oxford dictionary essay

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Essay: The Oxford English Dictionary

by Renee Brown

When Beowulf, the greatest and oldest single work of Old English, was composed, there was no dictionary; when Chaucer wrote the legendary Canterbury Tales, there was no dictionary, when the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare, produced his graceful poems and plays, there was no dictionary. The first, what would today be called, “dictionary” was compiled in 1604 by a man named Robert Cawdray; A Table Alphabeticall was only 120 pages. One hundred and fifty years later, Dr. Samuel Johnson published his Dictionary . This respectable publication documented 40,000 words and provided 114,000 quotations. The project took him nine years to complete single handedly (McCrum 117-9). It was not until one hundred years later that a project was begun which would far outperform the work of Johnson. The idea for a new dictionary was proposed by the Philological Society of London; at the time it was titled New English Dictionary , but it would become known to the world as the Oxford English Dictionary .

The OED is the “accepted authority on the evolution of English language over the last millennium” ( Oxford ). The purpose of a dictionary is to encompass a language “in its entirety,” the easy words as well as the hard ones, the common words as well as the obscure ones (Winchester 86). English is a world language, spreading all over the globe, which means that the language is constantly expanding, so all words, written, spoken, and read, should be documented (Winchester 87). The unique aspect of this reference is that it not only gives definitions for terms, like a dictionary is commonly understood to do, but the OED gives the meanings, history, pronunciation, and spelling of every word in the English language, both past and present. It is an etymological analysis of words ( Oxford ). The objective is to record “every word, every nuance, every shading of meaning and spelling and pronunciation, every twist of etymology, every possible illustrative citation from every English author” (Winchester 103). In essence, the OED is a “biography” for every English word (Winchester 105). The noble, yet immense ambition of Dr. James Murray.

When the idea of the dictionary was proposed in 1879, it was predicted to be 6,400 pages which would take ten years to complete; however, five years after the project began, the dictionary had reached only the word “ant” ( Oxford ). Murray was the first editor of the OED . He was born in Scotland and was self-educated. He devoted twenty-eight years of his life to the dictionary before his death in 1915. It was Murray's believe that quotations needed to be in the dictionary in order to “demonstrate the full range of characteristics of each and every word with a very great degree of precision. Quotations could show exactly how a word had been employed over the centuries” (Winchester 25-6). There are several ways to find words to put in a dictionary: listen to words spoken, copy words from other dictionaries, or read (Winchester 94). This final method was to be employed by the Oxford lexicographers. But it was physically impossible for Murray and his associates to read everything ever written, so they asked for contributors to send in words with definitions, quotations, and illustrations to add to the project. Thousands of people answered the call for help, but one individual in particular contributed to the OED like a madman.

Dr. William Chester Minor was born in Connecticut, became a surgeon, and served in the US army during the Civil War (Winchester 13). He suffered from delusions, thinking that the Irish were trying to kill him (Winchester 16). He came to London, and in February of 1872, Minor shot and killed George Merrett, a man who neither knew Minor nor had any contact with him prior to the attack (Winchester 3). Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum became Minor's home and prison (Winchester xiii). After eight years of confinement, Minor heard of Murray's request for contributors to the dictionary, and seeing this as an opportunity for “intellectual stimulus,” he decided to become a contributor (Winchester 113-4). Minor would read the books in his cell and document every word which he found fascinating; in this manner, he stayed a few letters ahead of the men working in Oxford (Winchester 139). Oxford often received hundreds of words from Minor in a single week (Winchester 155). Murray declared that Minor was “the most prolific of thousands of volunteer contributors” (Winchester xi). Neither Dr. Minor nor Dr. Murray lived to see the completed dictionary.

Although his story is far less dramatic than that of Dr. Minor, there was another major contributor to the OED which should be noted. Dr. Fitzedward Hall wrote to Oxford every single day for twenty-two years, making him another memorable contributor to the renowned Oxford English Dictionary (Winchester 167).

Because of the immense size of the project, the OED was published in fascicles. Volume one, A-B was released in 1884 while the final volume took until 1928 to be completed. Many other editors worked diligently on the project. Henry Bradley, born in Manchester, began his work on the OED in 1888 and continued until his death in 1923. William A. Craigie was the third editor. He became editor in 1901, working mainly from the letter N to the end of the alphabet. C.T. Onions claims that he had the last word on the OED because he was responsible for cross-referencing the word “zyxt,” which is literally the final word in the dictionary. Onions also worked on the longest entry in the dictionary, the word “set” ( Oxford ).

The First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is ten volumes, totaling 15, 490 pages. It took the editors seventy years to complete the 252,200 entries. The 2,000 contributors sent in five million quotations, 1,861,200 of which appear in the dictionary (Oxford).

Only five years after the publication of the final volume, Oxford University Press, which had assumed the role of publishing the monstrosity, released the Supplement which updated the OED by adding new words. Four more supplementary volumes were completed between 1972 and 1986. In 1989 the Second Edition was published. There have been three other editors who have worked on updates to the OED. Robert Burchfield was born in New Zealand, and he is responsible for broadening the scope of the dictionary to include words used in North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Pakistan. Many words he assimilated into the dictionary were slang terms. The two current editors are Edmund Weiner and John Simpson ( Oxford ).

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is twenty volumes, consisting of 21,730 pages. This massive reference weights 137.72 pounds and took 6,243 pounds of ink to print a single copy of the completed work. There are 291,500 entries with fifty-nine million words and 350 million characters. The longest entry is the word “set” which has 430 senses, 60,000 words, and 326,000 characters. In the Second Edition are 2,436,600 quotations. The most often quoted work is the Bible with 25,000 references; the most often quoted author is Shakespeare with 33,300 references. Hamlet alone is quoted almost 1600 times in the dictionary ( Oxfor d).

In 1992 the text was printed on CD-ROM. This project included 120 typists and fifty proofreaders. The endeavor prices at 13.5 million US dollars and took five years to complete ( Oxford ). Recently the OE D has gone online. It took eighteen months and 150 typists to input the dictionary into the correct format (Elliott). Five hundred and forty megabytes of memory are used to hold the complete dictionary ( Oxford ). In order to get the software development needed to input the information, Oxford University Press spent over one million US dollars (Elliott). Never has the dictionary been profitable to Oxford University Press which spent approximately fifty-five million US dollars to fund the revision program (Oxford). Today there is a website for the Oxford English Dictionary . There is also a “word of the day” site produced by the OED on the website.

The Third Edition of the dictionary is due in 2020, but until then, the OED is continually updated with the release of Supplements (Sharpiro “Dictionary” par. 25). Some interesting words and phrases which have found a home in the dictionary, although they may seem as though they do not belong are chat room, chick flick, duh, munchies, wedgie, and wussy (Sharpiro “Short List” par. 2-11). Others include Grinch, beltway, lap dance, road rage, and get real (Sharpiro “Dictionary” par. 7). The longest word in the dictionary is forty-five letters long: Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a lung disease “caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust” (Sharpio “Short List” par. 13).

The drive to document the history of every English word fueled Dr. Murray and future editors and staff members to work tirelessly on what we now have as the Oxford English Dictionary . It is unarguably the most complete dictionary in the English language, which is being revised daily. The OED is one of the greatest contributions to language yet, and it remains a paradigm of perfection.

Works Cited

Elliott, Laura. “How the Oxford English Dictionary Went Online.” Ariadne. 26 June 2000. <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/oed-tech>.

McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English . 2nd ed. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Oxford English Dictionary . 2003. <http://www.oed.com>.

Sharpiro, Howard. “Dictionary Grows as English Language Evolves.” Philadelphia Inquirer . 4 February 2003.

Sharpiro, Howard. “A Short List of New Words.” Philadelphia Inquirer . 4 February 2003.

Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman . New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.

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Home › Study Tips › How To Cite The Oxford English Dictionary: Using MLA And APA

How To Cite The Oxford English Dictionary: Using MLA And APA

• Published June 2, 2022

Table of Contents

Writing academic essays and research papers can be more complex than it already is when you don’t know how to cite the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

It becomes even more confusing depending on what type of OED you’re using, online or print. Why? Because you cite them in different ways. You can now rest easy since you’ve come to the right place. Read more if you want to learn how to cite the Oxford English Dictionary. 

And, if you’re looking to get ahead of your competition in education, then browse our summer programs in Oxford for high school students .

MLA or APA? 

The first step to citing any reference is to figure out what style you need to follow: MLA or APA? What’s the difference, you ask?

Good question!

The most significant is that MLA (Modern Language Association) is used for arts and humanities while APA (American Psychology Association) is for social science. Once you determine which style you need to use, you’re on your way to writing an academic essay ! 

How To Cite The Oxford English Dictionary Using MLA 9th Edition

Library database, known author.

If you’re accessing the Oxford English Dictionary via a library database and you know who the author is, this is how you cite it. 

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Entry.” Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary , edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Edition if given and not first edition, vol. Volume Number if more than one volume, Publisher Name, Date of Publication, pp. First Page-Last Page. Name of Database . https://doi.org/DOI if there is one.

If the word you’re referencing is only found on one page, list it as such—no need to write it as a first page-last page. But if there’s no page number, you can choose to omit it. What if you don’t know who the editors are or what volume it is? You can also leave them out of your citation.  

In-Text Citation: 

(Author’s Last Name, page number)

If the page number is unavailable:

(Author’s Last Name)

Unknown Author

What if you don’t know who the author is? Here’s how to cite your entry.

“Title of Entry.” Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary , edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Edition if given and not first edition, vol. Volume Number, Publisher Name, Date of Publication, pp. First Page-Last Page. Name of Database . https://doi.org/DOI if there is one.

What if you don’t have specific information such as pages volume numbers and editors? You don’t have to include them. 

Since you don’t know the author, you need to input the first one to three words from the entry title. Please remember to enclose the title within quotation marks. Also, don’t forget to capitalise the first letter of each word. Just like this:

(“Diversity”)

Perhaps the easiest way to access the Oxford English Dictionary is through their various websites. If you know the author, here’s how to cite it:

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Entry.” Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary , Publication or Update Date, URL. Accessed Day Month Year site was visited.

Did you notice that “Accessed Day Month Year site was visited” is unique to website citations? If you’re wondering, it simply refers to the day you visited the website. Also, don’t forget to abbreviate the month for the publication/update date and the accessed date; it’s necessary to abbreviate the month. 

If you don’t know who the author is, you can cite your entry this way:

“Title of Entry.” Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary , Publisher if known, Copyright Date or Date Updated, URL. Accessed Day Month Year site was visited.

With the lack of author information, all you have to do is place the first one to three words of the entry title within quotation marks. Remember to capitalise the first letter of each term. Here’s how:

(“Victorian”)

Of course, we can’t forget physical Oxford English Dictionaries! If you intend to use one, here’s how you can cite the material:

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Entry.” Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Edition if given and not first edition, vol. Volume Number, Publisher Name, Year of Publication, pp. First Page-Last Page.

In case the author’s name is not provided, just the editors’, cite it this way: 

 “Title of Entry.” Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary , edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Edition if given and not first edition, vol. Volume Number, Publisher Name, Year of Publication, pp. First Page-Last Page.

Since there’s no author information available, you can use the first one to three words of the entry title and enclose it with quotation marks. Capitalise the first letter of each word. Then place the page number after. Take a look at this:

(“Middle Age” 545)

How To Cite Two Authors

How should you cite the material if there are two authors? By listing them how they appear on the page. Not alphabetically! 

First Author’s Last Name, First Author’s First Name, and First Name Last Name of Second Author

Here’s what it will look like:

Will, Thomas, and Melissa Jones

How To Cite More Than Two Authors

If there are more than two authors, what you need to do is to focus on the first author in the list. 

Last Name, First Name, et al. 

In actual practice, it will look like this:

Will, Thomas, et al.

How To Cite The Oxford English Dictionary Using APA 7th Edition

The APA style is more straightforward than the MLA. When citing authors, remember it’s only the last name that’s spelt out. The first name is abbreviated. If the author’s name is Melissa Jones, the citation will look like this:

Jones, M. 

If the author’s middle name is given, for instance, Melissa Smith Jones, here’s how to cite it. 

Jones, M.S. 

When referencing the Oxford English Dictionary you find online, determine if it’s an archived version or not. If not, it means that the dictionary is continuously being updated. 

Online Archived Version: 

Author A. A. (Date). Title of entry. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Name of dictionary/encyclopedia . URL.

Online Version With Continuous Updates:

Author A. A. (n.d.). Title of entry. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Name of dictionary/encyclopedia (edition, if not the first). Publisher. URL.

No Authors, But There Are Editors: 

Editor, A., & Editor, B. (Eds.). (Date). Dictionary/Encyclopedia entry. In Name of dictionary/encyclopedia (edition, if not the first). Publisher.

No Authors And No Editors: Use Company As Corporate Author

Corporate Author. (Date). Dictionary/Encyclopedia entry. In Name of dictionary/encyclopedia (edition, if not the first). Publisher.

In-Text Citation

(Author’s last name, date)

Wrapping Up 

There you have it! By now you know how to cite the Oxford English Dictionary using both the MLA and APA styles. You’ll be more confident writing your papers from now on.

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Using Word Definitions in Formal Essays: Incorporation and Citation

by Robbie Glen

A side note on titles and abbreviations: This abbreviated title rule does not always apply for the body of your paper. The OED may be called the OED in the body because, although it is an abbreviated form, people actually call it this (at least this is my explanation). Generally, abbreviated titles are only acceptable within citations, e.g. a paper on Love's Labour's Lost, while referring to the entire title in the prose, may, after the play has been identified, thereafter cite simply by using LLL followed by the act, scene and line number(s). However, the author would not say, "When the acting company first performed LLL ?"-this is too informal, and while I have seen it done, it is rare and best avoided for our purposes. When we get into writing papers that compare and contrast multiple texts from this course, you'll be able to abbreviate Fight Club as FC and The Talented Mr. Ripley as TTMR in your citations, after the first time you've identified the text by its full name. In general, one word titles are not truncated to a single letter, so we won't be representing Vertigo as V .

I've attached the OED 's entry for sympathy as a noun; as you'll see, there are four main definitions, and #1 and #3 have sub-definitions. The citation I use above shows my reader that I am referring first to the entry for sympathy as a noun, secondly that it is definition number 3, and thirdly that it is sub-definition d. Citing so specifically is crucial, especially since differences between various definitions can often be maddeningly subtle on first examination. If you are using a definition to shape or support your argument, you want to eliminate any possibility of misunderstanding on the part of your reader.

Here is the link to the definition of Sympathy as a noun.

5 ways to use a dictionary for academic writing

With my background in lexicography, I’m a big fan of encouraging dictionary skills in the classroom. And as a teacher of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), I’m really looking forward to using the new Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Academic English with my students.

Rather than teach planned dictionary skills lessons, I tend to slip in dictionary usage at every possible opportunity. In particular, I’ll often send students to the dictionary in a writing skills lesson. Here are my top five areas of academic vocabulary to focus on:

Collocation

One thing that can make student writing sound awkward is an odd choice of collocation. Sometimes a choice that would be fine in everyday English or spoken academic contexts, such as do research stands out as too informal in academic writing, where conduct or undertake research might fit better. Checking a key word in the dictionary will provide students with a number of appropriate academic collocations, not just for the most common meanings of a word, but also sometimes more specialist uses too, e.g. a power = an influential country: a colonial/imperial/sovereign/global etc. power.

Dependent prepositions

A wrong choice of preposition may seem like a trivial error, and in speech it will usually be overlooked. But in academic discourse, where precision is highly valued, frequent minor errors can give the impression of intellectual sloppiness and inaccuracy. Next time your students are handing in a piece of writing, try this quick self-editing activity. Before they give you their texts, get them to go through and underline all the prepositions they’ve used, then identify those that depend on a content word (a noun, verb, or adjective) either just before ( on impact , under the influence of ) or just after ( reliant on , consistent with ). Next, they choose a handful (3 to 5) that they’re least confident about and look up the content words in the dictionary. Point out that typical prepositions are shown in bold before examples. They can then correct any errors they find before handing in their work.

Following constructions

You can do a similar thing with the constructions that typically follow particular words ( focus on doing , demonstrate how/what …). I tend to highlight examples like this when they come up in class, just taking a couple of minutes to raise students’ awareness of how this type of information is shown in the dictionary, again in bold before examples. Students can then use it as a reference source themselves when they’re hesitating over a construction in their writing.

Parts of speech

EAP students need to develop a particular dexterity in swapping between parts of speech, whether they’re trying to find an appropriate paraphrase or construct a complex noun phrase. As different parts of speech typically start with the same combination of letters, they’re generally together in the dictionary, making for a quick and easy look-up. And to help further, the different parts of speech of many key words are even grouped together in word family boxes, allowing learners to see the options at a glance, including non-adjacent words such as antonyms too, e.g. conclude , conclusion , conclusive , conclusively , inconclusive.

For students writing longer academic texts, repetition of key words can become an issue. Finding a few appropriate synonyms can help to improve the flow and style of their writing enormously. With a class of students preparing for a writing task on a particular topic, you might pick out a few key topic words and get students to look them up in the dictionary to search for possible synonyms. These are shown after each definition, e.g. at practicable you’ll find SYN feasible , workable . Of course, synonyms rarely have identical meanings and usage, so get students to look up the synonyms too and decide which might be substitutable and what adjustments they might need to make grammatically (e.g. vary from x to y , but range between x and y ).

By incorporating regular dictionary usage into classroom practice, you raise students’ awareness of the type of information they can find in the dictionary, how they can use it to improve their academic writing and become more autonomous learners. What’s more, by proactively doing something with a word (looking it up, thinking about it, then using it), they’ll also broaden and deepen their vocabulary knowledge.

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Thanks for the tips, especially the preposition activity you suggested. I’m giving a three day essay writing workshop next week and will definitely be using this prior to peer review time!

That’s great – let us know how it goes 🙂

Reblogged this on Science and technology English Texts (2013-14) and commented: A good choice to consult or buy if your aim is improving your EAP…;)

This is the first time I’ve come across this dictionary. I love to find good dictionaries that are good for my IELTS students. It seems that this one has a good section on collocations in the entry of many words so that’s interesting.

However, I’m wondering what the difference is between this dictionary and others since most dictionaries nowadays have a section on collocations for many words.

Hi Jonathan, Thanks for your comment. The main difference with this dictionary is that it focuses specifically on academic vocabulary. So rather than include all the everyday vocab you’d find in a standard learner’s dictionary, it instead gives plenty of space to academic words, senses and usage. All the definitions, the examples and the collocations have an academic ‘flavour’ too. So it should be perfect for IELTS students. Julie

Thank you so much Julie Moore, it made me understand more on the usefulness of a dictionary because I am an English student in the University and at first I found it very hard to write an essay on the usefulness of a dictionary in an assignment but now I’m much better

[…] Source: 5 ways to use a dictionary for academic writing […]

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Oxford English Dictionary and the Wordnet Analysis Essay

Introduction, the oxford english dictionary – electronic version, the wordnet, difference between oed and worldnet.

Dictionaries have undergone a transformation into electronic versions and these versions have proved to be increasing in popularity. Since people work largely with computers and Internet connection availability ha become affordable, the electronic versions have become popular. The paper provides an analysis of two popular dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary – electronic version and the Wordnet electronic dictionary and gives their comparison. The paper also examines the term Lexicography.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a comprehensive electronic version of the 20 volume printed OED. The dictionary has entries of more than 301, 100 words and the number of printed characters is is more than 350. In addition there are more than 6.5 million phrases, combinations, pronunciations, etymologies, cross references, illustrative quotations and derivatives. The dictionary is available as an online subscription service and also on CD format. The advantage of an online version is that when updates or upgrades are provided, they can be easily accessed. It is regarded as the most complete source of words in the English language. While earlier with the printed version, people usually referee red to the dictionary mainly to check spellings and finds truncated and brief information, the new dictionary in the electronic form is much more intuitive and user friendly. Along with spellings, the dictionary provides detailed information (New, 22 March, 2000). An image of the home page is shown below.

A subscriber or a student, can access the OED site from the campus or any computer and login to the website by using the authentication system. Once the user opens the designated account, a wide range of features is available. The search can be refined to narrow the results to a specific and narrow focussed range. The form is intuitive and has boxes for entering texts, using advanced search with Boolean characters such as operators such as NEAR, AND, OR, NOT, AND NOT, etc. A number of drop downs, radio buttons, check boxes and other elements are provided and the query can be submitted. Once the form is submitted, then the PAT search and retrieval engine runs a matching query in the database where the words are indexed using SGML characters and mark up language. The words are then converted into HTML language and displayed dynamically on the users screen. The speed at which the data is displayed depends on the network connectivity of the user. The approach is novel in the sense that information retrieval and delivery is cached in mirror servers using and encoding system such as SGML. The language uses tags for storing any kind of labels and can encode whole pages related to a word. Information can be manipulated to jump to hyper linked texts. A screen arrangement of the dictionary is shown in the following figure.

The dictionary offers access to the 20-volume Second Edition and also three additions series volumes and revised words each quarter. Users can select how entries are displayed by turning pronunciations, etymologies, variant spellings, and quotations on and off. It has everything from simple word look-ups to sophisticated Boolean searching, using any of the fields in the Dictionary, can be done with speed and ease. It is possible to find a term when one knows the meaning but has forgotten the word. Wildcards can be used if one os not sure of a spelling, or for searching for words with common characteristics. It is possible to search for quotations from a specified year, or from a particular author and work and to search for words that have come into English through others language. Facility is provided to search for pronunciations as well as accented and other special characters and for first cited dates, authors and works, search for words with a particular part of speech. Case sensitive searches are also possible and it is possible to restrict a search to a previous results set. The electronic version of the OED has features such as wild cards and once the phrase is searched, all related results are displayed (OED, 2001).

The above figure shows a typical search form. There a umber of boxes with the labels such quotation author, writer, place and users need to enter the first value in the first box. There are provided with operators such as operation A, Operation B and so on. A number of other boxes are also provided and these boxes help to refine the search. On the right side are shown a number of options for refining the search. So it is possible to set the search for a sequence such as first Operation A and then operation B. The image shows the search query build or the author named “Austen”. Case sensitive operation is also allowed so that “Austen” is regarded as different from ‘austen’.

Wild cards allows searching for a group of words that one is not sure og. If wild card word such as “geo+” was run, then the results would show a number of results related to geology, rock formation, earth science as well as rock music. If one wanted to refine the search to find information about a specific word such as granite, then the query should run as “rock+” AND “marble”. There is a certain amount of learning in using the search engine to make the most out of the dictionary. An image of the results are shown in the following figure.

When any word in clicked, further options are provided and a detailed information about the entry can be viewed.

The search results for the word ‘terrestrial’ are show in the above figure. The meaning of the word is given in the top in bold letters and in the below section, detailed etymology of the word is give, Also included are references and texts where he word has been used. The first instances where the word occurred has also been provided and a reader can use a number of words at the top to view addition information such as pronunciation, spellings, etymology, quotations, data chart and any new additions. The dictionary also provides for a searching by case sensitive methods. If a search had to be run for a computer language called ‘BASIC’ then it is possible to click the case sensitive check box and ensure that words such as ‘Basic’ and ‘basic’ are not included in the search results (QRG, 2007).

WordNet has been created by the Princeton University and it is a huge lexical database of words if the English Language. In the electronic form, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and nouns, are grouped into different sets of cognitive synonyms called synsets and each of the synsets express a distinct concept. They are interlinked by means of conceptual, semantic and lexical inter relations. The application is available as a free download with a browser and the meanings of related words and concepts can be accessed online. The structure is a useful tool for computational linguistics and natural language processing. The total number of unique strings, sysnsets and total word sense pairs is more than 206941 and the total number of Monosemous, Polysemous words and senses is more than 79450. The database only contains “open-class words” such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Words that are not included are determiners, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, and particles. (WorldNet, 2007).

WorldNet uses the system of wnconnect which is a program that finds and reports all possible connections between two terms in WordNet. Certain advanced interconnections are possible and a concept map is displayed that shows how the terms are often connected in the application. There are certain unique concept, terms and lexicons used in the application. Some of the important ones are (Fellbaum, May 1998):

• adjective cluster: This is a group of adjective synsets. These are organized around antonymous pairs or triplets and contain two or more head synsets that represent antonymous concepts. Each head synset has one or more satellite synsets.
• attribute: This is a noun for which adjectives express values. For example the noun ‘weight’ is an attribute, and adjectives such as light and heavy express values.
• synset: This is a synonym set and represents a set of words that are interchangeable in some context
• semantic pointer: This is a semantic pointer that is used to indicate an inter-relation between synsets and word meanings
• collocation: This ia a string of two or more words that are connected by spaces or hyphens. Some types of examples are man-eating shark, blue-collar, depend on, line of products.
• basic synset: This is used to help explain the existing differences in entering synsets in lexicographer files
• exception list: This is a morphological transformations for words that are not regular and therefore cannot be processed in an algorithmic manner.

In the actual data base, the words are represented without blank spaces with a (_) character between two words such as man_eating_shark, depend_on, line_of_products and so on. The hypernym and the hyponym relationships that exist in the noun synsets can be interpreted as specialization relations between conceptual categories. The application can be interpreted and used as a lexical ontology in programming. Some correction may have to be done in the ontology since it contains hundreds of basic semantic inconsistencies such as (i) the existence of common specializations for exclusive categories and (ii) redundancies in the specialization hierarchy. Transforming WordNet into a lexical ontology usable for knowledge representation should normally also involve distinguishing the specialization relations into subtypeOf and instanceOf relations, and associating intuitive unique identifiers to each category (Fellbaum, May 1998).

An image of the application is as shown below.

In WorldNet, nouns and verbs are organized into hierarchies and these are defined by hypernym or IS A relationships. For example, the first sense of the word dog would mean a hypernym hierarchy as the words at the same level are synonyms of each other. In the hierarchy, some sense of dog is made to be synonymous with some other senses of domestic dog and Canis familiaris, etc. The topic map conversion of WordNet is created on W3C’s RDF version of WordNet. The conversion had (little simplified) steps of importing each single RDF file of WordNet to Wandora as a separate layer. For each imported layer RDF triplets were manually fixed to topic map associations. Generally this required mapping RDF’s subject and object to association roles. Fixing certain subject identifiers of imported topics. Constructing base and variant name for all words. Base names were constructed using URIs of RDF subjects. Variant names were constructed using base names. Simple Regular expressions were used in name construction. Creating light-weight topic hierarchy to connect WordNet topics to Wandora’s base ontology (Wandora, 2007). An image of the topic map conversion is provided below.

WordNet does not carry information on terms such as pronunciation, etymology and the forms of irregular verbs and contains only limited information about usage. While it contains a wide range of commonly used words, it no way compares to the OED in the form of content, use, cross references, hyperlinks and other features. It also does not carry special domain vocabulary and it acts as an underlying database for different applications It may happen that those applications cannot be used in specific domains that are not covered by WordNet. But the application is available for free download and there are no subscription charges for the use and service. But the dictionary cannot be of much use to an advance user and can be utilized by college students, students who develop programs on computers and databases. WoldNet is meant of primary use by programmers and developers who know Unix language commands.

OED is a very user-friendly application with easy to use means and an advanced search engine that allows uses to easily find meaning of almost all words used in the English language. It provides meanings, spellings, pronunciation, etymology, quotations, references, datelines and others information of nouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and all other constructs of the English language. It is meant for use by people who have no idea of programming language but have certain basic skills of browsing the Internet. It requires a subscription fee that is to be paid.

OED and WorldNet are online dictionaries and wile OED is a simple and easy to use dictionary that can be used by lay people, WirldNet offers far limited words information and is meant to be used by people with some expertise in programming. The repository of OED has more than 6 million words while WolrdNet has far lesses.

Fellbaum Christiane. 1998. WordNet An Electronic Lexical Database. MIT Press. ISBN-13: 978-0-262-06197-1

Navigation. 2007. About the Dictionary Tour.

New Juliet. 2000. The world’s greatest dictionary’ goes online. Web.

OED. 2001. The Art and Craft of Lexicography, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press 2001.

QRG. 2007. Quick Reference Guide.

Wandora. 2007. Topic map conversion . Web.

WorldNet. 2007. About WordNet. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, August 21). Oxford English Dictionary and the Wordnet Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/oxford-english-dictionary-and-the-wordnet-analysis/

"Oxford English Dictionary and the Wordnet Analysis." IvyPanda , 21 Aug. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/oxford-english-dictionary-and-the-wordnet-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Oxford English Dictionary and the Wordnet Analysis'. 21 August.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Oxford English Dictionary and the Wordnet Analysis." August 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/oxford-english-dictionary-and-the-wordnet-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Oxford English Dictionary and the Wordnet Analysis." August 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/oxford-english-dictionary-and-the-wordnet-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Oxford English Dictionary and the Wordnet Analysis." August 21, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/oxford-english-dictionary-and-the-wordnet-analysis/.

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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of more than 600,000 words—past and present—from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.

OED updates

December 2023 update.

Our latest update:  The latest update to the  Oxford English Dictionary  includes more than 500 new and revised words, phrases, and senses, including  nice-to-have ,  swear jar , and  with a cherry on top .

New word notes: Learn more about the words added to the  OED  this quarter in our new words notes by  OED  Editor, Chris Spathis.

Release notes : Learn about the history and development of the word  slang , looking back to its origins in the criminal underworld, in this article by  OED  Senior Editor, Jonathan Dent.

Platform updates: learn about updates to the  OED  website for the  OED  December 2023 update here .

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Video guides

• Navigating an Entry Explore the different views available for entries, and become familiar with the information being displayed in entry pages.
• Quick Search Learn how to access and use the quick search function, along with some quick shortcuts for word group searching.
• Advanced Search Understand how to access a results page depending on a variety of topics such as subject, language of origin, date of entry, and more. This can be especially useful if you are searching for very specific.
• Understanding the Sidebar Learn more about the navigation aid and information displayed to the right of entry pages, and how the sidebar can provide in-depth information about the word you are examining.
• Understanding the Results Page Become familiar with the list of results displayed after a search, and how they are organised.
• Categories Explore another way to search OED entries, according to subject, usage, region, or origin.
• Sources Learn how to search the OED by a specific source, and how to quickly find a full list of quotations from an author.

• The Historical Thesaurus of the OED: categories Learn about how the Historical Thesaurus is structured and how to start exploring this resource.
• Using the Historical Thesaurus in research Learn how the Historical Thesaurus can be used to find different words for a particular concept over time, and to explore patterns within semantic fields.

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• Teaching resources Teachers and instructors can find resources here for utilizing the the OED within the classroom, including lessons plans, a grammar guide, and quizzes. Lesson plans are organized by grade/year and type of lesson.
• Example lesson plan: a lexical jounrey into Lincoln's Gettysburg Address
• Exploring OED quotations A guide to exploring OED quotations, what the information shown in the quotations section means, and where to find more context for a particular quotation.
• Guidance on labels and date ranges When would a word be considered to be obsolete? When it is archaic and when is it considered to be rare?
• The Historical Thesaurus of the OED View the how-to guide: https://public.oed.com/wp-content/uploads/OED-Historical-Thesaurus-how-to.pdf Find out more about the Historical Thesaurus: https://public.oed.com/blog/oed-historical-thesaurus-guide/ Listen to the recording of our recent webinar, OED Historical Thesaurus 15-minute virtual tour: https://public.oed.com/webinars-and-events/
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Essay and dissertation writing skills

Planning your essay

Writing your introduction

Structuring your essay

• Writing essays in science subjects
• Brief video guides to support essay planning and writing
• Writing extended essays and dissertations
• Planning your dissertation writing time

Structuring your dissertation

• Top tips for writing longer pieces of work

Advice on planning and writing essays and dissertations

University essays differ from school essays in that they are less concerned with what you know and more concerned with how you construct an argument to answer the question. This means that the starting point for writing a strong essay is to first unpick the question and to then use this to plan your essay before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

A really good starting point for you are these short, downloadable Tips for Successful Essay Writing and Answering the Question resources. Both resources will help you to plan your essay, as well as giving you guidance on how to distinguish between different sorts of essay questions. 

You may find it helpful to watch this seven-minute video on six tips for essay writing which outlines how to interpret essay questions, as well as giving advice on planning and structuring your writing:

Different disciplines will have different expectations for essay structure and you should always refer to your Faculty or Department student handbook or course Canvas site for more specific guidance.

However, broadly speaking, all essays share the following features:

Essays need an introduction to establish and focus the parameters of the discussion that will follow. You may find it helpful to divide the introduction into areas to demonstrate your breadth and engagement with the essay question. You might define specific terms in the introduction to show your engagement with the essay question; for example, ‘This is a large topic which has been variously discussed by many scientists and commentators. The principle tension is between the views of X and Y who define the main issues as…’ Breadth might be demonstrated by showing the range of viewpoints from which the essay question could be considered; for example, ‘A variety of factors including economic, social and political, influence A and B. This essay will focus on the social and economic aspects, with particular emphasis on…..’

Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to plan and structure an introduction:

The main body of the essay should elaborate on the issues raised in the introduction and develop an argument(s) that answers the question. It should consist of a number of self-contained paragraphs each of which makes a specific point and provides some form of evidence to support the argument being made. Remember that a clear argument requires that each paragraph explicitly relates back to the essay question or the developing argument.

• Conclusion: An essay should end with a conclusion that reiterates the argument in light of the evidence you have provided; you shouldn’t use the conclusion to introduce new information.
• References: You need to include references to the materials you’ve used to write your essay. These might be in the form of footnotes, in-text citations, or a bibliography at the end. Different systems exist for citing references and different disciplines will use various approaches to citation. Ask your tutor which method(s) you should be using for your essay and also consult your Department or Faculty webpages for specific guidance in your discipline. 

Essay writing in science subjects

If you are writing an essay for a science subject you may need to consider additional areas, such as how to present data or diagrams. This five-minute video gives you some advice on how to approach your reading list, planning which information to include in your answer and how to write for your scientific audience – the video is available here:

A PDF providing further guidance on writing science essays for tutorials is available to download.

Short videos to support your essay writing skills

There are many other resources at Oxford that can help support your essay writing skills and if you are short on time, the Oxford Study Skills Centre has produced a number of short (2-minute) videos covering different aspects of essay writing, including:

• Approaching different types of essay questions  
• Structuring your essay  
• Writing an introduction  
• Making use of evidence in your essay writing  
• Writing your conclusion

Extended essays and dissertations

Longer pieces of writing like extended essays and dissertations may seem like quite a challenge from your regular essay writing. The important point is to start with a plan and to focus on what the question is asking. A PDF providing further guidance on planning Humanities and Social Science dissertations is available to download.

Planning your time effectively

Try not to leave the writing until close to your deadline, instead start as soon as you have some ideas to put down onto paper. Your early drafts may never end up in the final work, but the work of committing your ideas to paper helps to formulate not only your ideas, but the method of structuring your writing to read well and conclude firmly.

Although many students and tutors will say that the introduction is often written last, it is a good idea to begin to think about what will go into it early on. For example, the first draft of your introduction should set out your argument, the information you have, and your methods, and it should give a structure to the chapters and sections you will write. Your introduction will probably change as time goes on but it will stand as a guide to your entire extended essay or dissertation and it will help you to keep focused.

The structure of  extended essays or dissertations will vary depending on the question and discipline, but may include some or all of the following:

• The background information to - and context for - your research. This often takes the form of a literature review.
• Explanation of the focus of your work.
• Explanation of the value of this work to scholarship on the topic.
• List of the aims and objectives of the work and also the issues which will not be covered because they are outside its scope.

The main body of your extended essay or dissertation will probably include your methodology, the results of research, and your argument(s) based on your findings.

The conclusion is to summarise the value your research has added to the topic, and any further lines of research you would undertake given more time or resources. 

Tips on writing longer pieces of work

Approaching each chapter of a dissertation as a shorter essay can make the task of writing a dissertation seem less overwhelming. Each chapter will have an introduction, a main body where the argument is developed and substantiated with evidence, and a conclusion to tie things together. Unlike in a regular essay, chapter conclusions may also introduce the chapter that will follow, indicating how the chapters are connected to one another and how the argument will develop through your dissertation.

For further guidance, watch this two-minute video on writing longer pieces of work . 

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What does the verb essay mean?

There are eight meanings listed in OED's entry for the verb essay , four of which are labelled obsolete. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the verb essay ?

How is the verb essay pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the verb essay come from.

Earliest known use

Middle English

The earliest known use of the verb essay is in the Middle English period (1150—1500).

OED's earliest evidence for essay is from 1483, in a translation by William Caxton, printer, merchant, and diplomat.

essay is a variant or alteration of another lexical item; modelled on a French lexical item.

Etymons: assay v.

Nearby entries

• esraj, n. 1921–
• ESRO, n. 1961–
• ess, n. 1540–
• -ess, suffix¹
• -ess, suffix²
• essamplerie, n. 1393
• essart, n. 1656–
• essart, v. 1675–
• essarting, n. a1821–
• essay, n. 1597–
• essay, v. 1483–
• essayal, n. 1837–
• essayer, n. 1611–
• essayette, n. 1877–
• essayfy, v. 1815–
• essay-hatch, n. 1721–
• essayical, adj. 1860–
• essaying, n. 1861–
• essaying, adj. 1641–
• essayish, adj. 1863–
• essayism, n. 1821–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for essay, v..

essay, v. was first published in 1891; not yet revised.

essay, v. was last modified in March 2024.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into essay, v. in March 2024.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1891)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View essay, v. in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for essay, v.

Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Citation details

Factsheet for essay, v., browse entry.

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The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (3 ed.)  

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“This dictionary’s virtues and its plain-spokenness make it ... as apt to the bedside table as to the desk: Dr Baldick is a Brewer for specialized tastes” - Times Literary Supplement

The best-selling Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (formerly the Concise dictionary) provides clear, concise, and often witty definitions of the most troublesome literary terms from abjection to zeugma. Now available in a new, fully updated and expanded edition, it offers readers increased coverage of new terms from modern critical and theoretical movements, such as feminism, and schools of American poetry, Spanish verse forms, life writing, and crime fiction.

It includes extensive coverage of traditional drama, versification, rhetoric, and literary history, as well as updated and extended advice on recommended further reading and a pronunciation guide to more than 200 terms. New to this fully revised edition are recommended entry-level web links. Boasting over 1,200 entries, it is an essential reference tool for students of literature in any language.

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Chris Baldick is Professor of English at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. He has written widely on nineteenth-century literature and is the editor of The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales .

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How to Cite a Dictionary in Harvard Referencing

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• 8th May 2023

If you come across a source from a dictionary and want to use it in your research, make sure you cite it correctly, both in the text and on the reference page. In this post, we’ll show you how to cite a dictionary using basic Harvard referencing , one of the most common university referencing styles.

How to Cite a Dictionary on a Reference Page

As with any citation, you’ll need to provide all the basic source information on your reference page, whether you’re citing a print or an online dictionary:

●  Author’s name

●  Year of publication

●  Title of the dictionary entry

●  Title of the dictionary

●  Edition number

●  Place of publication (for print dictionaries)

●  Publisher (for print dictionaries)

●  URL (for online dictionaries)

Please see below for examples of each format.

Print Version

Author, X. (year). “Title of dictionary entry,” Title of Dictionary , edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Online Version

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Author, X. (year). “Title of dictionary entry,” Title of Dictionary, edition number [Online]. Available at: URL (Access date).

The following are examples of what each one might look like on your reference page.

Smith, E. (2023). “Symposium,” Oxford English Reference Dictionary , 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Online Version:

Smith, E. (2023). “Symposium,” Oxford English Reference Dictionary , 4th ed. [Online]. Available at: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/symposium?q=symposium (Accessed May 25, 2023).

How to Cite a Dictionary in the Text

You can use a parenthetical or a narrative citation to reference a dictionary entry in the body of your essay. A narrative citation mentions the author’s name in a sentence and immediately follows the name with the year of publication in parentheses.

A parenthetical citation provides the surname of the author and the year of publication in parentheses immediately following the sentence. A narrative citation looks like this:

And a parenthetical citation will look like this:

Be sure to follow the Harvard guidelines for citing multiple authors. For in-text citations, the names of up to two authors are included. For three or more authors, you should shorten the citation using the abbreviation “et al.”:

Expert Academic Proofreading

When conducting research for an essay, cover all your bases and make sure your citations hit the mark. When you send you paper to our expert editors, include your academic reference list and in-text citations so you can rest assured that they meet all the required guidelines.

We’re experienced in an array of referencing styles, so no matter what field you’re studying, we’ll make sure the structure and format of your citations are correct. See for yourself – try out our proofreading services by sending us a free sample of 500 words or less.

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Answered By: Gopal Dutta Last Updated: Sep 23, 2021     Views: 49118

You do not always need to cite and reference a dictionary definition. Whether you need to or not will depend on the type of dictionary and/or how you are using the definition in your work.   Language dictionaries   As you are not using the words, ideas or theory of an author, you do not usually need to cite and reference a language dictionary (for example the Oxford English dictionary). Instead, introduce the definition in your writing.  One way to present this is as follows:   According to the Oxford English Dictionary the definition of [XXXXX] is [XXXXXX]   If however you have a particular need in your work to cite a language dictionary definition, for example, if comparing varying definitions from language dictionaries by different publishers, follow the format as follows.  The example provided is for an online dictionary, therefore 'online' is used in the citation in place of the page number.

Example citation

(Oxford English Dictionary, 2016:online)

If you are going to refer to the Oxford English Dictionary again in your work, introduce the acronym OED in your citation as follows

(Oxford English Dictionary [OED], 2016:online)

Oxford English Dictionary. (2016) reference, v. 3 . Oxford: Oxford University. [Online] [Accessed on 10th February 2017] http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/160845 

Subject dictionaries and encyclopedias   As subject dictionaries and encyclopedias are usually written by a specific author/s or organisation, and contextual definitions are provided, you will need to cite and reference them in the usual way.   

Many subject dictionaries and encyclopedias, are edited books with entries written by different authors. In this instance follow the format for referencing a  Chapter in an edited book  

Example reference 

Muncie, J. (2001) 'Labelling.' In McLaughlin, E. and Muncie, J. (eds.) The SAGE dictionary of criminology . London: SAGE, pp. 159-160.

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• Dictionaries: A Very Short Introduction

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Dictionaries: A Very Short Introduction demonstrates that dictionaries are not merely works which list the words and meanings of a language. They are human products, reflecting the dominant social and cultural assumptions of the time in which they were written. All are partial and all are selective. This VSI explores common beliefs about dictionaries, providing glimpses of dictionary makers at work, and confronting the problems of how a word is to be defined. Concluding with a look at the range of modern dictionaries, including online dictionaries, it reveals the controversial nature of the debates about communication and language.

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Definition of memoir noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• O'Connor published a childhood memoir.
• He has published a long memoir about those years.
• She describes in her memoirs how she coped with her mother's death.
• in your memoir
• memoir about

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• his brief memoir of his father's life
• the market for political memoirs

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