The New Oxford Dictionary of English (often abbreviated to NODE) is an English language dictionary first published in 1998 by the Oxford University Press. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ...

This dictionary is not based on the Oxford English Dictionary and should not be mistaken for a new or updated version of the OED. Cover of the Pocket version of the Oxford English Dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). ...

It is a completely new dictionary which strives to represent as faithfully as possible the current usage of English words. The editor, Judy Pearsall, claims it is based on modern understanding of language, as it derives from a corpus linguistics of contemporary used English. Some unorthodox choices made by the editors made this dictionary controversial amongst lexicographers, because the dictionary is descriptive rather than prescriptive. For example, the editors did not advocate against split infinitives, and instead justify their use in some contexts. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Corpus linguistics is the study of language as expressed in samples (corpora) or real world text. ... A lexicographer is a person devoted to the study of lexicography, especially an author of a dictionary. ... In linguistics, prescription is the laying down or prescribing of normative rules for a language. ... A split infinitive is a grammatical construction in the English language where a word or phrase, usually an adverb or adverbial phrase, occurs between the marker to and the bare infinitive (uninflected) form of the verb. ...

For a large college level dictionary, another unusual decision in editting was to remove pronunciations for common, everyday words. Most other large dictionaries contain pronunciations for all words, despite its uselessness for everyday words that users of college dictionaries should know the pronunciations of.

In 2003 a second edition, renamed Oxford Dictionary of English, was edited by Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, and on 11 August 2005, a revision was published, called Oxford Dictionary of English, second edition revised. The revised edition was not much of an update from the second edition when considering content, but was marketed to include a free subscription to an online version of the dictionary. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In Britain and many other english-speaking countries, electronic versions of the second edition are available as portable handhelds. This is partly due to the convenience of rapidly searching for words that come to mind and the unwieldiness of the rather large hardcover editions.

See also

• New Oxford American Dictionary