The Features of OALECD (the 7^th Edition)

 Sarah Robertson

Editorial Director, ELT Dictionaries, Oxford University Press

OALD is a title of which Oxford University Press is very proud. Throughout its life, the monolingual edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD) has sold over 35 million copies, and is the biggest-selling single title of all time for OUP.

As you probably know, Oxford has an enviable heritage in expertise in the English language, and in publication of dictionaries of English. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary has the longest history of any dictionary for learners of English.  The first edition was conceived and written by A.S. Hornby, an English teacher in Japan in the 1920s. Hornby realised that dictionaries intended for native speakers of English were just not suitable or helpful for the students he taught. The definitions were long and included complex words, there were no illustrations, no help with pronunciation, and no example sentences demonstrating words in use. Hornby set about producing a dictionary that addressed all of these problems. For years his scribbled notes describing English words and phrases waited patiently on the backs of envelopes, post cards and scraps of paper, stored in boxes. Then in 1938 the pieces of paper began their transformation into the Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, later to become the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, which was eventually published by Oxford University Press in 1948.

Since then, new editions have been published in the years 1963, 1974, 1989, 1995, 2000 and 2005. Each edition has built on the strengths of its predecessors but remained true to the principles established by Hornby over 60 years ago. Hornby became extremely influential and respected in the world of ELT. After his dictionary was published, he continued teaching, and founded an educational trust which to this day is funded by royalties from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and its Chinese bilingual editions. The trust supports the training and development of ELT practitioners from around the world and Oxford University Press is delighted to be able to play its part in supporting this important work.

Although the success of Hornby’s dictionary can be seen from the number of copies that have been sold, we also receive feedback from many students from around the world who tell us what the dictionary has meant to them as they have learned English. Listening to what students and teachers tell us is important for us as we develop new editions of the dictionary. We make sure we keep everything that our users have found helpful in the current edition, and we develop the new edition to respond to specific requests from students and teachers. The 7^th edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary contains a number of new and updated features that I’d like to share with you. First, the 7^th edition contains 2000 new words relating to areas as diverse as fashion, computing, telecommunications and sport, with new words including tankini, phishing (spelt with “ph”), top-up card and wakeboarding. Students using the OALD are accessing the most current form of English as it is used today and will find more words and meanings than in any other monolingual learner's dictionary.

What other changes have been made to make the 7^th edition of OALD even more useful for learners? We have included a number of different labels on the headword entries to help provide users with more information about words. For example, 5000 words relating to specific areas of study are labelled with the relevant subject area and the most important words for students to learn are highlighted with the Oxford 3000^TM key symbol. Even more American English is included in addition to British English, as are 700 'World English words' from varieties such as Australian, South African and Indian English, making this edition a truly international one. 200 special synonym notes show the differences between key groups of similar words and thousands more synonyms and opposites are highlighted in the entries. Labelled illustrations and 32 colour pages help students build their vocabulary visually. And finally, there is more help with cultural references such as Fort Knox, Piccadilly Circus and Peter Pan.

Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the University of Oxford, is the world's largest and most international university press. Founded in 1478, it produces more than 6,000 new  publications per year, has offices in around fifty countries, and employs some 5,000 people worldwide. It has become familiar to millions through a diverse publishing programme that includes scholarly works in all academic disciplines, bibles, music, school and college textbooks, children's books, materials for teaching English as a foreign language, business books, dictionaries and reference books, and journals.