I long have used the Webster's New World Dictionary of American English, the most recommendable and comprehensive of its variants being any designated for "college" (in U.S.A. lingo including "university") use. The edition which most people usually think of as the first edition of this dictionary was the only English dictionary which students at the college where I did my sophomore and junior years of study, in the mid-1960s, were permitted to cite as their lexical authority (the then recently debased "Collegiate" dictionary from Merrian-Webster, having been prime among the dictionaries that students were forbidden to use in their papers and assignments). There had been forerunners of the supremely fine Webster's New World Dictionary under the same title, published decades before the 1950s, under the imprint of World Publishers, but those earlier ones did not so deserve to be considered the first edition (which seems to have gone through printings from 1954 or so to 1968, of which the one that I first obtained was the 1964 printing). I have acquired and used every edition of this dictionary, right up to and including the fourth edition. I have retained each much-loved, well-used edition, keeping them in various rooms of my house for ready resort near desks, tables, or chairs where I most often read or write.
Each edition of the Webster's New World Dictionary has improved on the one that preceded it, from the earliest ones right up to this fourth edition. Alas, some dictionaries (e.g., those benighted "Collegiate" dictionaries from Merriam-Webster, which fell from grace when they began to be based on the excessively permissive Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary which had displaced the rock-solid and far more trustworthy Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged 2nd Edition, on which earlier and better Merriam-Webster's "Collegiate" dictionary editions formerly and more happily had been based) and others declined in quality or, at least, in reliability as later editions appeared, when compared to former ones.
The most admirable (of many good) qualities of the Webster's New World Dictionary is the sane approach to matters of word usage; while this dictionary is "prescriptive" in indicating what pronunciations and definitions are normative, it does give alternate ones that are common but less "proper", so far as American usage is concerned. It includes an healthy amount of words in informal English and slang; unlike the too prim-and-proper Funk and Wagnall dictionaries or the American Heritage Dictionary, both quite fine but rather too staid, the Webster's New World Dictionary does not purge such words and locutions of less-then-high-pedigree from the lexicon, but, rather, admits them while it very helpfully indicates their level of English usage admissibility or inacceptability for inclusion in formal writing or speaking. Each subsequent edition of the Webster's New World Dictionary, too, has undergone a thorough updating to add new words, technical or otherwise, to the vocabulary of the language.
I tend most to rely on British dictionaries for spelling (especially Cassell's, Chamber's, and Harrap's fine recent editions of their respective dictionaries) and on specifically Canadian dictionaries (most notably the impeccable Gage dictionaries) for pronunciation or peculiarly Canadian use and origin, but for definitions, I always have preferred the best American dictionaries, especially the various editions of Webster's New World Dictionary.
The Amazon buyer cannot go wrong in purchasing any Webster's New World Dictionary. If he cannot afford or find the latest edition, which for now (2009) is this fourth one, any of the previous "college" editions is quite suitable and reliable. Go for it!
