Third Edition prepared by the American Geological Institute includes hyphenation and pronunciation guide, commonly used abbreviations, many word orgins and a geologic time and life chart.Users can learn the difference between look-alike pairs, such as sylvanite (a mineral) and sylvinite (a rock); the origin of terms; the meaning of abbreviations and acronyms common in the geoscience vocabulary; the dates many terms were first used; the meaning of certain prefixes; and the preferred term of two or more synonyms. Many Glossary entries contain a syllabification guide and background information.