Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • abbreviation International Standard Book Number

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • initialism International Standard Book Number

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Bookfinder currently lists 187 used copies of the various volumes of Marmalade Boy in English, many under $10 including shipping; searching by ISBN is usually the most effective way of finding the exact volume you want (the Wikipedia article List of Marmalade Boy chapters gives the ISBNs for the Tokyopop editions). davidpwelsh Says:

    Birthday book: Ultra Maniac 2009

  • This is the kind of story that sort of makes me want to cover myself in ISBN numbers and chain myself to their front doors in protest of their intense worthlessness.

    I used to spend a lot of money Roger Sutton 2007

  • Oh, and to the person who recommended looking up the bibliographic info, the ISBN is much more helpful, because it specifies not just book and author, but publisher and edition as well, both of which are usually crucial in have correct in a school book.

    I used to spend a lot of money Roger Sutton 2007

  • The ISBN is a mighty number, and I discovered this week that libraries depend on the ISBN more than the number issued by the Library of Congress.

    Everything You Want to Know About Library of Congress Numbers, ISBNs and More 2006

  • [The ISBN] is always available by the time a book is bought for the library.

    Everything You Want to Know About Library of Congress Numbers, ISBNs and More 2006

  • But the ISBN is 0954734378 if you want to look it up elsewhere.

    November 17th, 2005 2005

  • The ISBN was a great identifier and has served the industry well and no fits even more comfortably within the EAN structure.

    So how do we Identify a Chunk? Martyn Daniels 2008

  • The ISBN was a great identifier and has served the industry well and no fits even more comfortably within the EAN structure.

    Archive 2008-01-01 Martyn Daniels 2008

  • The ISBN is the unique identifier for THIS version of THIS title of THIS paperback.

    Firedoglake » Announcing the FDL Sunday Afternoon Book Club 2006

  • And I wouldn't start with the ISBN, which is a fair amount of trouble to look up and type in; I'd start by typing in as many words of the title as you think distinctive.

    languagehat.com: LIBRARYTHING. 2005

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