The Oxford reference dictionary Book

Now available for the first time in flexible covers, The Oxford Reference Dictionary serves as both an up-to-date dictionary and a concise encyclopedia. It contains over 75,000 clear and authoritative definitions of words and phrases, with entries including pronunciation and etymology. One-third of the entire dictionary consists of over 6,000 fuller encyclopedic entries with information not only about people and places, but also about such topics as history, geography, science, technology, art, music, literature, cinema, languages, medicine, philosophy, psychology, mythology, theology, and sports. Over ninety pages of thematically grouped and generously labeled drawings illustrate subjects ranging from architecture, the body, and electrical power, to space exploration and the weather. The dictionary provides proper name entries with concise biographies of a wide variety of famous people, including Beethoven, Einstein, Gandhi, and Lenin, as well as entries for fictional characters such as Dracula and Sherlock Holmes. It also contains brief histories of individual countries, capitals, and other important cities, and an account of the development of every major language. Appendices offer a wealth of additional information including a listing of the countries of the world; the individual states and Presidents of the United States; weights and measures; the chemical elements; books of the Bible; and terms for groups of animals and birds.