OED Online
The OED (Oxford English Dictionary) Online is the accepted authority on the history and development of the English language since 1150. OED Online is a guide to the meaning, history and pronunciation of over half a million words, both past and present.
OED traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, including classical literature, specialist periodicals, film scripts and cookbooks.
The OED Online covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa, from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. This historical dictionary offers etymological analysis, listings of variant spellings and shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
As a historical dictionary, OED entry structure is different from dictionary of current English. For each word:
- Groupings of senses (definitions) are in chronological order with the earliest meaning first
- Recently developed senses (definitions) are at the end of the entry