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New Zealand English Transcription Model

In the late 19th century, James Murray’s inclusion of transcriptions in A New English Dictionary embedded the descriptivist stance that OED’s pronunciations editors emulate and hold dear today. Pronunciations were…

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History of GROOM

The distinction between noun and verb is one of the most fundamental features of human language, and this is reflected in the OED’s organizational principles. The process whereby one part…

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Naturalization and Indian English

Read about our Indian English in the Oxford English Dictionary FAQs “I had some lovely andouillette /ˌɒndwɪˈɛt/,” said Charlie.“You mean /ɑ̃dujɛt/,” replied Sam. Do you side with Charlie or Sam?…

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Comic Strips and the OED

When revising an OED entry, our chief concern is that the quotations reflect the reality of current and historical usage: we include the earliest example of a word, sense, or…

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