Oxford English Dictionary

Access the OED

Visit the Oxford English Dictionary by using the links below.

In our Libraries:
dictionary.oed.com/
entrance.dtl.

Access from home:
dictionary.oed.com/
cgi/lclogin.

Ever wondered what words mean or where they come from?

The Oxford English Dictionary is a 20 volume dictionary containing over 600,000 words, and over 1.5 million quotations from a wide range of sources. It has the origins and meaning of words from across the English speaking world from New Zealand to the Caribbean.

Some interesting snippets relating to the Royal Borough are:

Where was the phrase Sloane Ranger first used? (Harpers and Queen 1975)
Which game shares its name with an area of Kensington and Chelsea? (Portobello, a kind of billiards)
Did you know that ‘Kensington’ is the name of a stitch in embroidery?

This fabulous resource is now available on-line from the Royal Borough Libraries. Simply use the link above to access it.

The online version allows you to:

Find a term when you know the meaning but have forgotten the word
Use a wild card if you are unsure of the spelling
Search for quotations by year, author or work
Search for words which have come into English via another language
Look at the complete history and origin of a word
Learn how to pronounce a word

Libraries