The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE), first published by Longman in 1978,[1] is an advanced learner's dictionary, providing definitions using a restricted vocabulary, helping non-native English speakers understand meanings easily. It is available in four configurations:
Printed book
Premium online access
Printed book plus premium online access
Reduced online version with no access charge (called "free" but technically "gratis": the license is still proprietary)
LDOCE 4th ed.
The dictionary is currently in its sixth edition. The premium website was revised in 2014 and 2015. It now offers over a million corpus examples (exceeding the paper version's), and includes sound files for every word, 88,000 example sentences, and various tools for study, teaching, examinations and grammar. The 9000 Most Important English Words to Learn have been highlighted via the Longman Communication 9000.
The free online version was updated in 2008 and offers search (with spelling assistance), definitions, collocations, and many examples and illustrations.
A key feature of the LDOCE is its utilization of the Longman Defining Vocabulary, a 2000-word controlled defining vocabulary used to write all of the definitions in the dictionary.[2] This defining vocabulary was developed from Michael West's General Service List of high-frequency words and their most common meanings.[3]
The controlled defining vocabulary is not only helpful to second-language learners, but has also facilitated the use of the LDOCE as a machine-readable dictionary in computational linguistics research.[4]
Third edition: Includes 80,000 entries, over 200 usage topics, 24 pages of coloured illustrations, 3,000 popular keywords, 20 Language Notes, over 150 new usage frequency tables, new IELTS vocabulary table. Optical disc includes only new contents not found in the printed LDOCE dictionary.
Traditional Chinese version (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (English-Chinese) Third Edition/朗文當代高級辭典(英英・英漢雙解)第三版)
4th edition: Includes 207,000 words, phrases, and meanings (including 4000 new words); 155,000 usage examples, 7,000 synonyms and antonyms, over 250 usage topics, 14 pages of coloured illustrations, 3,000 popular keywords, Language Notes. Definitions use only 2000 common words. Optical disc includes contents from LDOCE and Longman Concise Chinese-English Dictionary.
Traditional Chinese version (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (English-Chinese) 4th Edition/朗文當代高級辭典(英英・英漢雙解)第四版)
5th edition: Includes 230,000 entries, 65,000 collocations, 18,000-word synonyms and antonyms, 3000 common oral and written words. New thesaurus, grammar, collocation sections. DVD supports Microsoft Windows 2000(SP4) to Windows 10, includes contents from LDOCE and Longman Concise Chinese-English Dictionary, English pronunciations, bookmarks and notes. Online contents (available for four years after activation) includes online vocabulary and grammatical resources (including short video, interactive exercises and examinations), Longman Communication 9000.
Traditional Chinese version (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (English-Chinese) 5th Edition/朗文當代高級英漢雙解辭典第五版)
Hardcover bi-colour edition with four years online service (with English LDOCE 6th edition)+DVD (ISBN978-916001562-8)
5th edition: Free version includes Full-text Search activation. Pay features includes LDOCE 5th edition, examples sounds, Longman Activator Thesaurus (each sold separately).[10]
iOS version (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English/朗文當代高級詞典)
1st edition: Includes 75,000 collocations, 80,000 examples, 7,000 synonyms and antonyms, academic words list, academic collocations list (2,500 most frequent collocations based on analysis of the Pearson International Corpus of Academic English). 1-year subscription includes additional collocations and synonyms, interactive exercises.[11]
