History

For more than 20 years, The Visual Dictionary has
shown and named the world around us better than
any other reference book.

• 1982

  Publisher Jacques Fortin and linguist Jean-Claude Corbeil met and came up with a plan for a thematic visual dictionary.

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    1986

    Partnership with the American publisher Facts on File, and publication of the first edition of The Visual Dictionary in a unilingual, black-and-white version.

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    1989

    Publication of The Junior Visual Dictionary, the first color dictionary completely produced on computer, with images of unprecedented accuracy.

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    1992

    Publication of a second edition of The Visual Dictionary in bilingual and multilingual versions. This color edition, produced on computer, was a huge success, with more than 5 million copies sold in no fewer than 25 languages.

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    1994

    Publication of a second edition of The Junior Visual Dictionary.

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    1996

    Launch of The Visual Dictionary CD-ROM, with animation and pronunciation in three languages (English/French/Spanish). Winner of the Möbius International award for best multimedia product.

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    1997

    Publication of My First Visual Dictionary, a magnificently illustrated visual dictionary for children ages 2 years and up.

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    2002

    Publication of a third edition of The New Visual Dictionary. The volume includes 6,000 illustrations, 800 subjects and 32,000 terms. This richer and more spectacular edition was named one of the “Best Reference Sources 2002” by the U.S. Library Journal.

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    2003

    Publication of The New Junior Visual Dictionary in a bilingual (English/French) edition and publication of The New Multilingual Visual Dictionary (English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) with 6,000 illustrations and 32,000 words in each language.

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    2004

    Launch of The New Visual Dictionary CD-ROM and publication of The Visual Dictionary with Definitions, the dictionary that shows, names, defines and explains. Information imparted by the illustrations is complemented by short definitions.

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    2005

    Launch of The Junior Visual Dictionary CD-ROM, a multimedia dictionary for young people ages 8 years and up. Publication of an abridged edition of The Visual Dictionary and a second edition of My First Visual Dictionary in unilingual and bilingual (French/English) versions.

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    2006

    Publication of Merriam-Webster’s Visual Dictionary and launch of the Merriam-Webster’s Visual Dictionary CD-ROM, which defines and pronounces 40,000 terms in English and French, and includes 6,000 illustrations and appealing exercises on each screen.