Oxford's latest Advanced Learner's Dictionary out

The Oxford Writing Tutor at the back of the volume makes the latest edition unique 

NEW ADDITION:Abhay Maurya, Vice -Chancellor of EFLU, releasing the new Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary in Hyderabad on Wednesday. At right is Alison Waters, Publishing Manager, English Teaching Dictionaries, Oxford University Press. HYDERABAD: The world's most trusted dictionary just added another edition to its list. Oxford's latest offering, the eighth edition of the Advanced Leaner's Dictionary was launched here on Wednesday.
The countless words, carefully constructed word-families, generously scattered ‘grammar points' and well-chosen synonyms are likely to answer any muddle over the English vocabulary.
1,000 new words
The 1,000 new words, amusing in parts but always informative, make for an interesting perusal.
But what makes it unique is the Oxford Writing Tutor, tucked away in the back of the bulky volume.
Stretching over 30 pages, it is a practical guide to improve writing among students, job applicants and working people.
“It's best to use simple definitions,” says Alison Waters, Publishing Manager for the English Teaching Dictionaries brought out by the Oxford University Press. “I love that English is so flexible,” she told The Hindu in an interview hours before the launch. “The vocabulary is always growing, borrowing from everywhere.”
How does Oxford keep track of new additions, slang, changing meanings and dying words? That would be the work of the two-billion-strong digital corpus.
“It tracks fiction, newspaper reports, court transcripts and all kinds of communication in English,” she explains.
“But the brand new feature this time is the writing tutor,” she says.
She flips through the pages that help write college essays, summaries, formal emails and covering letters for resumes. She points to the guide to oral presentations. She spends time on how easy it is to analyse graphs.
‘Word families'
Then there are the ‘word families' - groups of words related to subjects like finance or fine arts. Highlighted ‘grammar points' catch your eye and explain why well dressed is different from well-dressed. New words like ‘vuvu-zela' teach you about a trumpet popular among football fans in South Africa. The word is bound to be heard once the soccer world cup kicks off.
CD-ROM
The dictionary comes with a CD-ROM which has all of this and something more – an integrated thesaurus. “The dictionary will be available online but it's no substitute,” says Ms. Waters.