Dictionaries category: 3071 books

“Cold war” was a term coined in 1945 by left-leaning British writer George Orwell to predict how powers made unconquerable by having nuclear weapons would conduct future relations. It was popularized in 1947 by American journalist Walter Lippmann amid mounting tensions between the erstwhile World...

Dwelling in the highland areas of Northeast India, Bangladesh, Southwest China, Taiwan, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Peninsular Malaysia are hundreds of “peoples”. Together their population adds up to 100 million, more than most of the countries they live in. Yet in...

Hinduism is the world's third largest religion and still growing. It is the oldest major religion with a tradition reaching back millennia and having many notable peaks and periods of glory. It has influenced and been affected by other world religions, including Islam and Buddhism, as well as Christianity....

This dictionary covers the complex and costly conflict that began when Germany, ruled by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, invaded neighboring Poland on 1 September 1939; and concluded when Germany surrendered on 7–9 May 1945, leaving much of the European continent in ruins and its population devastated....

As long as there have been wars, there have been peace processes to settle them. In the 12th century BC, the Egyptians and Hittites concluded one of the earliest peace treaties still in existence. Peacekeeping as understood as a modern concept emerged out of the League of Nations after World War I....

The Historical Dictionary of International Organizations in Africa and the Middle East focuses on international organizations in Africa. And the Middle East. This makes sense for political, cultural, and geographical reasons. North African countries, and many located in the Sahel region, are members...

An Intelligence failure can be defined where there was intelligence available about a particular event, but either it was not collected or was mishandled later in the assessment cycle, as opposed to the failure of an intelligence operation. The Historical Dictionary of Intelligence Failures covers...

A phrasal verb is a verb that consists of two or three separate parts: 'come in', 'run away', 'look forward to', etc. With an idiomatic phrasal verb, the meanings of the separate parts tell us little or nothing about the meaning of the whole. For example, students may be fully familiar with the meanings...

Students of English often have difficulties knowing which preposition goes with a particular verb. Do you know which preposition to use with the following verbs: accuse of or for? depend on or at? escape from or off? include in or into? listen to or through? wait for or to? This is where this dictionary...

Students learning English often have difficulties knowing which preposition goes with a particular adjective. This is where this dictionary will help you. It contains about 700 entries. By looking up the adjective you will find the preposition, a definition and an example: indispensable adj indispensable...

Students learning English often have difficulties knowing which preposition goes with a particular noun. This is where this dictionary will help you. It contains about 1,200 entries. By looking up the noun you will find the preposition, a definition and an example: guide n guide to book describing...

Why do we describe something as "A-1", "a lame duck", or "straight from the horse's mouth"? Why is someone's behaviour said to be "beyond the pale"? What is the original meaning of the word "treacle"? This book explores the intriguing origins and development...

This introduction to English grammar is aimed equally at those who are taking first steps in learning English and at native speakers or who are trying to improve a basic grasp of the grammatical rules that underpin the English language. It is grammar that gives any language its character and its practical...

Was there such a person as Homer? Who were the key figures in the first democracy of the Western World? Who is the father of tragedy? Who is the father of history? Of all the world's ancient civilisations, it is perhaps the Ancient Greece that has the strongest hold over the modern imagination. The...