The Virtues of a Good Monolingual Dictionary

When I corrected the proof copy of my children's book about Miro the Dragon, I encountered some cases where I wasn't 100% sure about a preposition, or the right use of a word. No big deal, I thought, and asked my boyfriend, who is a native English speaker and pretty smart. However, he wasn't absolutely sure in every of the cases either. Boy, I missed my monlingual dictionary at that point!

The greatest thing about my monolingual dictionary is that it actually gives example sentences for the use of words, and those sentences almost always include the correct prepositions to go with it. That way, I dont only get an example of the context(s) in which a word is used, but also the correct preposition(s), and whether it is followed by a to-infinitive or a gerund.

It also gives me phrasal meanings, that is, an alphabetical list of uses for this word (with prepositions etc which take on a different meaning).

Another thing I don't want to miss is the indication of whether or not a verb can be used with direct speech (like "to say", "to ask").

Last but not least, my monolingual dictionary tells me when a word, a spelling or pronunciation is only used in British English or American English (I think it even indicates Australian English use only).

All in all, my monolingual dictionary has become a trusted and valuable asset for writing and editing. It's a Cambridge Dictionary (from PONS, I think), by the way, for those of you who are interested, and it's already some years old. In fact, it has accompanied me through the last couple of my school years and all my freelancing life, and it's almost letter-size and has several hundred pages. It's paperback, though, so unlike my other dictionaries, this one wouldn't make a good weapon against robbers....

Do you have a monolingual dictionary you use for reading/writing/editing or anything else? If so, tell us about it!