Other things to note
- The OED does not include proper names unless they are widely used in a particular context (for instance, "Chamberlainism," "Shakespearian").
- Letters of the alphabet each have their own OED entry, discussing the history of each letter in typography and usage.
- Initialisms are sequences of letters that refer to a full expression ("USA" = United States of America).
- Acronyms are initialisms that are now words: for instance, NASA is now a word itself, and is no longer only short for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Abbreviations are shortened words ("Rev.", "p.s.").
- Affixes involve adding something to make an entirely new word: "pro-," "re-" and so on. These will usually have their own entry.
- Ghost words are words that were originally misspelled or misprinted, made their way into the English language, and now are considered spurious.
- Click the "Cite" link at the top of the entry to export it to several different citation management tools in MLA or Chicago format:
Using the Print OED
The library catalog has several Oxford English Dictionaries.
Below is a sample entry with explanations of abbreviations from the print edition of the OED.
