It is with great pleasure that we introduce you to the fifth edition of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English – or LDOCE as it has become known. To those of you who have already used one of the previous editions published over the past 30 years, thank you for your continued support. And to those of you who are using LDOCE for the very first time, welcome to the Longman family!
Here at Longman Dictionaries, our goal is to provide students and teachers with the most comprehensive and accurate information on the English language whilst addressing our users’ needs. It is important that our dictionaries are user-friendly – and in the digital age of computers, mobile phones and the Internet, that not only means that our dictionaries are easy to use, it also means that the information is available in a variety of formats so that users can access the information whenever and wherever they need it. The fifth edition of LDOCE is being published in a variety of exciting new formats - on DVD-ROM, online and on mobile phones - to ensure that we reach as many learners of English as possible.
The starting point for any Longman dictionary is research. Research with both students and teachers. It is only in this way that we can keep up-to-date with the ever-changing needs of both groups and adapt our dictionaries accordingly. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the students and teachers, some of whom are listed in the acknowledgements to this edition, who gave generously of their time and ideas. None of what we have achieved with this fifth edition would have been possible without you.
So what is special about this fifth edition? We have obviously retained the features that are popular with existing users: the Longman Communication 3000 (the 3000 most frequent words in spoken and written English – Longman dictionaries are still the only learners’ dictionaries to make this distinction), thousands of corpus-based examples, grammar and error notes, signposts to help navigate long entries. (A full description of all features can be seen in the 'How to use the Dictionary' pages.) But for this fifth edition, following feedback from existing users and new research, we have focussed on three key areas: collocation, synonyms, and register.
Collocations – or words that are typically used together – are already a key feature of the fourth edition which has proved popular with both students and teachers. For the fifth edition, we have developed this feature further – transforming it into an integrated collocations dictionary which now contains over 65,000 common collocations. We have also included more examples to show these collocations in context so that learners know exactly how to use them. By focussing on collocational information, users are able to improve their comprehension when reading and listening, and increase their fluency when speaking or writing in English. If you have bought an edition of the dictionary which comes with a DVD-ROM, you will find an additional 82,000 collocations, all with corpus-based examples.
Vocabulary building was identified as a key need for learners of English. Some of you may already be familiar with the Longman Language Activator – a dictionary that helps users to choose the right lexical item to express their ideas from a group of semantically related words and phrases. The Longman Language Activator database was used as the starting point for creating the Thesaurus notes for this new edition. For the first time users have a Thesaurus integrated into LDOCE – making it easier and quicker for them to find the most appropriate word or phrase. The Thesaurus notes contain information on 18,000 related words and phrases – with an additional 30,000 on the DVD-ROM. The DVD-ROM also contains the full contents of the Longman Language Activator – both as a separate database and integrated into the main dictionary.
Being aware of the different register of closely related words and phrases is a common problem for learners of English. Spoken language can sound unnatural if the words and phrases are too formal or high level; conversely, written assignments are marked down if the language is that of spoken English. Throughout this dictionary, you will find hundreds of Register notes, focussing precisely on this problem area. You will see, for example, that accumulate is quite a high level word and native speakers of English are more likely to use the phrasal verb build up in everyday spoken English. The two words 'mean' the same, but the contexts in which they are used are different.
You will also find a middle section in the dictionary which groups words and phrases according to their 'function' in the language – for example ways in which to disagree with someone, or ways to thank someone. The words and phrases are contrasted with each other to show which are more appropriate for written and formal English, and which are more suited to informal and spoken language.
We hope you find this fifth edition of LDOCE an invaluable resource when it comes to learning, teaching and generally improving your English. As always, we would welcome comments on our work. Please email us at:
Mike.Mayor@pearson.com
Chris.Fox@pearson.com