Interactive features
An interactive guide to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary
The Concise Oxford Dictionary is 100 years old! To celebrate the centenary of this bestselling dictionary we have created a fascinating interactive tour charting the history of this landmark publication. Explore our interactive guide to discover the story of a dictionary that has been a trusted guide to English for millions of people, and has faithfully recorded how our [...]
Video: A short history of the COED
This video offers a quick history of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.
Take our Concise Centenary quiz
To celebrate one hundred years of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, try your luck at our quiz! For a hundred years the Concise has been a record of all aspects of the English language; from the vulgar to the colloquial and from the formal to the technical. Where do certain words come from? What do [...]
What were your top lookups in the past year?
As part of our occasional search monitor series, here’s a clickable word cloud displaying about 350 of your most-viewed words in Oxford Dictionaries Online. Instead of looking at the last month, we thought it would be fun to look at the most looked-up words since Oxford Dictionaries Online’s inception. Over the last year a lot [...]
Abattoir to zigzag: English words of French origin
To commemorate the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 we are looking at English words of French origin. Hover over the image below to discover a selection of English words derived from French, from abattoir to zigzag. Click on the words to go straight to the dictionary entries.
Independence Day in the USA
Independence Day is celebrated in the USA on the fourth of July and for those of you who know bupkis about it, the tag cloud below illustrates just a few American icons included in our dictionary to give you bang for your buck. All are as American as apple pie, so whether you choose to [...]
Food, glorious food: take our quiz
Travel broadens the mind, they say, but it can also enrich the language as a whole. Food names have entered English from many routes: as imported goods were brought to our shores in past centuries, we encountered terms such as garam masala and macaroni. Later additions to the language reflect the growth of mass travel [...]
What were your top lookups in May?
As part of our occasional search monitor series, here’s a clickable word cloud displaying about 350 of your most-viewed words in Oxford Dictionaries Online during May 2011. Literally literally gets the prize for the most popular word, perhaps down to its more informal and sometimes humorous usage. Plagiarism also features, although we hope not only [...]
Blog categories
- Competitions and quizzes (26)
- Dictionaries and lexicography (114)
- English in use (301)
- Grammar and writing help (58)
- Interactive features (46)
- OED Appeals (4)
- Other languages (49)
- Varieties of English (28)
- Word origins (156)
- Word trends and new words (91)
