A new online version of the dictionary includes new financial vocabulary as well as a number of interactive features.

“It was surely no surprise when in January 2009, the American Dialect Society crowned ‘bailout’ as its overall Word of the Year for 2008….

But if you are struggling to keep up with this meltdown lexicon encompassing affluenza, bankster, bear market, quantitative easing and stagflation, there is a new source of help at the new Macmillan Dictionary website — www.macmillandictionary.com.

Launched this month, this new online edition of the award-winning Macmillan English Dictionary, already used in print and CD-ROM format by English speakers in 140 countries worldwide, makes a remarkable resource freely available for the first time. But this online dictionary goes far beyond simply providing definitions. The 7,500 words which native English speakers use 90% of the time are marked in red and graded with stars to indicate their frequency. Extensive examples are given, along with comparisons between American and British use. Every word also has an audio pronunciation guide in both British and American English and each meaning has its own thesaurus entry with a list of synonyms or related words. Help boxes accompany dictionary definitions, showing different word forms, metaphors and frequently co-occurring words.”