Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary
The Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary arrived in 1987 with a quiet but striking idea: what if a dictionary spoke to you in complete sentences instead of cryptic fragments? HarperCollins published it that year, and it broke with the centuries-old convention of condensed, abbreviated definitions. Every meaning of nearly every word came with an example drawn from real texts, not invented by editors at their desks. The corpus behind those examples was called COBUILD, and it gave the dictionary something most of its rivals could not claim: evidence from actual human usage. What made lexicographers choose this path, and how did the dictionary evolve over nearly four decades of editions?
Most dictionaries of the twentieth century handed readers a phrase fragment and expected them to fill the gaps. The Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary refused that shortcut. Definitions appeared as full, grammatically complete sentences, written so that even the form of the definition itself modeled how the language worked. Alongside those definitions sat example sentences drawn from the COBUILD corpus of actual usage, making the dictionary as much a record of living language as a reference tool. For learners encountering English in its full complexity, this double layer of full-sentence definition plus corpus example offered a kind of guided immersion no phrase-fragment entry could match. Pronunciation was handled through phonetic transcriptions based on the International Phonetic Alphabet, giving readers a precise, internationally recognized system for decoding sound.
Between 1987 and 2023, the dictionary went through ten distinct editions, each issued under a slightly different title that tracked the publisher's shifting sense of audience. The first edition carried the name Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary; by the eighth edition in 2014 and the ninth in 2018, it had settled on Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The tenth edition appeared in 2023 bearing the same learner-focused title and ISBN 978-0-00-844490-7. Along the way, some editions bundled a digital version on CD-ROM with the printed book, reflecting the technology of their era. A separate American English branch of the dictionary was first published in 2006 under the title Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary of American English; its second edition followed in 2016, and a third edition appeared in 2023 as the Collins COBUILD Advanced American English Dictionary with ISBN 978-0-00-860778-4.
Common questions
When was the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary first published?
The Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary was first published in 1987 by HarperCollins under the title Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary. It has since been issued in ten editions, with the most recent appearing in 2023.
What makes the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary different from other dictionaries?
The Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary provides definitions written as full sentences rather than abbreviated phrases. Example sentences for nearly every word meaning are drawn from a text corpus called COBUILD, reflecting actual language use rather than invented examples.
What is the COBUILD corpus used in the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary?
COBUILD is a text corpus of actual English usage that underpins the example sentences in the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary. Every example in the dictionary is drawn from this corpus rather than constructed by editors.
How many editions of the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary have been published?
Ten editions have been published between 1987 and 2023. Each edition appeared under a slightly different title, from Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary in 1987 to Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's Dictionary in 2023.
Is there an American English version of the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary?
Yes. The Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary of American English was first published in 2006. A second edition followed in 2016, and a third edition appeared in 2023 under the title Collins COBUILD Advanced American English Dictionary with ISBN 978-0-00-860778-4.
Did any edition of the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary include a digital version?
Some editions of the Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary were packaged with a digital version on CD-ROM alongside the printed book.
All sources
3 references cited across the entry
- 1Review of the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English DictionaryTomasz P. Szynalski — Antimoon.com — 1987