Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition The Oxford English
Dictionary (2nd Edition) provides access to the full text of the
print edition containing authoritative definitions and
quotations, illustrating the evolution of the English language.
The dictionary provides a designation, usually abbreviated,
which describes the boundaries within which a word or sense is,
or was, used. In current OED terminology, there are five
categories of labels: status (obsolete, rare, colloquial, etc.);
regional (indicating a geographical area of usage, such as the
U.S.); grammatical (describing the syntactical role of the word
or sense, such as plural or collective); semantic (indicating
the interpretation given to a word or sense in a particular
context, such as figurative, transferred, specific, etc.); and
subject (specifying the discipline, profession, trade, etc. in
which a word or sense is used). It is possible to retrieve
either entire dictionary entries (including quotations) or to
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