Travelers with intermediate-level knowledge of Spanish, and students of Spanish language on intermediate or advanced levels will value this book as a key to getting past the slang barrier and grasping Spanish and its idioms as people of different regions and social classes actually speak it. Close to 4,500 words and colloquial expressions seldom found in standard English-Spanish dictionaries are listed alphabetically with definitions. Included with each entry is a phrase or a brief sentence that demonstrates how the term is used in a conversational context, followed by its meaning in English. In an engrossing preface, the author discusses the nature of slang and its uses in all languages. And since Spanish is the official language of 21 countries, each with its own regional idioms, he indicates in each of this book's entries whether the specific idiom is more commonly used in Spain or in Latin America. With the intention of being comprehensive, the author includes some entries that are generally considered vulgar, and which some readers might find offensive.