Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary

Encyclopedia of China Publishing House

[Photo provided to China Daily]

It's the first authorized bilingual version of the Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's Dictionary published in the country. The original English version was released in 2008, and the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House launched that version in 2010 in China.

"Deemed as a handy tool to learn up-to-date English, especially American usages, it took us eight more years to finish the bilingual version," says Zhuang Yichuan, who's in his 80s and is the chief consultant of the dictionary.

Veteran publisher Li Yan says at the dictionary's launch that there are about 300 million English learners in the country. Some of the learners are puzzled by understanding the slang and phrases, and they will find the dictionary helpful with precise translations of 100,000 entries which are explained in 160,000 examples.

"The examples are from media, literary classics and such real-life context. Those examples are carefully selected by the original compilers and with the translation, they are the highlights and essence of the dictionary," Zhuang says.

The publishing house is to hold more online and off-line events to explore the value of the 2,550-page dictionary.

[Photo provided to China Daily]