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The Wordsworth Advanced Learner's Dictionary is unique in that it combines the elements of thesaurus, usage guide, lexicon and historical survey in one volume. As well as the usual features of a dictionary, this book includes expository panels which present a point of usage, the history of the word, the area of vocabulary or the nuances of a definition. As David Crystal says of the book in his Introduction, 'The test, quite simply, is to open it, at any page, and see if you can stop yourself browsing. I couldn't.'

The surprising origins of words and phrases such as 'Beefeaters' 'between the devil and the deep blue sea' and the disease named after a shepherd in an Italian poem mean that The Wordsworth Advanced Learner's Dictionary is of enormous use to both foreign students and to those whose mother tongue is English.