Tag archives: interactive
Paperback Oxford English Dictionary photography competition – win a digital camera
Everyone knows the power of an image A striking image to illustrate what we write gives our work even greater impact – particularly if the picture is arresting and well-thought out. The skilful combination of words and images works. So this month to celebrate the new edition of our bestselling Paperback Oxford English Dictionary, we [...]
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 [...]
Interactive quiz: how well do you know the language of film?
Hollywood doesn’t pay much attention to lexicographers (Billy Wilder’s 1941 comedy Ball of Fire is the notable exception), but lexicographers are duty-bound to make a careful study of the world of film. The Oxford English Dictionary regularly studies screenplays as part of its research programme, and cites nearly 200 examples from film scripts. During the [...]
Delve into Dickens with our interactive text analyser
It’s easy to get lost in a good book. If you’re not careful, you can lose hours, or even days immersed in a fictional land; forgetting to eat, postponing sleep while you read just one more chapter… But have you ever wanted to physically climb into a book so that you can get your nose [...]
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- 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)
