Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage is a usage dictionary published by Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster

Merriam–Webster, which was originally the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is an American company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language .Merriam-Webster Inc. has been a...

, Inc., of Springfield

Springfield, Massachusetts

Springfield is the most populous city in Western New England, and the seat of Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers; the western Westfield River, the eastern Chicopee River, and the eastern...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. It is currently available in a reprint edition (1994) ISBN 0-87779-132-5 or ISBN 978-0877791324. (The 1989 edition did not include Merriam– in the title. It was added as part of the rebranding

Rebranding

Rebranding is the creation of a new name, term, symbol, design, or a combination of them for an established brand with the intention of developing a differentiated position in the mind of stakeholders and competitors....

 campaign to emphasize the differences between Merriam–Webster's dictionaries and dictionaries of other publishers using the generic trademark Webster's.)

It is critically acclaimed by linguist Geoffrey Pullum

Geoffrey Pullum

Geoffrey Keith "Geoff" Pullum is a British-American linguist specialising in the study of English. , he is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh....

, who calls it "the best usage book I know of... utterly wonderful." http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001803.html It is known for its historical scholarship, analysis, use of examples, and descriptive approach. It has more than 2,300 entries, and includes more than 20,000 quotation

Quotation

A quotation or quote is the repetition of one expression as part of another one, particularly when the quoted expression is well-known or explicitly attributed by citation to its original source, and it is indicated by quotation marks.A quotation can also refer to the repeated use of units of any...

s from prominent writers. http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?usage.htm&6

The full text is online free at Google Books.

A concise version is also available.

See also

• A Dictionary of Modern English Usage
• The Cambridge Guide to English Usage
  The Cambridge Guide to English Usage
  The Cambridge Guide to English Usage by Pam Peters is a usage dictionary, giving an up-to-date account of the debatable issues of English usage and written style. It is based on extensive, up-to-date corpus data rather than on the author’s personal intuition or prejudice, and differentiates between...
  
  
• Garner's Modern American Usage
  Garner's Modern American Usage
  Garner's Modern American Usage, edited by Bryan Garner, is a usage guide for contemporary American English. Modern American Usage covers issues of usage, pronunciation, and style, from plurals and literary techniques to distinctions between similar words and the usage of foreign terms.-Editions and...
  
  
• List of English words with disputed usage