I’ve taken up the practice of trying to look up every unfamiliar word I encounter while I’m reading. When I’m not near a computer, I write the words on an index card that doubles as a bookmark so that I can look those words up later. However, I often lose the context of the word, and this practice does not help me understand the word while I’m reading the relevant passage. I think it may be more handy to carry a pocket-sized dictionary with me. My question is: what is the best pocket dictionary?

I want a thorough dictionary, and I really like etymologies because I tend to remember definitions better when I know why words mean what they mean. At the same time, I don’t want a book that is cumbersome to carry around. Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

I was just going to suggest a Franklin dictionary as well, mjhillman06, although like Grant, I don’t have much familiarity with the English-language versions. Those dictionaries can hold a lot of information, but the one drawback I’ve seen is that they’re dictionaries you can actually BREAK. So far I’ve accidentally stepped on two Spanish-English versions and broken them, unfortunately. They’re completely unusable. But they’re so handy that the next time I get a chance to snap up one of them, I probably will, and just try to be a lot more careful about where I set it down.

Btw, mjhillman06: Very good practice you’re taking up there!