This distinctive new Canadian edition of the world's most authoritative dictionary is a vital reference tool for home and office, and the perfect size and format for briefcase, schoolbag, or desktop.Since its first publication in 1979, Collins Pocket Reference English Dictionary has remained a bestselling single-volume dictionary, renowned for its scope, clarity and ease of use.This Canadian edition of the Collins Pocket Reference English Dictionary has been completely updated with thousands of new words and meanings collected by the Collins language-monitoring program and drawn from the Bank of English, Collins' 323-million-word database.A sampling of Canadian words and phrases includes: advanced green-- baby bonus-- back forty-- block heater-- First Nations-- moose pasture-- Reform Party-- stickhandle and many more. Plus, the latest developments in technological and scientific fields are reflected by the inclusion of words such as chaology and gigaflop. Many new colloquial meanings for words such as attitude, business risk, awesome and serious are also included. Users will also find new terms, such as gridlock, virtual reality, cyberspace and Worldwide Web-- Emphasis on modern Canadian usage, with modern meanings given first-- Labels identify words with restricted usage-- Pronunciations are given for difficult or unfamiliar words in a simple re-spelling system-- No difficult abbreviations or symbols