Oxford Dictionary of English

A copy of the 2001 edition of NODE

The Oxford Dictionary of English (formerly The New Oxford Dictionary of English, often abbreviated to NODE) is a single-volume English language dictionary first published in 1998 by Oxford University Press. This dictionary is not based on the Oxford English Dictionary and should not be mistaken for a new or updated version of the OED. It is a completely new dictionary which strives to represent as faithfully as possible the current usage of English words.

The 2005 edition contains 355,000 words, phrases, and definitions, including biographical references. A 3rd edition was published in August 2010, with some new definitions (such as vuvuzela).^[1]

It is at present the largest single-volume English-language dictionary published by Oxford.

Editorial principles and practices

The first editor, Judy Pearsal, wrote in the introduction that it is based on a modern understanding of language and is derived from a corpus of contemporary English usage. For example, the editors did not discourage split infinitives, but instead justified their use in some contexts. The dictionary is based on bodies of texts such as the British National Corpus and the citation database of the Oxford Reading Programme.

The dictionary "views the language from the perspective that English is a world language". A network of consultants provide extensive coverage of English usage from the US to the Caribbean and New Zealand.

A more unusual decision was to omit pronunciations of common, everyday words, contrary to the practice of most large dictionaries.^[2] The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is used to present pronunciations which are in turn based on the Received Pronunciation.

The New Oxford American Dictionary is the American version of the Oxford Dictionary of English, with substantial editing and uses a diacritical respelling scheme rather than the IPA system.

Editions

• 1st edition – 1998
• 2nd edition – 2005
• 3rd edition – 2010

See also

• Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED)
• New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD)
• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD)
• Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
• Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED)
• Australian Oxford Dictionary (AOD)

References

• The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-19-860441-6
• Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-861347-4, ISBN 978-0-19-861347-3.
• Oxford Dictionary of English, Revised Edition, Oxford University Press, C. Soanes and A. Stevenson, ISBN 0-19-861057-2, ISBN 978-0-19-861057-1, Publication date: 11 August 2005, hard cover, 270 × 208 mm.

Notes

1. ^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7951874/Vuvuzela-enters-Oxford-Dictionary-of-English.html
2. ^ "Generally speaking, native speakers of English do not need information about the pronunciation of ordinary, everyday words....For this reason, no pronunciations are given for such words (or their compounds or derivatives)....the principle followed is that pronunciations are given where they are likely to cause problems for the native speaker of English", The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford University Press, 1998, ed. Judy Pearsall et al, Introduction, p xvii.

External links

• Oxford University Press
• Oxford Dictionaries Online online version published in 2010
• World Wide Words reviews: New Oxford Dictionary of English edited by Judy Pearsall by Michael Quinion, page created 15 August 1998; last updated 27 May 2000.