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Unrivalled breadth and depth. The biggest dictionary of any language in the world in print, on CD-Rom and online! Over 600,000 definitions Over 2.5 million quotation examples to show words in context Explores the evolution of English over the last 1500 years
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Unrivalled breadth and depth • The biggest dictionary of any language in the world in print, on CD-Rom and online! • Over 600,000 definitions • Over 2.5 million quotation examples to show words in context • Explores the evolution of English over the last 1500 years • Covers words and phrases from across the English-speaking world
An 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 6000 new and revised definitions published online each year
Click on Customer Service tab to find out how Did you know that you can load the “Search OED” icon to your toolbar? Then you can highlight a word on any web site and OED will open up at the definition!
Right-click on this link and follow the instructions below
…and click on the link! Highlight a word on any website…
Any problems? • Make sure that your toolbar is unlocked – hold mouse over toolbar and right-click, then untick the ‘Lock toolbars’ option • Add the website to your trusted sites: select Tools, Internet Options, Security. Then click on ‘Sites’ and add http://www.oed.com. You may also need to untick the ‘require https in this zone’ box. Click OK twice to finalize. Now try again!
Now let’s start exploring the dictionary!
nice Type here to do a Quick Search for a word and press return or click on
Click on a result to go to the definition – the abbreviations referring to different part of speech help you to select the most relevant entry
Take a look at adjacent entries in the dictionary. This is your entry for nice.
By selecting the List by Date tab you can view entries for other words appearing in English at the same time as nice.
You can also choose to view a map guiding you through the different senses of nice.
Within the entry for each word, the definitions are listed in chronological order with the oldest appearing first. Scroll through the entry to see how the meaning of nice has changed over time.
You can customize your view of the dictionary by selecting the relevant tabs at the top.
Each different meaning is also illustrated by useful quotations…
…as well as a date chart, showing you when each meaning of nice was in use.
This gives the version and publication date of the entry. If you’re interested in the development of the OED itself, take a look at the entry for nice in an earlier edition. Scroll down to view the current meaning of nice.
Quick Search You can also use wildcards in Quick Search: * represents any number of missing words (or none) ? represents one missing letter
You can change the number of results displayed per page. A search for *phobia brings up 115 words ending with phobia
Unsure about spelling? A search for r*yt*m will find the correct one!
Select Simple Search or Advanced Search from the tab at the bottom
Simple Search • Simple Search allows you to select the area of your search term from a variety of options: • Full text, definitions, etymologies, language names • Quotations, Quotation date / author / work • First cited date / author / work • It also allows you to do Proximity Searches
Type in a search term, select an area from the drop-down list and click on
Read though all 279 English words that owe a debt to Urdu!
Or view all 3,706 quotations from Shakespeare used to illustrate meanings!
Proximity searching Click in More options to search for one word or phrase in association with another
Know the meaning but not the word? This type of search helps you find the definition of the fear of spiders.
Advanced Search • Use Boolean operators such as AND, OR, NEAR • Combine a search on three words, and specify the order in which they appear • Filter for specific parts of speech • Restrict your search to the results of previous searches • Search a specific edition of the OED • Search pronunciations and quotations
Let’s search for any words related to fashion, originating from French, that entered English after 1750.
Let’s try a search for PRONUNCIATION, which will allow you to search for rhymes! First, you need to look up the phonetic symbol for the rhyme you need. Go to HELP for this.
Here you find a list of the phonetic symbols for all the sounds used in English, with the corresponding keyboard equivalent. Let’s search for words rhyming with /eIt/, like fate, or great.
Scroll down to find the symbol at the bottom of the list.
Now type the equivalent keyboard sign into the search box and select pronunciation. This search will find any words ending with this sound.
This search will only find monosyllabic nouns rhyming with fate.
65 results! This link always takes you back to the homepage View the result by entry name, entry date or quotation date.
Through the OED Help, you can also find a list of all the language names!
