Discover the story of English
More than 600,000 words, over a thousand years
Welcome to OED Online. If you or your library subscribes, 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.
Discovering English regional words
Associate Editor Eleanor Maier has been asking people for words used specifically in their regions... Find out more >
September 2017 update
- What's new: More than 1,000 new words, phrases, and senses have entered the Oxford English Dictionary in our latest update, which sees the inclusion of fatberg, beltway, and worstest. Find out more >
- New article: Henry Hitchings, Consultant Editor of the OED, explores the knotty story of 'Halloween'.
- More Aspects of English
- Videos: Oxford Dictionaries