Based on the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains an incredible one-third of the coverage of the Oxford English Dictionary and includes all words in current English from 1700 to the present day.

* Contains more than 600,000 words, phrases, and definitions, with coverage of language from the entire English-speaking world, from North America and the UK to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and the Caribbean
* Fully updated with 2,500 new words and meanings based on the ongoing research programme of Oxford Dictionaries and the Oxford English Corpus
* Includes all the vocabulary current in general English from 1700 to the present day, as well as earlier major literary works, including Shakespeare, Milton's poetry, the Authorized Version of the Bible, and Spenser's Faerie Queene
* Excellent coverage of all types of English encompassing slang, dialect words, technical, historical, and literary terms, and rare and obsolete words
* Over 80,000 quotations illustrating words in use throughout the centuries and thousands of newly discovered antedatings based on the ongoing research for the OED
* A never-before-published, introductory essay by the eminent language commentator David Crystal on the History of English provides a stimulating insight into the development of the English language

With new coverage of global English, as well as slang, dialect, technical, historical, and literary terms, and rare and obsolete words, the latest edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary allows the general reader access to an unparalleled level of scholarship, as well as being an essential tool for academics and researchers.