The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. The OED should not be confused with the the one-volume Oxford Dictionary of English, formerly New Oxford Dictionary of English, of 1998.
On 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contains about 301,100 main entries. Supplementing each entry headword, there are 157,000 bold-type combinations and derivatives; 169,000 italicized-bold phrases and combinations; 616,500 word-forms in total, including 137,000 pronunciations; 249,300 etymologies; 577,000 cross-references; and 2,412,400 usage quotations. The dictionary's latest, complete print edition (Second Edition, 1989) was in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages.
The OED's policy was attempting the recording of a word's most-known usages and variants in all varieties of English past and present, world-wide; per the 1933 Preface:
It clarified:
The OED is the focus of much scholarly work about English words. Its headword variant spellings order list influences written English in Anglophone countries.
