Oxford English Dictionary Online

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) online is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language, giving you not only the latest content from the full Oxford English Dictionary but also the Historical Thesaurus of the OED. It's an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language, traced through over 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. You can also check out some of their short video guides to help you get the most out of your OED use.

You can explore the dictionary as follows:

• Dictionary (Browse the whole dictionary from A-Z)
• Categories (Browse words by subject, usage, region or origin)
• Timelines (Discover when words entered the English language)
• Sources (Explore the top 1,000 authors and works quoted in the OED)

The OED is updated every 3 months; existing entries are revised and new words are added

To access this resource, simply enter your library card number where indicated (usually to the top or to the left of the screen), and select Dublin City Libraries if the option is given.

Check out our Dublin City Libraries blog posts for more information on the wide range of reference and research tools that you may find useful when doing research for your writing, including art and music resources.

Or have a look at out our website for a full list of all our online resources.

If you don’t have a library card, contact your local library and they will help you to join. More information on library membership.

If you have any queries or if you registered online and can’t access any of these resources, you can also contact us at [email protected].

Submitted by Reader/Bibliographic Services