This second edition of Sidney I. Landau's landmark work offers a comprehensive and completely up-to-date description of how dictionaries are researched and written, with particular attention to the ways in which computer technology has changed modern lexicography. A completely new chapter has been added and every chapter has been updated and reorganized to reflect the changes. Landau has an insider's practical knowledge of making dictionaries and every feature of the dictionary is examined and explained, with frequent examples given from the latest dictionaries of the US and Britain. A history of English lexicography is also included. The book is both practically grounded and soundly based on current lexicographic scholarship. Written in a readable style, free of jargon and unnecessary technical language, it will appeal to readers who are simply interested in dictionaries, with no specialist knowledge of the field, as well as to professional lexicographers.