For students and teachers
If your school or library subscribes to the OED, learn about remote access here. If your school or library does not subscribe, many of the resources below allow free access to the relevant OED entries, and you can also request a free 30-day trial.
New resources
Posters
- Poster: types of noun
Lesson plans
- Lesson plan: learning to transcribe pronunciations
- Lesson plan: neologisms
New resources
- Printable resources: birthday words generator card
Guidance on the English language
Key skills
Do you know your past participles from your personal pronouns? Brush up on your grammar.
Can you spell your favourite word using IPA? Learn about the International Phonetic Alphabet.
English around the world
Visit the OED’s Varieties of English page to find information on World Englishes, and learn about the history, grammar, and pronunciation of Australian English, Hong Kong English, South African English, and more.
The OED and how to use it
How to use the OED
- Historical Thesaurus of the OED (HTOED): learn how to make the most of the HTOED with our how-to guide. You can also watch our 15 minute virtual tour.
- Searching the OED: view our guide and read our accompanying blog post for some examples of what can be found using different searches
- Exploring OED quotations: learn more about where OED quotations come from, what kind of information they contain, and what the information means in our guide.
- Labels and date ranges: learn what is meant by ‘Old English’ and ‘Middle English’, and when a word would be considered as obsolete
- Watch the OED’s video guides
How do dictionaries work?
- Find out how words are added to the OED (please note that the interactive feature mentioned on this page contains a term which may not be suitable for younger audiences)
- We expel some of the common myths and misconceptions about the OED and how words are added in our worksheet on myth-busting the OED. You can also take our mythbusting quiz.
- How are words that are already in the dictionary revised? Learn about the work of our revision editors when they revise an entry, or watch the video about this in our videos section below.
What do dictionary editors do?
- Learn the stories of the OED‘s first editor, Sir James Murray (1837–1915)
- Read our interview with Fiona McPherson, OED Senior Editor, to find out what our new words team do.
- Learn from Katherine Martin, Head of US Dictionaries, about how our editors ensure American English is reflected in the OED
- Hear from Catherine Sangster, Head of Pronunciations, about her work researching and documenting the pronunciation of words
- Listen to Danica Salazar, World English Editor for the OED, as she describes drafting dictionary entries for the many varieties of English spoken all around the world
- Learn about our Oxford Languages summer placements
Lesson plans and worksheets for Key Stage 3 (US grades 6-8)
- Exploring semantic change: this ice-breaker activity shows students how the OED can be used to trace a word’s meanings over time
- Winter worksheet: a quick introduction to using the OED in schools
- Mythbusting the OED worksheet: we expel some of the common myths and misconceptions about the OED and how words are added in our worksheet on myth-busting the OED.
- Women in Science lesson plan: this cross-curricula lesson plan instigates exciting discussions about women in science, using the OED
- Lesson plans related to World Englishes: view our World English teaching activity pack
The scheme of work below has been prepared by David Bunting, St. Peter’s School, Bournemouth, UK
- Introduction to OED Online lesson plan: view the student worksheet and accompanying teacher notes
- Using the OED Online lesson plan: view the student worksheet and accompanying teacher notes
- Research lesson plan: view the student worksheet and accompanying teacher notes
- Vocabulary lesson plan: view the student worksheet and accompanying teacher notes
External resources
Tes: resources using the OED
Tes is a global online community of educators, offering blog posts, industry news, and a variety of free and paid-for teaching resources.
Free resources from Tes (created by Oxford University Press):
Lesson plans and worksheets for GCSE (US grades 9-10)
- Learning to transcribe pronunciations: learn about transcription symbols, and why they are useful, find out where an editor would look for pronunciation evidence, and learn how to transcribe a word yourself.
- Neologisms: learn how new words enter the language and why, and submit a neologism to the OED
- Using the OED in assignments: this guide highlights some of the ways the OED and Historical Thesaurus might benefit future assignments and essay-writing
- Exploring semantic change: this ice-breaker activity shows students how the OED can be used to trace a word’s meanings over time
- Mythbusting the OED worksheet: we expel some of the common myths and misconceptions about the OED and how words are added in our worksheet on myth-busting the OED.
- Women in science lesson plan: this cross-curricula lesson plan instigates exciting discussions about women in science, using the OED
- Lesson plans related to World Englishes: view our World English teaching activity pack
- Lesson plan: greenwashing and the use of climate change language
- Lesson plan: the development of language related to climate change
- You can also find posters related to the language of climate change in the posters section below.
- Literary terms activity: view the student worksheet and teacher notes
- Using wildcards to help with spelling activity: view the student worksheet and teacher notes
World Englishes
The language of climate change
The scheme of work below has been prepared by David Bunting, St. Peter’s School, Bournemouth, UK
Lesson plans and worksheets for A-Level (US grades 11-12)
- Learning to transcribe pronunciations: learn about transcription symbols, and why they are useful, find out where an editor would look for pronunciation evidence, and learn how to transcribe a word yourself.
- Neologisms: learn how new words enter the language and why, and submit a neologism to the OED
- Using the OED in assignments: this guide highlights some of the ways the OED and Historical Thesaurus might benefit future assignments and essay-writing
- Exploring semantic change: this ice-breaker activity shows students how the OED can be used to trace a word’s meanings over time
- Mythbusting the OED worksheet: we expel some of the common myths and misconceptions about the OED and how words are added in our worksheet on myth-busting the OED.
- Women in science lesson plan: this cross-curricula lesson plan instigates exciting discussions about women in science, using the OED
- AS and A-level, 16-18 (US grade 11-12) lesson plans
World Englishes
- Lesson plans related to World Englishes: view our World English teaching activity pack
The language of climate change
- Lesson plan: greenwashing and the use of climate change language
- Lesson plan: the development of language related to climate change
External resources
Teachit: resources using the OED
Teachit English is a resource website for teachers, with over 23,465 pages of classroom worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and activities, written by and edited by professional secondary English teachers. Free members to the site can access thousands of PDFs, while subscribers can adapt the resources and download 25 teaching packs. Teachit English is part of AQA Education.
Key Stage 5 (Free PDF)
Resources for university students
- ‘Gender and genre: students, researchers, and the OED’ blog piece
- Tara Williams, “The OED in
the Literature Classroom,” Pedagogy 18.3 (2018): 547-550.
You may also like to explore the OED’s ‘The OED and research‘ page, to learn more about OED prototype tools which you may helpful in your research.
Classroom posters
Videos
Video guides: how to use the OED
We’ve created a series of videos to help you get the most out of the OED. Choose from the selections below to learn more about how to use some of the OED’s features.
- Navigating an entry
- Quick search
- Advanced search
- Understanding the sidebar
- Understanding the results page
- Categories
- Sources
- Finding the help section
- The Historical Thesaurus of the OED: categories
- Using the Historical Thesaurus of the OED in research
Videos: about the OED
Have you ever wondered how an entry is revised? View our video about the revision of ‘bear, n.1’ below, and view the accompanying blog post to learn why the video contains images of helicopters, caterpillars, anteaters, and doughnuts.
Quizzes
- Quizzes: hone your skills using the OED Online
- Mythbusting quiz: take the mythbusting quiz to see how well you know the OED
End of term resources
- What is your birthday word? Find out which words originated during your birth year. You can also download our birthday words card to print out and use in the classroom.
- We’d like to hear about the unique expressions used by children and young people. Can you submit a word to the OED?
- Can you create a book spine poem just like writer and editor Stan Carey?
- What is your favourite food word? Learn about the lexical history of your favourite food, and have a go at baking it just like food writer Kate Young here.
Notes from children's authors
What do dictionary editors do?
- Illustrator Nick Sharratt shares his favourite
- word here and an illustration to go with it in this interview
- Author Frances Hardinge shares her five
- favourite words
- In this interview, Geraldine McCaughrean tells us about favourite words, the naming of heroines, tackling similes and metaphors, and more
- Did you know that J. R. R. Tolkien once worked as an OED editor? Find out more
- Winnie the Pooh may have been bothered by long words, but plenty of words from A. A. Milne’s books have made their way into the OED. Learn more in this blog post
- Our children’s dictionary team have some
- wonderful resources on their Roald Dahl dictionary available
External resources
OUP: free dictionary resources for children: download a variety of free activities and worksheets to be used alongside the OED, or Oxford children’s dictionaries
Tes: resources using the OED
Tes is a global online community of educators, offering blog posts, industry news, and a variety of free and paid-for teaching resources.
Free resources from Tes (created by Oxford University Press):
- How to use a dictionary
- Age 11-14 adjectives worksheet
- Age 11-14 homographs & spelling worksheet
- Age 11-14 prefix and suffix worksheet
Teachit: resources using the OED
Teachit English is a resource website for teachers, with over 23,465 pages of classroom worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and activities, written by and edited by professional secondary English teachers. Free members to the site can access thousands of PDFs, while subscribers can adapt the resources and download 25 teaching packs. Teachit English is part of AQA Education.
Key Stage 5 (Free PDF)
Suggest resources that would be useful to you
Use the submissions form below to suggest a new lesson plan, poster, worksheet, or other teaching resource related to the OED, or to share your experiences of using the OED in lessons: