Interactive features
What were your top dictionary lookups in April?
Have you ever wondered which words other people are looking up in the dictionary? Wonder no more… As part of our occasional search monitor series, we’ve taken a look at which words were looked up the most in our free online dictionary last month. We’re very happy (the 259th most looked-up word) here at Oxford [...]
Interactive image: the life and language of Shakespeare
For many of us, most of our knowledge of Shakespeare comes from what we were taught at school. But how much can you remember, other than the odd quotation (‘is this a dagger I see before me’ sticks in my mind)? Even if you didn’t do much Shakespeare at school, or it was too long [...]
Which classical character are you?
The many and varied characters of classical mythology played such a large role in the cultural identity of Ancient Greece and Rome that tales of their exploits have endured and have been incorporated into literature and language worldwide. The names of the characters themselves are often listed in dictionaries and are frequently associated with particular [...]
March Madness: The Final Four
While the British and American heads of state were busy fine-tuning their own March Madness bracket picks over dinner last week, the Oxford Dictionaries Bracket Challenge has already hit its stride. How did your favorite sports expressions do? The gloves are off In the closest match-up yet, the venerable saved by the bell proved to [...]
Explore the language of Irish English, from ‘gobdaw’ to ‘hooley’
Tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day, which seems a perfect excuse to not only go out for a few beers and perhaps a couple of glasses of usquebaugh, but also to take a closer look at some Irish English words. However you choose to celebrate tomorrow, whether you’re planning to dance your socks off at a [...]
March Madness: The Elite Eight
We’re back with Round 2 of the Oxford Dictionaries Bracket Challenge, and the competition is heating up. Saved by the bell, an expression I always assumed to have originated from a high school colloquialism thanks to the ubiquity of my favorite Saturday morning sitcom of yesteryear, trounced the formidable rough and tumble with an impressive [...]
The Madness of March and the Oxford Dictionaries Bracket Challenge
March Madness, the single elimination college basketball tournament, is upon us. All month long, the top 68 teams in the US will duke it out in a series of rounds—some of which are remarkable feats in and of themselves, like the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, and Final Four—for the NCAA Division I championship title. Oftentimes [...]
Book quiz: do you know these classic first lines?
Opening lines are an important part of any piece of literature. A writer has to grab the attention of the reader with that first line or run the risk of them putting the book down. While that might sound a little alarmist, there is no doubt that a punchy opening line lingers in the memory [...]
Blog categories
- Competitions and quizzes (19)
- Dictionaries and lexicography (52)
- English in use (139)
- Grammar and writing help (34)
- Interactive features (30)
- Other languages (21)
- Varieties of English (18)
- Word origins (83)
- Word trends and new words (59)
