How to Choose Dictionary: Oxford vs Longman

It is important to have a dictionary for helping you learn vocabularies. Take one anywhere you go, and you will be able to open it whenever you need. The two favorite dictionaries among TOEFL and and IELTS test taker (especially in Indonesia) are Longman Handy Learner's Dictionary and Oxford Learner's Pocket Dictionary.

Before we choose to buy one of these two learner's dictionaries, we should know what are the differences between two. There are some of many differences of those dictionaries:

Oxford	Longman
1. mostly use british english	1. mostly use american english
For example: - Spelling example: British -our (honour) -re (centre)  -ogue (dialogue) -ence (defence) -ise  (recognise) American -or (honor) -er (center) -og (dialog) -ense (defense) -ize (recognize) American English spelling sometimes does not double the consonant at the end of a word, while British English spelling does, especially when the consonant is an 'l'. For example travel, traveller, travelling (British) and travel, traveler, traveling (American) - Pronunciation example: carcass, fork, bowl - Meaning example: flat (in british, one of the meaning of flat is kind of apartement)
2. lack of slang words		2. contains some slang words, example: ‘jock’, ‘air-head’, ‘dicey’, ‘couch potato’
3. ‘keywords’ feature; show us the most important words to learns		3. no ‘keywords’ feature

If you plan to take IELTS test, we recommend you to use Oxford dictionary. But it doesnt matter to buy both if you feel they are important to improve your skill. If you aren't rich enough to buy both, you can buy one of them and you can look up other dictionary on internet (oxford or longman online dictionary) when you need another alternative results.