Macmillan Study Dictionary

Strong curriculum content, perfect for study

The Macmillan Study Dictionary explains – clearly and accurately – the vocabulary you need for successful study in any of the key academic subjects. At every stage, experienced teachers, textbook writers and syllabus designers have contributed their expertise. Packed with curriculum words and a major encyclopaedic section, it is the complete reference source for those who study their subjects in English.

The dictionary has a special emphasis on subject vocabulary, with almost 10,000 subject-specific words highlighted throughout with one of the following subject labels:

The selection of words was based on the 200 million word World English Corpus, supplemented with specialist subject vocabulary from a 22 million-word corpus of curriculum coursebooks. We have used software to analyse the corpora, so that we have a reliable scientific basis for selecting the words to include in the dictionary and for deciding how much information is needed about each word.

Over 150 two-colour pictures, relating to key concepts in curriculum subjects, explain complex topics at a glance (1281 terms are illustrated within 150 composite pictures).

Language help

• Helpful example sentences based on real-life English are relevant to students throughout the world
• Special help boxes on word families, synonym sets and vocabulary building
• Collocations are shown in bold within entries, to help you speak and write more naturally

Ease of use

• Clear layout with all headwords printed in red for easy navigation
• Definitions are easy to understand while being technically accurate and using appropriate terminology. They are written using a restricted defining vocabulary of 3,000 words and their accuracy has been checked by a consultant
• Menus in entries with five or more senses guide you quickly to the meaning you want

Reference section

A reference section at the back of the book contains the following:

• A Study Skills section covering taking notes, essay writing, preparing for exams, writing informal and business letters and emails, presenting CVs, punctuation, dealing with data, ICT, literary devices, and using numbers
• A Reference section covering the periodic table, SI units and conversions, irrgular verbs and a pronunciation table

Click to see sample pages from the Study Skills section.
Click to see an example of a full page illustration.

The CD-ROM

The CD-ROM combines the full text of the dictionary with recorded pronunciations of every headword in British and American English. You can search for words in a particular topic area. All illustrations are included and are accompanied by animations of some technical illustrations. The content of the reference section is included in a searchable format with interactive full-colour maps.