Download Encarta Dictionary 2009

[Shu Manwill]

TheEncarta Webster's Dictionary of the English Language (2004) is the second edition of the Encarta World English Dictionary, published in 1999 (Anne Soukhanov, editor). Slightly larger than a college dictionary, it is similar in appearance and scope to the American Heritage Dictionary, which Soukhanov previously edited. Created using the Bloomsbury dictionary database, it draws on English as it is spoken in all parts of the English-speaking world.

The Encarta World English Dictionary is a publishing event that will set the standard for all future dictionaries. Created using computer, Internet and database technology in a groundbreaking way, this is the first newly written dictionary in more than 30 years. It combines the work of the world's largest and best team of lexicographers with the power of Microsoft Encarta, the premier name in electronic consumer reference.

The work of more than 250 lexicographers in 10 countries, the Encarta World English Dictionary is the first reference work that traces the global use of English in its written, spoken and electronic forms. With each word newly defined, the Encarta World English Dictionary is the most up-to-date dictionary on the market and will offer a unique perspective on English as the world's language.

A lightning bolt symbol is used to indicate entries of high-tech neologisms not only with new coinages, e.g., sudoku, but also old words with new senses, e.g., cookie, domain, dot. New words or new meanings of old words can be located quickly.

Spelling is not a process of memorizing, but a language skill, in which the sound knowledge plays a crucial role (Firth and Ralston 2000). The separation of spelling errors and notes of confusing homophones distinguishes different types of spelling mistakes and can be noticed or remembered with ease.

Quick Literary Links. The dictionary provides quick information to some world famous literature works and their Chinese titles, making it easier for Chinese users to match the original English master piece. For example, it contains the titles of all the 34 plays by William Shakespeare and a brief introduction to these plays.

Microsoft, which already has 38 percent of the electronic encyclopedia market, expects to increase its share of the reference products market by offering a free online version of Encarta World English Dictionary The dictionary, which has been available on CD-ROM since August 1999, offers audio definitions spoken in a human voice. Its claimed strength is its contemporary definitions.

he breathless promotions for Microsoft's first foray into the rarefied dictionary market promise a mighty international reference guide for the English-speaking world -- the "first dictionary born in the information age."

So, not surprisingly, since the publication of the 2,208-page Encarta dictionary in July (an electronic version is due this month), rival lexicographers have made gleeful sport of word spotting, discovering errors and trading jokes about its painfully sensitive warning labels, which assert that terms like "lady friend" and "hard of hearing" are potentially offensive.

The susurration (the sound of whispers or rustling -- in this case dictionary pages) is discernable at a handful of established dictionary publishing houses that have meticulously compiled their findings into in-house lists. Among the bons mots is the Encarta pronunciation of Niagara Falls -- "nigara falwz."

The wordsmiths chuckle at the inclusion of a photograph of Gates, the Microsoft chairman, in light of the absence of a photograph of President John F. Kennedy (though Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis does merit an illustration).

Some note the lack of an entry for Northern Ireland, while others ponder why the dictionary gives no pronunciations for "Ontario" or "focaccia." Others are bemused over errors of fact: George Gordon Meade is identified as the Union general who commanded the Army of the Potomac during the Revolution instead of during the Civil War. Some are distracted by creative spellings: Casper Milquetoast instead of Caspar, the timid cartoon character that inspired the meaning of "milquetoast." And all marvel at the seemingly obsessive warnings; one well-known expletive that is a singular favorite of movie tough guys was labeled offensive almost 20 times in a single passage.

"All dictionaries contain mistakes," said Microsoft's editorial director, Richard Bready, who noted that first editions typically are known for errors. "If you are a lexicographer, it's possible to find this level of error in any dictionary. This is not the result of any haste to publish. This is the result of publishing a dictionary."

Critics say Encarta sometimes reads like a beta version of a dictionary.

Microsoft's rivals acknowledge that no dictionary is perfect, but contend that the error rate is usually far below the level of popular trade books. Such errors rarely get much attention although a new edition of the venerable Larousse French dictionary in 1990 mistakenly said some highly poisonous wild mushrooms were harmless, forcing a very public recall.

The established publishers argue that pointing out errors is not a matter of sour words -- although it certainly couldn't hurt in the midst of the frantic back-to-school high season for dictionary duels.

This summer, IDG Books Worldwide issued the fourth edition of the Webster's New World College Dictionary, while Houghton Mifflin is working on its fourth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language -- the dictionary that Microsoft has published electronically as part of its popular Microsoft Bookshelf suite of reference books. (The company says it will continue to ship the American Heritage dictionary with Bookshelf through next year.) Random House has also updated its Webster's College Dictionary for publication this summer.

And on the same July day that Microsoft announced the Encarta dictionary, the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary coincidentally issued an appeal for contributions of new words from English speakers worldwide. Those submissions will be used in preparing an online version of the O.E.D. -- as it is known -- which now numbers 20 volumes in print and will be available electronically in March.

Frank Abate, the editor in chief of United States dictionaries for Oxford University Press, said his publishing house did not consider Encarta true competition because it did not approach the depth of information in the Oxford English Dictionary.

"If a dictionary proves to have errors that are embarrassing and obvious, then it makes our work as lexicographers harder because it lowers the standards," Abate said. "With all sympathy to the pressures that they were under, it looks to me like this is version 0.1 -- a beta version of a dictionary."

Even the revered American lexicographer Noah Webster got caught up in some mid-19th-century sniping, pitting his American approach to the English language against Joseph Worcester's dictionary, which tilted to the British.

These days, dictionaries rely on promotions to point out their distinctive qualities, and in this case Microsoft and its publishing partners -- Bloomsbury Publishing P.L.C. in London and St. Martin's Press in the United States -- are boasting about Encarta's world view of English, with words like "toenadering" (a political rapprochement) from South Africa or "tickety-boo" (perfectly fine) from Britain.

"We're used to being an upstart," said Newton, whose company published the highly successful "Harry Potter" series of children's books after other London publishers scorned the original manuscript. "But we can establish ourselves pretty quickly. How do you take on any establishment? By being new, different and better."

When the project got under way about three years ago, Bloomsbury took charge of recruiting a group of about 320 lexicographers scattered around the world. These linguistic experts generally answered to London-based editors, who then passed the information to the Microsoft team in Redmond, Wash., for final review.

Many lexicographers were hired on a freelance basis to participate in an ambitious project: developing a data base of the English language that the publishers describe as the first newly written dictionary in more than 30 years. But one longtime lexicographer who worked on the project said that the work was carried out under extreme pressure and that the dictionary was assembled without strong editorial coordination, in a tremendous rush to get it to the market before this year's back-to-school season.

"It seems to have no standards," said the lexicographer. "You find inaccurate information, missing information, repetitious information. There's no sense that what you're finding is really authoritative and really relevant when you find a picture of a sedan labeled a saloon. There's something wrong here. A dictionary publisher should make sure that they've done the best that they can to provide accurate, reliable information."

Sidney I. Landau, the author of "Dictionary: The Art and Craft of Lexicography" and the editor inchief of the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, said that many skilled people had worked on the project but that the final result answered an old question: "If it takes one man many hours to dig a ditch, can 10 men dig a ditch in an hour?"

"In terms of dictionary work, no," he said. "There are a lot of good people who worked on it, but logistically it was very difficult to do in the time frame that they had with many people so disparately located. I think it shows in various ways."

The software company and its two print publishing partners are already laying out a 10-year plan to use the data base of English words and definitions to spin off other Encarta products in electronic and print formats -- a collegiate edition, a thesaurus, a quotation guide and a mass-market paperback version of the dictionary. Bready, Microsoft's editor in chief, said that his team was working with Bloomsbury to identify and correct errors.

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