American Heritage Talking Dictionary

Copyright KBkids.com

 

How many times have you hollered to your kids, "Go look it up!" As your children (and you!) work on reports, stories, letters etc., there will invariably come the word that you either don't know how to spell, or don't know how to pronounce. The American Heritage Talking Dictionary is a nice, easy to use tool which can reside on your computer hard drive. It will not take the place of the family dictionary when you are away from the computer, but will be a great help when working online.

This dictionary contains definitions and pronunciations for more than 200,000 words. There are over 90,000 spoken links which can be heard when you click on the icon next to the word. This newest version contains many new phrases and slang terminology. There are 13,000 geographical entries, and an integrated thesaurus. This integrated thesaurus is a particularly nice feature as most people don't want to hassle with several programs at once.

One other special feature included is the ability to do searches using Boolean logic. In this way you can isolate the exact word or combination of words you are looking for. The dictionary will search for your specified word, or words, not only as individual entries, but within definitions themselves. While you may not need this advanced capability on a daily basis, it is handy when you have a very particular need.

While the manufacturer does not advocate censorship by any means, they have allowed parents the capability to block 125 words which some would consider offensive. This feature can be turned on of off with a password set by you as a parent.

The American Heritage Dictionary not only contains definitions, but maps, graphics, and photos as well. There are more than 3,000 images included to enhance your understanding of a word. They have also integrated the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, as well as added entries for more than 8,000 influential people in the world's history.

This program can be launched directly from your word processor if you have Word 6.0 or higher. If you create a shortcut on your Windows desktop, the program can be launched at almost any time. The dictionary screen can be customized in several ways. The screen can be shown in full size mode, or mini-mode which lets you access the definitions without covering up the screen you are currently using. The thesaurus entries can either be integrated directly into the definition screen, which testers found somewhat confusing, or in a split screen format. This split screen format with definitions on top, and thesaurus entries at the bottom, made more sense. The program can be installed to run off of the CD, or without. If you run the program without the CD, however, there will be no sounds or images.

This is a good dictionary with a user-friendly layout. This one won't jump out at you with 3D graphics, bizarre sounds and fancy programming. But then again, a dictionary is not suppose to be too fancy. The more elaborate the dictionary, the less likely people are to actually use it. This dictionary is a good balance between nice features and a useable interface.

Bottom Line: Full featured dictionary with an easy layout which is very user-friendly. The addition of audio pronunciations is particularly helpful as well as the addition of more modern slang terminology.

Rating: (based on KBkids.com's 4 star rating system)

Overall: 4

BrainGain: 4

FunFactor: 2

EasePlease: 3 1/2

Buy the American Heritage Talking Dictionary 3.0 at Amazon!