oxford english dictionary online
TRANSCRIPT
An introductory guide to OED ONLINE...An introductory guide to OED ONLINE...
Unrivalled breadth and depthUnrivalled breadth and depth
• Includes definitions of over 600,000 words• Usage illustrated by over 2.5 million quotations• Provides a unique historical record of the
development of English over the last millennium• Covers words and phrases from across the English-
speaking world
•The biggest dictionary of any language in the
world - now online!
www.oed.com
Widely acclaimedWidely acclaimed• “The ultimate authority on the English
language as well as a history of English speech and thought from its infancy to the present day” The Times
• “The greatest continuing work of scholarship that this century has produced” Newsweek
• “An essential acquisition for all libraries” Library Journal
www.oed.com
An enormous projectAn enormous project• The updating of the OED is the world’s
largest humanities research project– Editorial work alone costs OUP £3 million per
year!– 80 in-house lexicographers, researchers and
systems engineers working on the project– 200 specialist advisers– Numerous external contributors
• At least 1000 new and revised definitions published online each year
www.oed.com
nice
Type here to do a quick search for a word
And then click here or press return
Results from a Find Word search for “NICE”
Click on a result to go to the definition
Quotations from a wide range of sources illustrate meanings and
show usage
The original meaning of NICE!
Click here to see the entry without quotations
Scroll though the entry to see how much NICE has
changed in meaning over
time!
As the OED is a historical
dictionary, the oldest meaning of each word appears first.
How many senses of NICE are there? Click
on Entry Map to find out.
There are 20 different senses - use this list to navigate through the
history of NICE
The chronological coverage of the OED means that modern senses
follow older meanings
Click on the List by Date button to see which other words entered English in
1300, the same year as NICE
Click on the Date Chart button to see at a glance when each sense was in
common usage
115 different types of phobia…
including Anglophobia!
Wildcards can be used in all search boxes…
* represents any number of missing letters (including 0) ? represents 1 missing letter
Type *phobia to find all words ending in phobia
Select the number of results displayed per
page here
62 results are found
To find all 6 letter words starting MIN, simply type
min???
Click here to find which other fields
you can search
Further search options are available from all
webpages
Click Simple Search to open the full text search
window
Type a word or phrase in the box to
find it in the full text of the Dictionary, or in a selected area from the
drop-down list
Type URDU in the “Search for” box, select Language Names from the drop-down list, and click return to get a list.
How many English words owe a debt to Urdu?
Proximity searching
Click here to search for
one word or phrase in
association with another
Know the meaning but not the word?
…and here’s the word!Here’s how to find the term for beer mat collectors!
It’s always a good idea to use an * at the end of each word as the definition could describe
the activity as collector, collecting etc.
…and here’s the list
Here’s how to find all quotations from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice...
Click here to move to Advanced
Search
Which nouns derive from Hindi, entered English since 1500, and relate to food? Here’s how to find out...
Here’s how to find nouns –
or other parts of speech
…and here’s the list
Words to do with music that have come into the language since 1980?
…and here’s the list
Take a crossword clue such as: “Which word describes a type of dance and a type of sauce?” Here’s how to find out...
…and here’s the answer!
Further informationFurther information• Full details about the OED and OED Online
are available at www.oed.com• A detailed tour is available at
www.oed.com/public/tour• If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate
to contact us at [email protected]
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