Longman Language Activator is an excellent reference guide for teachers, and simply a must have for any advanced learner hoping to turn passive knowledge into active use.
An essential for ESL/English language students.......2000-09-15
As an instructor of English as a Second Language, I can highly recommend the Longman Language Activator (and its lower-level relative, the Longman Essential Activator). This book is designed for non-native language learners and is ideal for building vocabulary and idiomatic use of language. Students absolutely LOVE a book that finally explains the many different words -- this is a place where thesauruses really fail the ESL learner. I can see why other reviewers fail to find what they need, because this book isn't designed for them, but for anyone trying to make sense of English expressions and build a strong vocabulary, this book will be the ideal support to classroom work. The best parts of this book are the examples, which are drawn from real-world texts, and the comparisons between words, their connotations, and the grammar that goes with each of them. A superb teacher resource for explaining complex words in simple language. Six stars if I could give them!
Customer Reviews:
Best dictionary for those who aren't great at English.......2006-07-23
I teach English at a large Los Angeles-area high school. Most of the students entering my class are reading below grade level. I've bought several of these dictionaries over the past couple of years for students to use for vocabulary assignments and/or general reference. They have been, far and away, the most popular (and therefore, most used) of the dictionaries in the classroom. Students love the convenient size and easily understood definitions. Longman does an excellent job of making entries make sense. For instance, there are no lame defintions such as: "mysterious" means "full of mystery". Definitions can be a bit wordy, but they are written in basic English and students tend to understand them more readily than with other dictionaries. For comparison, the first entry for "mysterious" reads "mysterious events, behavior, or situations are difficult to explain or understand". Another feature which I like and no one has mentioned is the vinyl cover: durable, longer lasting than paperback covers of most inexpensive student dictionaries.
Keep in mind, however, if you want a dictionary that contains every single word you might come across in your reading, the Handy Learner's word count is good, but limited. You might purchase a good collegiate dictionary (New World, New Oxford American, Longman's Advanced are all excellent choices) to supplement the shortcomings of the Handy Learner's. I have several in my classroom, but students tend to shy away from anything heavy and hardbound. I've had a great experience with the Handy Learner's and will continue to buy them for student use, as they are frequently "borrowed" (which, I guess, is a good thing as it means that kids actually want to keep them to use for themselves).
The best handy or small size dictionary for Learners.......1999-05-24
I have three different pocket-size dictionaries written for Learner's of English as a second language. Oxford, Webster and Longman. This one has the easiest to understand explanation of the words in comparison with other ones. I have two of this edition. I keep one in my office and one at home.
Customer Reviews:
Just what I expected........2007-05-14
I bought it for my nephew who is studying English as a foreign language. Words come along with pictures. CDs include audio mp3 reading words.
Great for intro to English.......2007-01-17
The picture book and CD are great, it teach everyday thing to people who wants to learn english. The only thing is that you have to use the CD on Computer to slow the or repeat the speaker,
Customer Reviews:
Be careful when buying this product!.......2007-09-26
This stand-alone CDROM does not work with Vista!!! I lost money because I can not use with my new laptop and I can not return it!
Customer Reviews:
Best ESL dictionary.......2002-01-29
This is my first English-English dictionary and It is a lot better than my bilingual one. Very clear, simple and easy to understand. If your native language isn't English, you will need this dictionary .
An exellent English guide for English learners!.......2000-05-27
The best point of this dictionary is easy definitions for a word. As written on the cover page of the dictionary,word definitions are limited to the 2000 most common English words,so it is really easy to understand the word exactly.
Example sentences are great for further usage after finding the word. It was quite a pleasure to find those example sentences in a newspaper, on TV, or in a fiction. I haven't seen such an appropriate example sentences for the word, which are the real ones from written texts, and real conversations.
I got a lot help in USAGE NOTE part in the dictionary. It is a part explaning differences between confusing words like 'every one' and 'everyone', 'dress'/'put on'/'wear', 'ability'/'skill'/'talent'/'knack',etc. It explains the usage of each word in particulal situation, and how to use it correctly. For example, it explains why you shoulden't say like "We have luck" in the use of the word "luck". 'luck' and 'lucky' is compared on that page, so we can learn the exact and real usage of it's meaning. Whenever I look up the dictionary, I read USAGE NOTE part related to the word and get real help. This part will be the best help to those who learn English.
I use this dictionary for every English study. It makes the reader happy ,for it makes the reader enjoy English studying. When I write an essay, labels like "formal" or "informal","approving" and "disapproving", "offensive" ,etc in front of a word helps me find the most effective word for my sentence making. There is also a special part for SPOKEN PHRASES - illustrating words or sentences commonly used in English conversations. This part is useful for understanding conversations on dramas, TV shows, or fictions.
With all these explanations, the book is not heavy but easy to care. Also it is really easy to find up the word because the design of the pages are simple and clear. Compared to other dictionary's tiny word size, it doesn't make the reader get tired from studying.
I strongly recommend this "Longman Dictionary of American English " to all the English learners and to the Enlish teachers for foreign students.
It might not be a perfect dictionary for advanced learners or for the ones who want to get to the heart of the English (for some hard words are missing), but for students who first begin to use English illustrated dictionary, I bet this can be a great help.
Tonight as I usually do, I'll read several pages of the dictionary and memorize some words before I go to bed. I thank to Longman for all the help I get from this reference.
Customer Reviews:
Longman Basic Dictionary of American English.......2006-03-15
It's a great tool for who are learning american english
Customer Reviews:
Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English.......2007-09-27
Most of them explain clearly, but some parts are more complex to understand. There are many examples in the book, sometimes I confus a lot because looks similar. Overall, the book is good to read because you can get more knowledge that you do not know it before.
Good but.......2003-07-28
It is written by the very famous British English experts. It's excellent. I wish there would be an American English Grammar book like this.
Longman Student Grammar of spoken and written English.......2002-11-14
Accessible and easy to use, this corpus-based grammar is full of fresh insights about the behavior of the English, rigester differences and variation across speech and writing.It will prove equally beneficial for those who already love grammar and want to know more about it as well as those who are aware of the importance of grammar but are still afraid of approaching it.
I highly recommmend it.
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English (All)
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
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Longman Basic Dictionary of American English (Dictionary)
Understanding and Using English Grammar, Third Edition (Full Student Book with Answer Key)
Basic Grammar in Use With answers, with Audio CD: Self-study Reference and Practice for Students of English (Grammar in Use)
Understanding and Using English Grammar: Workbook
Longman American Idioms Dictionary
