This dictionary of the modern Mongolian language has been compiled over the last thirty years by the method of reading contemporary printed material and evaluating words and phrases within their actual context. The range of vocabulary presented illustrates the often widely varying interests and tone of publications dating from the days of the Mongolian People's Republic (1924-1992) and those of its successor, Mongolia.

Sources used include newspapers, academic, literary and semi-popular journals and magazines, and books in many fields of interest such as animal husbandry, botany, zoology, history, geography, medicine, magic, hunting, arts and crafts and technology.

The intention has been to keep pace, as far as practicable, with the reflection in language of a rapidly evolving social and political situation, for which reason earlier dictionaries have not been quarried as a source for head words and subsidiary entries, though the compiler acknowledges the help they have afforded in formulating English equivalents.

The dictionary contains about twenty-six and a half thousand main entries and numerous subsidiary entries. To enhance its usefulness some short quotations from original sources have been included with the intention of illustrating current usage. Wherever possible, too, the originals of loanwords from Tibetan have been supplied.

It is hoped that the dictionary will be useful to beginners and more advanced students of the Mongolian language, whether in academic life, government service, journalism, business or other fields.