The Million Word Crossword Dictionary Hardcover – March 2, 2004

I've used this dictionary ever since I first saw it in 2004. I work NY Times Sunday crosswords exclusively, and can't work them without it. I own Merriam Webster's regular dictionary, its biographical dictionary, its one-volume encyclopedia, and its geographical dictionary, and yet this one volume, the MW Crossword Dictionary, just about takes the place of all of them. I would suggest to its authors only that they work on a TWO million, or THREE million word upgrade. The crossword creators are getting slyer and sneakier, and we need ever bigger dictionaries of this type. One area they could improve is the list of Scottish words. Another is in foreign words and phrases. (Will somebody please come out with a Scottish dictionary? Or a dictionary of rivers and mountains? Sorry, where was I.) Where it is super helpful is with movies, books and authors, and personalities; nowhere else comes close. Also it is a big help with rivers and cities near rivers. I wish it were twice as big as it is, though, simply because it is already so very very good it makes me want more of it. If you buy this book, you will still need your Almanacs, your expensive world atlases, your mythology books, and your Stars and Planets; and you will still need all your foreign dictionaries. And you will need your ability to figure out puns and tricky clues that are deliberately misleading -- no dictionary can solve those. You need your brain for that. But if you have to travel, or if you were on a deserted island with just one book to help you, this book, the MW Crossword Dictionary, is the one you will want along with you. One last word -- buy the hardback. You will wear out the paperback.

I got this as s gift for someone who loves crossword puzzles. Personally, I don't care for them. I usually get about 4 words in and then get frustrated. A week later, I saw the book and a crossword puzzle book lying on the table and thought, "how much can a dictionary help if you don't know the first few letters?"First of all, it's not really a dictionary. The words don't have definitions, just a list of related words sorted by length. It's closer to a thesaurus than a dictionary, except that it also has pop culture references, sports players, actors, slang words, and all sorts of phrases you might see in a crossword clue.Second of all, it helps a LOT. Sometimes you can look up the clues verbatim and see the answer listed. These ones feel kinda like cheating and aren't much fun. Most of the time, though, you have to be a little bit clever in what you look up. Sometimes you'll find the answer on the third word, sometimes on the tenth. Either way, the book gives you clues and ideas to bounce off of.Solving crossword puzzles without this book is like a trivia contest; you either know it or you don't. Solving them with the book is like a scavenger hunt; you'll keep hunting for clues until you figure it out.Bottom line: it's not for everyone. Diehard trivia fans will probably see this as a crutch and possibly enjoy crossword puzzles less while using it. For people like me, who weren't huge crossword fans to begin with, this book brings a very welcome change of pace.

When I first downloaded this book and tried to use it on the Samsung Kindle app I got very frustrated.The app show a blank white screen with the little arrow going round and round and round. You wait and wait and nothing happens. So I returned the ebook for a refund.However I wanted to install it on my Kindle Paperwhite so I purchased it again. This time I find that I can use it on the Samsung Kindle app. The trick is to tap the screen when it gets to the white screen situation. Lo and behold, the dictionary appears.Searching the dictionary is easy and brisk. Use the standard search. But it doesn't work in the standard way. Instead, if your search word is a head word, you are taken immediately to the relevant page. In general, don't put in more than one word. If you do, or if you put in a word that is not a head word, the search drops back to searching the entire document. It is a big document, so not recommended.I haven't managed to download this to my Kindle, but for the moment, I am well pleased with the tablet app performance.Addendum: I found this document on my Paperwhite by accident. It was transferred, but put in with the Dictionaries. I didn't even think to look there. LOL.

After reading through the reviews, I purchased the Kindle version of this book. I checked to ensure that I could return it if I found it didn't work like a dictionary, allowing one to look up headwords.I am using the Kindle for iPhone app, version 3.4 on an iTouch 5 running ios 6.I tested the app and found that you can jump to a headword using the search function. You can find items when you type in the whole text of a headword, but not a partial. That may explain some folk's frustration looking for words. I suggest that you browse the dictionary and get a feel as to how words are setup. For example, I can jump to the word, "Darkness" and get to that word. But I have to type in the whole string, "Darkness at Noon" to get to that entry. To get to an entry, "Darkness, Prince of" one has to type it in exactly as it is in the dictionary. You cannot type in partial parts of a headword and get any results.My suggestion is to enter a word like "Darkness" and land in the page and go forward to find what one is looking for if you are looking for an entry with more words to it.I also tested this using the Android version of the Kindle app on the Kindle Fire and found that it doesn't search like it does on the ios platform. It performs a search reading through all of the text in the book just like other books. Not useful. That is why I am only giving it four stars.