This is the first comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of the Igbo language, one of the three national languages of Nigeria. Michael J. C. Echeruo, a native speaker of Igbo, focuses on basic words and phrases that the twenty million speakers of Igbo encounter in everyday life—in conversation and in Igbo texts. Recognizing the absence of a single dominant dialect, the author collects words from all of them, with emphasis on the predominant Owerri and Onitsha dialects. The book also includes an English-Igbo index listing Igbo equivalents for particular English words.

In the first section of this dictionary, thorough entries for each of some four thousand Igbo discrete word-forms feature Igbo headwords in bold type followed by grammatical class, tone, dialect zone, English meanings, Igbo examples, variants, etymology, and special notes where necessary. Verbs are listed under their consonantal stems as well as in combined entries that include the nouns that complete their meanings. The dictionary`s second part is a convenient English index that refers the user to the closest Igbo synonyms for English words. With a helpful introduction and appendices, this volume will be a primary reference work for both native and non-native users of the Igbo language.