The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

The first edition appeared in 1969, an outgrowth of the editorial effort for Houghton Mifflin's American Heritage brand of history books and journals.

In fact, the dictionary did apply the labels slang, substandard and nonstandard, but in the view of critics, not often enough and with insufficient disapproval.)

The AHD was edited by William Morris and relied on a usage panel of 105 writers, speakers, and eminent persons chosen for their well-known conservatism in the use of language.

In its final form, the panel comprised nearly 200 prominent members of professions whose work demanded sensitivity to language.

Former members of the usage panel include novelists (Isaac Asimov, Barbara Kingsolver, David Foster Wallace and Eudora Welty), poets (Rita Dove, Galway Kinnell, Mary Oliver and Robert Pinsky), playwrights (Terrence McNally and Marsha Norman), journalists (Liane Hansen and Susan Stamberg), literary critics (Harold Bloom), columnists and commentators (William F. Buckley Jr. and Robert J. Samuelson), linguists and cognitive scientists (Anne Curzan, Steven Pinker and Calvert Watkins) and humorists (Garrison Keillor, David Sedaris and Alison Bechdel).

Houghton Mifflin dissolved the usage panel on February 1, 2018, citing the decline in demand for print dictionaries.

[3] The AHD is also somewhat innovative in its liberal use of photographic illustrations, which at the time was highly unusual for general reference dictionaries, many of which went largely or completely unillustrated.

The third edition was also a departure for the publisher because it was developed in a database, which facilitated the use of the linguistic data for other applications, such as electronic dictionaries.

The AHD inserts minor revisions (such as a biographical entry, with photograph, for each newly elected U.S. president) in successive printings of any given edition.