The Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Abridged is the one that almost all copyeditors and proofreaders in book publishing are expected to use. This is so that the freelancers and everyone else concerned do not have to learn a new style sheet for every book.
The last book I handed in had several closed-up spellings for words that the 11th still has as two words. I let these ride except for one, which looked bizarre to me as one word. The whole things starts to look Joycean if you’re not careful.
“Goodbye” is standard in all magazines and newspapers. It’s only book people who are stuck in the past. Newspapers also use cellphone, not cell phone, and a few others that look right to me.
Glad you are interested in dictionaries. If you want a recommendation, I would say the 11th. It’s also online.
dear firebrand,
I accept your sectional response.
I am not sure if you were aware that a lot of the elder generation writers I have known, to include Mr. Harlan Ellison, have refused to use any edition of Webster’s after the 3rd edition, for reasons of dilution of the language.
I interject, that the federal government, in hiring a lot of WW2 veterans, actually held classes in inter-office communications, which included terms such as, and i quote: “aintcha”, “dontcha”, “gotcha”.
(This was told to me by a fellow office worker, who was a WW2 veteran that served in the 7th Cavalry, during my time as a Dept. of Defense Q.A. Specialist.)