Best Medical Dictionary Recommended

Nursing Students General Students

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I am taking a medical terminology class this semester in preparation for nursing school and it was recommended that I buy a medical dictionary along with the text. The one the professor mentioned is Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Does anyone have any thoughts for other ones or are they all pretty much the same?

Thanks.

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My book bundle from the school bookstore came with the Tabers medical dictionary. I haven't really had to use much of it yet but it's pretty good.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

OK, now I'm hearing about Mosby's which is getting high recommendations. Help!

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I am using Mosby's and it seems very thorough. Stedman's is good too.

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Specializes in Home Care.

I have Taber's, its great.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

In answering questions here on the forums I have both Taber's and Mosby's dictionaries. I've always had a copy of Taber's since I was a student back in 1973. I like Taber's because it has better pictures and explanations. It has more information in the appendices. Also, for nursing it has the complete NANDA taxonomy of the nursing diagnoses in the appendix and Mosby's does not, which when you get into nursing school will be invaluable. I taught medical terminology and I found Taber's to be a better dictionary for finding the definition of word roots.

The best way to learn medical terminology is by using flash cards to memorize the roots, suffixes and prefixes. Trust me.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Agree with those who use Tabers. Haven't had it fail me yet when I needed to look up a word.

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Specializes in ..

I have three. Two pocket sized ones (Oxford and Australian Nurses) and one massive one (Mosbys.) They all do the job fine. When I took a medical terminology class (not for nursing, for medical receptioning) they gave us the Oxford dictionary.

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Can someone please tell me the difference between the Mosby's (blue cover, 8th ed.) dictionary of medicine, nursing and health professions and the Mosby's (red cover, 8th ed.) dictionary???? Thankyou

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