Oxford and the Dictionary [PDF Library]

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Our range o over 500 dictionaries, thesauruses, and language reerence works caters

or the needs o very young children up to the accomplished academic, and or speakers

o dierent languages across the world.

Dierent types o dictionary

❖ The Oxord English Dictionary – the denitive record o the English language since1150

❖ Dictionaries o current English or general reerence and academic study

❖ Dictionaries or children and students to the age o 16, supporting dierent

curricula and international qualications such as the iGSCE

❖ Dictionaries or learning English – designed or learners o English as a oreign

language. These are published or dierent countries around the world.

❖ Bilingual dictionaries or people learning and using other languages. Oxord

publishes dictionaries in over 40 languages, rom modern European languages toclassical languages, as well as languages rom around the world, including Russian,

Chinese, Japanese, Gujarati, and Swahili.

❖ Dictionaries looking at dierent varieties o English, such as Canadian, Australian,

and South Arican English

Oxford and the Dictionary



The Oxford English Dictionary

Perhaps the most amous English

dictionary in the world is the Oxord English

Dictionary (OED). The dictionary was the

brain-child o the Philological Society o London, whose members started collecting

examples o word usage or what was to

become the OED in the late 1850s. In 1879

Oxord University Press agreed to take

over the work, appointing an editor and

revitalizing the data collection: words and their meanings were sent to the dictionary’s

oce or ‘scriptorium’ by members o the public on ‘slips’, creating what was then the

world’s largest paper-based corpus or word bank. The dictionary was published in

instalments between 1884 and 1928, but it soon had to be expanded as new words and

meanings continued to food into the language, and so over the period 1933-86 vesupplementary volumes were published.

Today, the Oxord English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution o the

English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning,

history, and pronunciation o over 600,000 words, both present and past. It traces

the usage o words through 2.5 million quotations rom a wide range o international

English language sources across the English-speaking

world, rom classic literature and specialist periodicals

to lm scripts and cookery books. Entries also contain

detailed etymological analysis, making the OED aunique historical record o the English language.

The Second Edition o the OED is currently available

as a 20-volume print edition, on CD-ROM, and

also online, where the text is now or the rst time

being completely revised to produce a Third Edition.

Updated quarterly with some 2,500 new and revised

entries, OED Online oers unparalleled access to ‘the

greatest dictionary in any language’ ( Daily Telegraph).



Dictionaries o current English or reerenceand academic study

Oxord publishes an extensive range o dictionaries to meet the changing needs o

dictionary users, including versions on CD-ROMs and online. The range includes

dictionaries or students at college and university, dictionaries or amily reerence,and or use at work. The world-amous Concise Oxord English Dictionary , now in its

eleventh edition, has been in print or over 90 years.

Dictionaries written specifcallyor Children

Oxord also prides itsel on creating dictionaries

with age-appropriate content. This is particularly

important or children when they are rst starting

to use dictionaries. Through a rigorous approacho including child-riendly denitions, examples in

the context o the younger audience’s experiences,

and example sentences rom children’s literature

spanning a century o works, the Oxord English

Dictionary or Schools leads the way and heads a

complete range o children’s dictionaries or use at

home and school.

Learning English as a ForeignLanguage

In the 1940s, A.S. Hornby, an English Language

teacher working in Japan, compiled the ground-

breaking Oxord Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

(OALD). Hornby realized that people learning

English as a oreign language need a special type o

dictionary: a learner’s dictionary. His ideas put the

learners rst, providing clear explanations, example

sentences, and help with using words correctly.

Now in its seventh edition,

and standing rm as the

best-selling advanced

learner’s dictionary or

over 50 years, the OALD

has more words, more

synonyms, and more help

than any other advanced

learner’s dictionary.



Dictionaries or dierentvarieties o English

Oxord publishes dictionaries in a number

o dierent countries, including:

❖ Australia and New Zealand – where

OUP publishes dictionaries and

thesauruses or Primary and Secondary

schools. Monolingual dictionaries

or adults and Higher Education are

also available. There are also specic

dictionaries developed or Primary

and Secondary schools in Papua New

Guinea.

❖ Canada – where OUP oers a range o

monolingual Canadian dictionaries or

the adult and school markets as well as

companion thesauruses.

❖ China – or regional and international

markets, OUP China publishes English-

Chinese dictionaries and a broad range

o college, academic, and general titles

about and or China, again both in English and in Chinese.

❖ Malaysia – where OUP publishes local dictionaries in Malay, English, Chinese,

Arabic, and Tamil. These are developed or Primary and Secondary schools. OUP

also oers local learner’s and monolingual dictionaries developed or the adult and

Higher Education markets.

❖ India – where OUP publishes bilingual dictionaries in Hindi, Bengali, Oriya,

Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, etc. The range includes dictionaries or school and

higher education students as well as the general reader.

❖ Pakistan – where OUP oers a range o English–Urdu dictionaries or the general

reader and school students. Dictionaries or Sindhi speakers are in development.

❖ Kenya and Tanzania – where Kiswahili dictionaries have been created or Primary

schools and or general readers.

❖ South Africa – where a wide range o local dictionaries are available or schools and

general readers. As well as monolingual local dictionaries, the new bilingual range

includes dictionaries or speakers o Arikaans, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Siswati, Sepedi,

Sesotho, and Setswana.



What makes an Oxford Dictionary?People nd dictionary-making ascinating. The 250th anniversary o Samuel Johnson’s

Dictionary in 2005 was widely celebrated, and the recent BBC television series

Balderdash and Pife had a huge response to its call to viewers to help track down

elusive word and phrase origins or the OED. But how are dictionaries written today?

And how do you know that what is included in a dictionary is accurate and up to date?

Oxord English Corpus – language researchbased on real evidence

A corpus is a collection o texts o written (or spoken) language

presented in electronic orm. It provides the evidence o how

language is used in real situations, rom which lexicographers

can write accurate and meaningul dictionary entries. The Oxord English Corpus is at the heart o dictionary-making in Oxord in the

21st century and ensures that OUP can track and record the very

latest developments in language today. By analysing the corpus and

using special sotware, we can see words in context and nd out

how new words and senses are emerging, as well as spotting other

trends in usage, spelling, World English, and more.

The Oxord English Corpus gives us the ullest, most accurate

picture o the language today. It represents all types o English,

rom literary novels and specialist journals to everyday newspapersand magazines as well as the language o chatrooms, emails, and

weblogs. And, as English is a global language, used by an estimated

one third o the world’s population, the Oxord English Corpus

contains language rom all parts o the world – not only rom the

UK and the United States but also rom Australia, the Caribbean,

Canada, India, Singapore, and South Arica. It is the largest English

corpus o its type: the most representative slice o the English language available.

Oxord Dictionaries are continually monitoring and researching how language is

evolving. The Oxord English Corpus is central to the process and to Oxord’s £35 million

research programme – the largest language research programme in the world.

Meanings o words and phrases change and so do spellings, despite the existence o

‘standard’ or ‘correct’ spelling. A strength o the corpus is that it contains not only

published works in which the text has been edited (and made to conorm to standard

spellings and grammar) but also unpublished and unedited writing like emails and

weblogs.



The Oxord Reading Programme

The Oxord Reading Programme exists to provide Oxord lexicographers with evidence

o how words are used today in the English-speaking world, and to alert them to the

emergence o new words.

The programme maintains a network o voluntary and paid readers who provide editors

with quotations which illustrate how words are used. Until the 1990s the quotations

were kept on alphabetically led slips o paper. Now they are entered on a searchable

database called ‘Incomings’ which currently contains some 62 million words; on

average, 17,000 quotations are sent in by readers every month.

The Oxord Reading Programme has its origins in the programme o reading that was

started in 1857 or the Oxord English Dictionary .

The range and quality o an Oxord Dictionary is beyond compare. Whatever your

language needs and abilities, Oxord University Press has a dictionary or you.

To nd out more about the Oxord dictionaries available in your country, please visit

your local Oxord University Press website’s Dictionary section.

Oxford and the Dictionary [PDF Library]

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