Monolingual dictionaries

A monolingual dictionary is an essential tool to make progress with your English -monolingual dictionaries give you a great deal of useful information concerning not only meanings of words and expressions, but also pronunciation, collocations (words that usually go together), register, grammar...

Some tips about dictionaries:

1. Make sure you get the latest edition of the dictionary you want to buy. English Language Teaching and Learning editors usually publish new editions of dictionaries frequently.
2. Make sure you get a dictionary with a CD-ROM version. The CD will allow you to load it on your computer, which is extremely helpful when writing or surfing the Internet.
3. Make sure you spend some time reading the introduction and understanding the contents and conventions of your dictionary. That will help you take advantage of all its features.

Some good monolingual dictionaries are the following:
- Longman Active Study Dictionary
- Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (*)
- Cambridge Learner's Dictionary
- Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (*)
- Oxford Wordpower Dictionary
- Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictonary (*)
- Macmillan English Dictionary (*)
- Collins COBUILD Student's Dictonary
- Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictonary (*)

Dictionaries with (*) will take students from B2 to C2 levels. The rest of dictionaries are also extremely good but cover the language range between B1 and B2 levels.