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!

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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

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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

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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

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