Author(s): Oxford University Press

Languages and Reference

The sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is updated, enlarged and enlivened with new words, new definitions, revised illustrative quotations--and a 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 a fraction of the price, the Shorter offers much of the same content, and provides the same quality of lexical excellence as its parent dictionary.
No other dictionary comes close to the Shorter's range and depth. It offers over 500,000 definitions covering virtually every word or phrase in use in the English language--worldwide--since 1700. Each entry identifies a word's various meanings, origins, part of speech, pronunciation, and presents combinations in which the word is often found as well as cross-references to related words. The Shorter offers a historical and literary approach made famous by the OED, which no competitor can match.
Now with 2,500 new words and meanings based on the ongoing research program of Oxford Dictionaries and the Oxford English Corpus, the Shorter is fresher than ever. Some of the new words included in this edition are; Afrobeat, carbon-neutral, darknet, heaviosity, impactful, knuckle-dragger, nanomaterial, retro-futurist, smoosh, testosteronic, webinar, and thousands more. Also new to this edition is a never-before-published, introductory essay by language commentator David Crystal on the History of English providing stimulating insight into the development of the English language.