What's new
Latest online update: March 2012
In the March update we revise some 'linguistic colossi’, including time (with 607 terms in 110 entries), blood (with 440 lexical items in 106 entries), and gas (with 363 lexical items in 130 entries).
The latest revision also sees updates to modes of transport, which are significant indicators of social and lexical change, along with other subjects including health, education, and business.
Read more about the revisions in the March update from the Chief Editor of the OED, John Simpson.
Take a closer look at some of the new words and senses added to the OED, from dataveillance and geotagging to soz and bouffy.
The OED publishes four updates a year. The next update will be added to the dictionary in June 2012.
In December 2010 the OED online relaunched with new functionality and the addition of the Historical Thesaurus of the OED. Read about the featured changes.
Latest articles on OED Online
Windows on to words: dive into the OED!
Shapers of English: Tania Styles looks at place names in the OED.
English in time: Eleanor Maier explores how the 'buster' suffix has become ubiquitous.
English in use: Penny Silva writes about South African English.
More English in use: Richard Shapiro examines whether Indian cardinal numbers are the most distinctive counting system in English.
Word stories: Denny Hilton on The ‘auto-’ age .
Word of the Day: Sign up to Word of the Day or follow OED Online on
.
More articles
- Surnames in English. You can also read more features in Shapers of English.
- Geordie, pitmatic, and north-eastern dialects. You can also read more features on English in use.
- Victorian English. You can also read more features on English in time.
- Information. You can also read more Word stories
Videos
New video shorts: a series of videos now live examines how the OED is produced behind the scenes:
- Writing the OED
- Writing the OED: New Words
- Writing the OED: In the Stacks
- Writing the OED: American English
- Writing the OED: Grammar
- Writing the OED: Megalosaurus
- Writing the OED: Potato Salad
- Writing the OED: March 2011 update