A Latin dictionary is an investment, but there are alternatives for those just learning the language. The Latin dictionary by Lewis and Short (the old standard), covers words of early Church Latin. If you're primarily interested in Classical Latin, the Oxford Classical Latin Dictionary has several advantages. Students traveling to and from classes, need a more compact, thumb-indexed dictionary.
"Latin Dictionary Founded on Andrew's Edition of Freund's Latin Dictionary," by Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, was the standard Latin-English dictionary for many years. Unlike its more expensive competitor, Lewis and Short includes words of late, ecclesiastical (church) Latin.
With approximately 40,000 words and readings from epigraphical material not available to Lewis and Short, this dictionary is fast replacing L&S as the standard for Classical Latin. Authors cited go up to about A.D. 200.
"Cassell's Latin Dictionary : Latin-English, English-Latin" also comes in a non-thumb-indexed edition. Don't buy it. This hardback Latin dictionary is for students learning to read Latin who will be looking up dozens of words or more a day. The thumb index will save your sanity. Cassell's isn't as heavy or expensive as the big ones, but contains most of what students need.
Some might preface even the name "Collins Gem Latin Dictionary: Latin-English English-Latin" with "horribile dictu," but I love it and keep it beside my computer at all times. It has a fine collection of English to Latin words, a short, useful grammatical section, and it's so small it fits in a shirt pocket.
"New College Latin and English Dictionary" is a fine student dictionary. It's small enough not to weigh you down and contains more than 70,000 words and phrases. On the downside, if you use it a lot, the cover will come off and it doesn't have the easy thumb index of Cassell's.
This dictionary, based on the excellent modern Oxford Latin Dictionary, is heavy on the English-Latin side and light on words normally used in Latin Prose composition. It is probably best for those who want to know the Latin for an occasional English word.
