> The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) is an American dictionary of English published by Boston publisher Houghton Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. Its creation was spurred by the controversy over the Webster's Third New International Dictionary.

James Parton, the owner of the history magazine American Heritage, was appalled by the permissiveness of Webster's Third, published in 1961, and tried to buy the G. and C. Merriam Company so he could undo the changes. When that failed, he contracted with Houghton to publish a new dictionary. The AHD w…

> The main source of TheFreeDictionary's general English dictionary is Houghton Mifflin's premier dictionary, the American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. This authoritative work is the largest of the American Heritage® dictionaries and contains over 200,000 boldface terms and more than 33,000 written examples. The Fourth Edition also incorporates more than 10,000 new words.

Containing 260,000 entries, the general dictionary is augmented with Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, and is enhanced by 30,000 illustrations, an audio pronunciation f…

> After about a decade of preparation, G. & C. Merriam issued the entirely new Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (commonly known as Webster's Third, or W3) in September 1961. It was edited by Philip Babcock Gove and a team of lexicographers who spent 757 editor-years and $3.5 million. It contained more than 450,000 entries, including over 100,000 new entries and as many new senses for entries carried over from previous editions.

Although it was an unprecedented masterwork of scholarship, it was met with considerable criticism for its descripti…