The ultimate authority on the usage and meaning of English words and phrases, unparalleled in its accuracy and comprehensiveness, The Oxford English Dictionary is the supreme reference work for anyone who loves the language. Now, this greatest of all dictionaries appears in a new Second Edition--the first up-to-date coverage of words and meanings in one alphabetical sequence since the original dictionary was published in 1928.

The result of an enormously ambitious, on-going project to computerize the dictionary, the Second Edition integrates the original OED with the four volumes of the Supplement. Published between 1972 and 1986, this Supplement was produced to bring the Dictionary up to date, to extend its coverage to the language of the mid-20th century, and to reflect the ever-broadening international nature of the English. In addition to merging the original OED and the Supplement, which greatly enhances the convenience of using the Dictionary, the Second Edition includes some 5,000 new words and meanings--from perestroika to yuppification--which have entered the language quite recently. It has also been completely redesigned and reset to enhance its legibility: the typeface is more open, the headwords stand out more clearly, and the paper used is brighter, with greater opacity. Still another new feature is the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet to represent pronunciation, replacing the system devised by Sir James Murray, the first editor of the OED. By employing what is now the universally accepted standard guide to pronunciation, the Second Edition greatly extends the usefulness of this vital feature.

The key feature of the OED, of course, remains intact: its unique historical focus. Accompanying each definition is a chronologically arranged group of quotations that illustrate the evolution of meaning from the word's first recorded usage and show the contexts in which it can be used. The quotations are drawn from a huge variety of sources--literary, scholarly, technical, popular--and represent authors as disparate as Geoffrey Chaucer and Erica Jong, William Shakespeare and Raymond Chandler, Charles Darwin and John Le Carre. In all, nearly 2.5 million quotations--illustrating over a half-million words--can be found in the OED. Other features distinguishing the entries in the dictionary are the most authoritative definitions, detailed information on pronunciation, variant spellings throughout each word's history, extensive treatment of etymology, and details of area of usage and of any regional characteristics (including geographical origins).

A dictionary like no other in the world, the OED has been described as "among the wonders of the world of scholarship." With the publication of the Second Edition, that statement is today more apt than it ever has been.

"The richest people in the world are those who have the OED on their shelves. Here is the greatest treasure of words waiting to be assembled into fiery tracts and rants, literary novels, histories, sagas, comic poems, exposes, polemics, tall tales and learned treatises, kids' books, advert copy, reports on busted dams and declarations, all the expressions of a hundred different cultures. And the sturdy boxes in which the dictionary comes are each the perfect size for a manuscript. So there it is, all the raw material a writer needs for a lifetime of work." Annie Proulx

"Since my Milton teacher sent me to the OED at the start of my college career, that vast and virtuous monument has been an almost daily companion. It's far the most important of my reference aids; and of all things for a dictionary, it's proved likewise a steady source of surprise and delight." Reynolds Price

"When I first got the OED I read it through from A to Z. I wondered which word had the greatest coverage, and in Volume VIII (Q-Sh), I found it: 'set.' More than a hundred and twenty meanings were given for the verb 'set' used alone; another thirty or so when used in conjunction with various prepositions and adverbs (set aside, set about, set apart, etc.). I got the feeling that this little three-letter word might be the most useful and versatile in the entire English language." Oliver Sacks

"The OED has been to me a teacher, a companion, a source of endless discovery. I could not have become a writer without it. " Anthony Burgess

"No similar work, not even the great Lexicon of the brothers Grimm, is comparable to [the OED] in magnitude, accuracy, or completeness. It is one of the monuments to the patient persistence of scholarship and one of the most sterling illustrations of that strange piety which only scholars can understand." The Nation

"No one who reads or writes seriously can be without the OED." The Washington Post

"In all probability, the greatest continuing work of scholarship that this century has produced." Newsweek

"It is a remarkable work of scholarship, and must rank high among the wonders of the world of learning." The Times Educational Supplement

Unmatched in accuracy and comprehensiveness, The Oxford English Dictionary is now available from Omnigraphics in a new, expanded second edition (OED2). In its first revision since 1928, the OED2 is the ultimate authority on the usage and meaning of English words and phrases and is a fascinating guide to the evolution of the language.

Defining over half a million words, the second edition of OED2 is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of words. With more than 2.4 million illustrative quotations, it provides an invaluable record of the language, tracing the various uses of each word throughout the centuries. For those who are already familiar with OED and for those who have yet to discover its riches, OED2 offers a treasure-house of the language — a true "wonder of the world of learning"

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the magnificent "Oxford English Dictionary. Originally published in fascicles starting in 1884 and completed in 1928, subsequently revised, expanded to 20 volumes, and adapted to the electronic age, the "OED has become the most venerated English language reference ever compiled. For those who use and love the language most intensely, the "OED has no peer. With more than 22,000 pages of definitions, nearly 2.5 illustrative quotations from writers as disparate as Geoffrey Chaucer and Erica Jong, William Shakespeare and Raymond Chandler, Charles Darwin and Quentin Tarantino, the OED is a dictionary like no other. Its entries offer the most authoritative definitions, detailed information on pronunciation, variant spellings throughout each word's history, extensive treatment of etymology, and details of area of usage and of any regional characteristics (including geographical origins). It is, as "Time observed, "a scholarly Everest."

J.A. Simpson worked on the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary and prepared the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, which was published in 1982. E.S.C. Weiner also served on the editorial staff of the Supplement and compiled the Oxford Guide to English Usage, which was published in 1983.