Merriam-Webster's main good point:
pronouces every single entry, including various forms of each word, such as "beauty", "beautiful" plus you can copy the whole disc into your computer, so you don't have to put in the CD every time you look stuff up. Can't do with Microsoft.

Other than that, it isn't a very good computer dictionary. It looks like somebody just scanned the information into the computer. The dictionary has limited space, that's why stuff is crammed in the there, but the computer should read with more paragraph separations which costs no more memory. There are few examples.

I also don't like the fact that you have to clear each entry before you can look up the next word, which I don't have to do with Microsoft's.

It is a usable dictionary and thesarus, and has plenty of entries. I think it is particular worth it for someone learning English as a foreign language.

32 of 33 found the following review helpful:

A very nice product; but doesn't integrate with browsers.  Jul 16, 2004

This is undoubtedly the best dictionary & thesaurus available today. The features that impressed me the most are:

1: You don't have to leave the CD in the drive to use the 'pronounciation' feature. You can optionally install the sound files on your hard disk. (Approx. 532 MB)

2: Multiple pronounciations invoked where appropriate.

3: Installs without a glitch and integrates with MS Word.

4: Has a lot of nice features like 'Spelling Help'.

I hope the 12th Edition will integrate with email browsers, not just with MS Word. Also, I would have preferred the thesaurus invoked automatically in an additional pane instead of switching between dictionary and thesaurus.

49 of 56 found the following review helpful:

Work Adequately on the Mac, Could be Improved  Sep 06, 2004
By Glenn R. Howes
I'm typing this on a Powerbook G4 running Mac OS X 10.3, according to the top utility, the Merriam-Webster application is taking between 7% and 12% of the CPU time while idling in the background. If every application I owned did this, I would be in trouble. Thankfully, most commercial applications are better written.

Not that I don't appreciate the product for what it does. It is incredibly useful for looking up words, solving crossword puzzles and the like. I know I use it frequently and think it a bargain.

However, as a Mac coder, I find its interface and performance well below professional standards. It is easily the ugliest application I use on a daily basis with its mixture of faux 3D elements and Mac native widgets, its garish color scheme, blocky icons and its tendency to suck down cycles as if its programmers had never heard of a Carbon Event.

16 of 16 found the following review helpful:

Great dictionary  Jan 08, 2006
By Petro von Richter
Any e-dictionary will give you definitions of course, but what I especially like about this one is that it is lightning fast. Also, when a definition contains an illustration it's indicated by an icon which you double click to view (and which comes up instanteously in a seperate window). This dictionary also allows you to search a word by different criteria other than for just its definitions: rhymes with, Homophones are, Date of, Author quoted, Definition contains...etc, etc. One note on installation: make sure you temporarily disable active virus software (and it wouldn't hurt to do the same for those other programs on the right side of the task bar).

12 of 12 found the following review helpful:

Great product with a lot of features  Apr 26, 2005
By Boook Eater "MC"
I had an old version of this software (2.0, I think), which requires Mac OS 9 or classic. This new version runs in native OS X. I agree with other reviewers: the interface is ugly, but it does the job. I like the audio capability. English is not my first language so I find the pronunciation feature indispensable (don't forget to install it; it's not included in the "easy" install option). Another great feature is the "Defining text contains" search. You can find a word by entering the words that are in the definition. What is the word that denotes the noise a duck makes? You can easily find that, of course, ducks "quack," not to mention that you will also find all kinds of ducks -- the blue-winged teal, the bufflehead, the eider -- and all sorts of duck relatives and even duck dishes. You can also find words that rhyme with duck: cluck, guck and many more. Other ways of searching include usage paragraph contains, forms a crossword, homophones, cryptograms and more. I don't understand why these features are not prominently used to market the dictionary. They are one the reasons for using a dictionary in a computer, and they make the $20 a joke. I would pay so much more for it.

See all 23 customer reviews on Amazon.com