Rosalind Fergusson

Unfortunately, I didn't get the nice edition with the rounded corners. Oh, well. This dictionary differs in its use of groupings, sub-groupings, and an index from the other two rhyming dictionaries I have recently reviewed. The subgroupings are useful in pointing out words that not only rhyme but are more similar. The word order in the larger sets of entries, however, makes it take longer to find the word you're trying to rhyme with. This arrangement only works because about half the book is an index. So, for instance, if you want to rhyme with "fox" you just look it up in the index and head to the indicated section, where you can find "ox" "box" and all those other Green Eggs and Ham words. A sub-group includes words such as "heterodox" and "paradox" which you might want to rhyme with each other in the right type of verse. In another rhyming dictionary, I noticed that the only rhyme shown for "populate" was "copulate" -- which is ironic as well as poetic. This dictionary adds de-populate. Time will tell which rhyming dictionary I actually use, but at this point, Merriam-Webster appears to be winning out. By the way, this book has just a brief introduction on how to use it; there is no guide to poetic forms or anything like that. If you want one, I highly recommend Stephen Fry's "The Ode Not Taken". You can also get a guide in the Clement Wood rhyming dictionary, which is largely unchanged from 1936, but Fry is much more fun to read and his book is more to the point.… (more)