The authoritative guide to American English as it`s really used today. Based on the Cambridge International Corpus, a database that includes more than 200 million words of spoken and written American English, the paperback edition contains more than 40,000 definitions of words and phrases. Entries are organized by meaning, and words with more than one meaning are clearly marked with a boxed guideword, so there`s no guesswork involved in finding the right entry. Definitions are written using a carefully controlled 2,000-word defining vocabulary, so they are clear and easy to understand. Authentic, full-sentence examples show learners how words are typically used. More than 3,000 common idioms are defined, and an Idioms Index makes it easy to find them. Language Portraits provide in-depth explanations of difficult grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation. The dictionary also includes coverage of important Canadian and British words and meanings.