The New World Spanish/English, English/Spanish Dictionary (El New World Diccionario español/inglés, inglés/español) (Spanish and English Edition)

I purchased this for my Spanish 103 class and it very helpful when looking up words to translate from English to Spanish or Spanish to English

Purchased for my daughter for school

I bought an older edition of this English-Spanish Dictionary in 1982, when I was a freshman in college, majoring in Zoology, but had to take Spanish as a requirement in my school's College of Arts and Sciences. I fell in love with the language and my professors who taught it, many of of whom were graduate students who were born in Puerto Rico. Thanks to those wonderful teachers, I visited Puerto Rico and fell in love with the language, the culture, and the island more than I ever imagined I could. I earned my degree in Zoology, followed by a doctorate degree, and I stayed fluent in Spanish over the years. So, to keep my library updated I recently bought the lasted edition of this English-Spanish Dictionary, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it's even better than before! It has not only a tremendous number of words, but also excellent Spanish language grammar lessons and other helpful information. I love this book, and I'm especially happy to see that the orange-and-yellow book cover still looks the same now, in 2021, as it did in 1982. What a gift.

As mentioned by other reviewers what could be an ideal midsize study dictionary small enough to easily browse as the one-stop shop for looking up words in either language is hampered by the inexplicable decision not to include the gender of Spanish nouns when looking up words in the English-Spanish section. I own the Oxford New Spanish Dictionary, Webster's Spanish-English Dictionary for Students, and Merriam-Webster's Pocket Spanish-English Dictionary, all 3 of which are smaller but include the gender of Spanish nouns when you're looking up an English-Spanish translation. On the plus side, of the 4, The New World contains the most entries, it is about the same size book as the Oxford, standard paperback novel size, but about twice as thick. Besides that, one major reason I am glad I got this dictionary and keep it by my side is that unlike the other 3, it includes IPA pronunciation in parentheses for both English AND Spanish. Oxford & Merriam Webster only include IPA pronunciation for the English words in the English-Spanish part, strange in dictionaries designed for Anglophones who hopefully already know how to pronounce English & are studying Spanish. Yes, unlike English, Spanish pronunciation is consistent & straightforward, but there are still times when a Spanish word is giving me trouble, and when I look it up in here, there in parentheses is the IPA pronunciation to clear up confusion. It even includes both Castilian and Latin American pronunciations in cases where they differ. This is my go-to paper dictionary for looking up Spanish words, but due to the one big aforementioned flaw, I'll go to the Oxford or Webster for English-Spanish, lest I be forced to look up a noun twice in The New World first to get the English-Spanish translation then flip to look up the gender in the Spanish-English section because this dictionary couldn't include a simple f or m next to the Spanish noun translation.

My very first copy of this dictionary I had bought back in the day at Borders. It carried me through 3 years of high school Spanish. After I was done taking Spanish classes I gifted my copy to a cousin who was also learning Spanish as this dictionary is so much superior to other ones. This dictionary is very thorough and concise with definitions, there are so many entries that you will rarely need anything else for a translation and I wholeheartedly recommend this if you're taking a class or learning the language on your own. You won't regret it! There's also a section on a general summary of the Spanish language with important topics such as pronunciation, punctuation, division of syllables and verb conjugations. I bought another copy as I missed having this dictionary and plan on learning more Spanish for fun in the future!

Great dictionary. The best.

I have at least 6 different Spanish-English dictionaries and some are special purpose like ones for construction and "Costa Rica Spanish" and the hit rate on finding a word I come across in them is about 75% except for the Christopher Howard Official Guide to Costa Rican Spanish where the hit rate for me has been about 25%. With this dictionary my hit rate so far has been 100% and this included the very obscure (for the dictionary editors at least) word taller that all my other dictionaries translate as an artist studio but the New World adds the usage of the word for a garage or repair shop.Not very compact for travel but I am tempted to buy a second copy and tear it in half and take only the Spanish to English section. It is a Castilian Spanish dictionary so many words used in Mexico, Central, and South America are not going to be in it but that is too be expected and not too different from the various English idioms in use in different parts of the world.

A young person I know took me up on an offer to send him a gift book and he wanted a dictionary. I looked at various dictionaries at bookstores and here on Amazon (where I wind up buying the bulk of my things these days). I felt this was the best one due to its versatility, the easy way it was organized and for the size. It turned out to be a perfect gift: the person I sent it to absolutely loved it. I lived in Spain in the mid 70s for about four years and know the value of a really good, compact Spanish/English, English/Spanish Dictionary. I carried a little red one wherever I went. This other person is using this the same way but this dictionary is far better organized and complete than the one I used. I recommend this for people who need it and particularly for young people studying Spanish (or English). Yes, a big book is great but a solid, compact easy to carry book is even better in many instances (or put it on your Kindle)

This is a great idea. It's very handy. Not too heavy and a nice size. I carry it with me alot.

Good value for serious students.

was a gift

This is still portable despite the thickness of it. A lot of reviews have pointed out this an a complaint, however the additional pages all provide useful information, particularly for first time learners of Spanish, this is a wonderful resource. I would 100% bring this with me on my travels, and refer to this often during online classes of learning. Although some words you need in Spanish because they are not in the English side, and vice versa, one cannot say this dictionary doesn't make you learn something new. I would encourage using this. Might as well have a solid book.

My wife and I wore out our first copy during our 2 year stay in Bolivia. It has a very helpful section of 72 models for conjugating Spanish verbs, and every irregular Spanish verb is linked to one of the models. We replaced our first copy with a Bantam New College Spanish-English Dictionary since that one is smaller and has more entries. Unfortunately the print in the Bantam is annoyingly small and the model verb conjunction links aren't as helpful. For example, for the verb arrancar the Bantam tells you to look up model 73 and you would then have to find model 73 which happens to be tocar. The New World on the other hand tells you to look up model 7 tocar. So if you already know how to conjugate tocar you don't have to waste time finding model 7. We ended up buying a new New World dictionary as a result.