• Major new edition providing an authoritative, up-to-the-minute description of the English language
• NEW: Luxury gift edition includes cut thumb tabs, silver blocking on jacket, stylish printed endpapers, and co-ordinated coloured ribbon and head and tail bands.
• The clearest definitions, based on the analysis of real English from the Oxford English Corpus
• Over 240,000 words, phrases, and definitions, including 1,800 new words
• NEW Word Histories feature telling the often bizarre stories of the development of 100s of words, such as accolade and candid
• NEW: Hundreds of extra notes on grammar and usage covering a wide range of topics, from confusable words (peddle or pedal?) to punctuation (where should hyphens be used?)
• Appendices icluding countries and currencies, electronic English, and the Guide to Good English

• 900 new words
• 400 new notes on grammar and usage
• Word Histories feature, providing detailed explanations of the origins and development of 100 words
• Appendix on registers in language, from formal to slang, including a section on English used in electronic communication
• Cut thumb tabs give pinpoint accuracy for finding alphabetical changes

Also new to this edition is a fascinating Word Histories feature, telling the often bizarre stories of the origins and development of 100s of words. For example, did you know that the word grammar is related to glamour, or that cockney used to mean a spoilt child? This dictionary contains full appendices including new sections on electronic English, and the registers of language, from formal to slang.

This new edition replaces ISBN 0-19-860636-2.