Discover the story of English
More than 600,000 words, over a thousand years
Welcome to OED Online. If you or your library subscribe, dive straight in to the riches of the English language. If not, click on the images below to learn more about the OED, see What's new, or take a look at Aspects of English, our language feature section.
OED Appeals
Do you have an earlier record of a word which our editors are currently researching? Take a look at our recent appeals and submit your evidence.
Learn more about the history of the OED Appeals in this article by Associate Editor Peter Gilliver.
March 2014 update
What's new: Learn more about the latest revisions and new words from Head of US Dictionaries, Katherine Martin, and and delve a little deeper into some of the entries that have been revised with the release notes by Deputy Chief Editors Philip Durkin and Edmund Weiner.
New article: Read about the results of our appeal for earlier evidence for Earl Grey tea.
More Aspects of English
Videos: Oxford Dictionaries