Here is a new edition of the acclaimed Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, the first since 2002, updated, enlarged, and enlivened by new words, new definitions of old words, new illustrative quotations — and a new, fully customizable CD-ROM.

If the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary is the mother of all dictionaries, the Shorter is its most accomplished offspring. At one-tenth the size of OED — and a fraction of the price — the Shorter offers one-third the content and the same quality of lexical excellence of its parent dictionary. Indeed, no other dictionary, apart from the OED itself, comes close to the Shorter's range and depth, offering over 500,000 definitions that cover virtually every word or phrase in use in English — worldwide — since 1700. Each entry offers everything you would expect from a leading unabridged dictionary: it identifies each word's various meanings, origins, part of speech, pronunciation, and combinations in which the word is often found, as well as cross-references to related words. The Shorter, however, offers something that no competitor can match: the historical, literary approach made justly famous by the OED. Thousand upon thousands of changing meanings are followed throughout history, illustrated by 85,000 quotations from 7,000 authors.

And now, with 2,500 new words and 500 new quotations, the Shorter is fresher than ever, fully responsive to ever-changing English language.

The SOED has opened its pages to the thousands of new words which have come into use since the previous edition and which have expanded the precision and expressive power of English. Here are such new words as Afrobeat, carbon-neutral, darknet, heaviosity, impactful, knuckle-dragger, nanomaterial, retro-futurist, smoosh, testosteronic, webinar, and thousands more. (To call someone a testosteronic, retro-futurist knuckle-dragger is no longer an incomprehensible insult).

"A browser's paradise....The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary remains the most reliable and certainly the most capacious of abridged dictionaries. Now with the CD-ROM thrown in, it is also the most convenient." Edward Short, The American Spectator

"This latest (sixth edition) version of the Shorter (the full Oxford is 20 volumes) features 2,500 new words, including blogroll, cremains and crapola, but its real value is in its explanation of word origins and the distinguished examples of usage." Seattle Times

"The greatest continuing work of scholarship that this century has produced" Newsweek

This new package combines the newly updated fifth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary as well as the brand new CD-ROM.