New Oxford English Dictionary website launching in 2023

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words – past and present – from across the English-speaking world. 

Oxford University Press is pleased to announce that the OED is moving to a new platform later in the year. The purpose of this transition is to provide a significantly enhanced user experience on the site. The new platform places OED data at the heart of the research journey, meeting and anticipating the needs and expectations of all users.

What to expect:

Improved site functionality, including clearer navigation
New entry layout, making information easier to find and understand
Enhanced accessibility compliance with industry standards (WCAG)
Increased discoverability, ensuring OED content is easy to find via search engines

Take a look for yourself

The following video offers an early preview of the new platform, as well as the resources that will be available for institutional subscribers and end users.

Stay Informed

• Webinar and demo events

• Access to onboarding and training materials

• End-user materials

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Frequently Asked Questions - general

When is the new OED platform launching?
Mid 2023

Where can I find out more information about the new platform?
Sign up to our email communications. We will be sending out information on the lead up to the launch, including: sneak peeks, resources for end users, onboarding materials, information on how to access free institutional trials and any changes administrators need to make to ensure they get uninterrupted coverage.

I am not sure what the new OED platform offers
The new OED platform offers clearer navigation and brings all the rich content in the OED to the user’s fingertips, from tracking the history and development of language to exploring resources like the Historical Thesaurus of the OED.

What is a historical dictionary?
A historical dictionary is a dictionary that shows how words have changed over time. It can also focus on a specific period of a language’s history.
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 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to cookery books, film scripts, and social media. 

What accessibility standards does the platform conform to?
Level AA of the WCAG 2.1 Standard

I am an end user/individual subscriber. Will I need to do anything?
Please note that links and display preferences saved in personal profiles on the current site will be unavailable after the new site launches. If you created a personal profile on the current site, you will need to create a new account on the new site in order to use this functionality.

The page URLs will be changing for the new site. Redirects will be in place for a period after launch but please be sure to update your bookmarks to the new URLs as needed.

How can I purchase a subscription?
Please visit https://public.oed.com/help/how-to-subscribe/ for information on how to subscribe to the OED.

Frequently Asked Questions - institutional account managers

Will I need to make any changes to ensure continued access to the platform at launch?
There are some small back-end changes that will be needed. See our Migration Checklist and FAQs for Librarians.

What training/onboarding resources will be available?
We will be reproducing all the training resources that we know our customers and users find invaluable, such as the ‘how to instructional videos’ and these will be ready and shared ahead of launch.
There will also be webinars to showcase and onboard librarians to the new platform on the 3rd and 4th May 2023 – reserve your space today:

Are there resources that I can share with end-users so they can understand what the new platform offers?
Our resource centre will continue to be home to a range of resources that helps your users understand what they have access to and how to get started using the OED ensuring a great experience for your users and great value for your institution. Types of content you can expect to find include: social cards, introductory and usage videos, shelf tags and much more

Are resources only available in English?
We are creating help, support, and usage materials in a number of languages.

When will communications messages be going out to customers?
Customer and user communications will start going out from the end of March and will continue until after launch – these communications will ensure librarians are well informed about the new platform, the launch date, admin changes required and have access to the full suite of onboarding and training materials. Ensure you are kept up to date by filling out this form

Is the new platform compliant with accessibility standards?
The new OED platform is compliant WCAG 2.1 Level AA.