Catherine Soanes

Without a doubt the best single volume English dictionary there is on the market. Not only has it a huge range of terminology it also shows etymological information, grammar information, and tens of thousands of entries on places, people, historical events, etc.

This is the dictionary that comes pre-loaded on the Kindle, and I've found it incredibly helpful. It's easy to cross-reference, and contains good examples and uses of all the defined words.

Aimed at secondary school students. Easy to understand. Published in Britain, this is not helpful for Canadian street language. Not useful for ESL students in Canada.

shelved at: (Agh) : Dictionaries thesauri etc.