A new dictionary in print: good advices?

Anton Konashenok wrote:

You haven't said whether you want an English-Italian, an Italian-English or a monolingual English dictionary. If you are talking about bilingual ones, I know nothing about the actual situation with the EN-IT/IT-EN dictionaries, but as a general rule, all other things being equal, I would recommend to get a dictionary published in the country of the target language.

Silvia Di Profio wrote:
I was thinking about a good and up-to-date monolingual English dictionary, in addiction to a bilingual one (published in Italy).

Dan Lucas wrote:

Silvia, I have been happy with previous versions of the Collins English Dictionary which, I note, also has a handy Kindle version these days that can replace the standard Kindle dictionary.

The dictionary that has the best reputation for unusual English words and that is accordingly well liked by crossword lovers is the Chambers. However, Chambers made a printing mistake in the 13th edition and omitted several hundred words (!) so if you want a paper version you might want to buy the 12th edition or wait for the corrected version of the 13th due out this year.

Dan Lucas wrote:
There is a smartphone/tablet version of the Chambers, which is the 11th edition so slightly out-of-date (2008) but very handy as a portable reference - the paper version weighs 2.5kg. It's also fantastic value at GBP 4.99.

Dan

Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:

If you have a bigger budget and also more space in the suitcase, then the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which comes in two very comprehensive volumes.

I took both the SOED and the Chambers to my DipTrans exam and was glad I did. I think I remember having checked the Chambers more often, though. I carried two full suitcases of dictionaries, anyway...