Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, New Edition

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What is so special about this learners' dictionary?

It's a truly corpus-driven dictionary.

But aren't most learners' dictionaries based on a corpus these days?

Several dictionaries have appeared recently which make claims to be corpus-based. But the Cobuild English Dictionary has been built on over 15 years of corpus analysis and lexicography. A Cobuild team began in 1980 to use corpus data for the first edition of the dictionary.

Cobuild dictionaries also make use of real examples taken from the huge Bank of English, which contains different varieties of English.

Don't other dictionaries do this, too?

No. Made up, synthetic examples are still used predominantly in other learners' dictionaries.

Made up examples surely help the learner by being simpler and exemplifying a particular feature very explicitly, don't they?

The view of Cobuild is that made-up examples falsify the evidence. They present models of English to the learner which encourage unnatural expression. The real examples in Cobuild dictionaries show how words, phrases and grammatical structures are used naturally. Here's some more detail and some contrastive examples.

Why are Cobuild definitions so different from other dictionaries?

Because explanations of word meaning and use are presented rather than formalistic definitions. Here's some more information about Cobuild explanations.

This new expanded edition of the COBUILD English Dictionary is easily the most detailed and reliable learners' dictionary available today. It is based on a unrivalled, in-depth analysis of the language of the 1990s.

Using the Bank of English at the University of Birmingham, the editorial team has identified and explained the patterns of use in over 200 million words of written and spoken English. The text of the dictionary provides users with specific help in the following areas:

The result of 15 years' thorough analysis of written and spoken language, this book provides a clear and detailed picture of modern English. Using the COBUILD English Dictionary, learners can build their vocabulary and write and speak English with increased confidence.

Text based on material produced by Cobuild.