Based on a database of American English compiled in the USA, The Oxford American Desk Dictionary is completely up to date and designed for today's quick-reference needs. This superb dictionary also features more than 200 detailed illustrations (commissioned for this 1998 edition), helpful in-text Usage Notes, and hundreds of lively, informative Word Histories. Features: · More than 100,000 entries and definitions · New words and senses, some not found in any other dictionaries (biodiversity, debit card, home page, SUV) · Hundreds of in-text Usage Notes and Word Histories · Eye-catching, detailed illustrations, specially commissioned for this edition · Thousands of up-to-date biographical and geographical entries · Expanded 32-page Special Reference Section with Countries of the World, Signs and Symbols, Weights and Measures, US States and Presidents As a concise, thorough, up-to-date, yet handy resource, this dictionary is unsurpassed.