Product Description

The New Oxford Dictionary of English was first published in 1998 and quickly established itself as the foremost single-volume authority on the English language. This is a major new edition, now without the New in the title, but with all the features that brought world-wide acclaim to the first publication. The Oxford Dictionary of English is at the forefront of language research, focusing on English as it is used today, informed by the most up-to-date evidence and the latest
research from the Oxford English Corpus. The dictionary is unique in that it places the central and most frequent meanings of each word first, followed by secondary and technical senses, slang, idioms, and historical and archaic senses. There are over 500 boxed usage notes, giving guidance on all aspects of the language and backed up by extensive analysis of 100s of millions of words of real English. Featuring 355,000 words, phrases, and definitions, this dictionary offers the most comprehensive
coverage of English as it is actually used in the twenty-first century. There is also a brand-new set of appendices, covering topics including countries, heads of state, and chemical elements.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244334 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 2110 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
For many speakers and learners of English, the word "Oxford" spells authority about language. The second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English is no exception. Any dictionary which comes from Oxford University Press (whose origins lie in the Middle Ages, the foundation of the university and the dawn of printing) tends to be in a different league from its competitors.

Based on the "Oxford English Corpus", language databases, which amount to "hundreds of millions of words of written and spoken English in machine-readable form", this hefty single-volume dictionary has four million words of text. That includes 355,000 words phrases and definitions, 12,000 encyclopaedic entries and 68,000 explanations. The statistics are mind blowing.

Like all good dictionaries it's bang up to date. "Greasy spoon", "data smog" and "WMD" are all here, scrupulously glossed. So, of course are wonderful, old, near-obsolete words like "editrice" and "bouffant". Plenty of proper names get in too. Did you know that a "Queensland blue" is a cattle dog with a dark speckled body as opposed to a "Queensland nut" which is another name for the macadamia nut?

Like other new dictionaries the Oxford Dictionary of English provides boxed usage notes which point up, say, the difference between "pedal" and "peddle" or discuss the vexed old question of whether infinitives may be split. More unusual are the 14 detailed appendices on, for example, English in electronic communications, collective nouns and proof-reading marks. Most useful of all is probably the "Guide to Good English" which manages to be both admirably concise and immaculately clear. --Susan Elkin

Richard Bell, Writing Magazine
""For all its entries, the Oxford has good clear definitions, excellent descriptions of word origins, and plenty of usgae boxes.""

Customer Reviews

Excellent one volume reference
This book is over 2100 pages long and includes some appendices such as a small guide to good English and lists of such things as countries of the world and British Prime Minsters.

The combination of pronunciation, definitions and word derivation is more than sufficient for my needs and probably for most other people's too except for those engaged in specialist linguistic or literary studies.

The Best, in my opinion
The interesting thing about this dictionary, that makes it different from all the others, is the history behind it. Instead of revising or re-editing an existing dictionary, the authors carried out six years of study of the English language all over the world, for the first edition in 1998. They included elements that are internationally understandable, for English-speaking people everywhere. It isn't a British or American dictionary, it's an international English dictionary. Also contains entries on geographical places and people past and present. The phonetic transcription is only given for words or names where native English-speakers might hesitate with the pronunciation. My favourite Oxford dictionary! Highly recommended if you need a dictionary for international English.

An Oxford monster
This is a 'monster' of a tome, and probably the best single dictionary (and quite a bit more)resource you'll need.

Well worth the investment - go ahead an buy it, you'll be glad you did.