# data[].attributes.body
YA novelist Frances Hardinge lists her five favourite words - look how skilfully she explains her choices! Can you do the same with your own list of favourite vocabulary?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Frances Hardinge was brought up in a sequence of small, sinister English villages, and spent a number of formative years living in a Gothic-looking, mouse-infested hilltop house in Kent. She studied English Language and Literature at Oxford, fell in love with the city's crazed archaic beauty, and lived there for many years.

Whilst working full time as a technical author for a software company she started writing her first children's novel, Fly by Night, and was with difficulty persuaded by a good friend to submit the manuscript to Macmillan. She has now written eight books for children and young adults, including Cuckoo Song, which won the Robert Holdstock award for Best Fantasy Novel at the British Fantasy Awards, and The Lie Tree, which won the Costa Book of the Year 2015. Her most recent book is A Skinful of Shadows.

Frances, who is seldom seen without her hat and is addicted to volcanoes, has shared with us her five favourite words in honour of the OED's 90th birthday:

There are many words that I love for their music and rhythm, and because they're satisfying to say. This is one of them, but I also like the way it describes itself. It's a needlessly wordy term for needless wordiness.
See the OED entry for sesquipedalian.
The word is soft, dusty, and fragile, like the creature it describes. It's simple, dowdy, and light as a breath.

Old insults have more panache. You can't call someone a scoundrel, blackguard, jackanapes, or rapscallion without making them sound rather swashbuckling.
Image credit: David Levenson The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.
I came across this word while studying Beowulf at university. It means to 'grow dark' or 'become murky', and it's used to describe the way the air itself dims and darkens over the sinister waters that conceal the sunken hall of Grendel's mother. The word sounds just as ominous, melancholy, and atmospheric as it should.

This word sounds soft, spreadable, and delicious. When I was very young, someone told me that marmalade was first made for Mary Queen of Scots when she was ill, and nicknamed 'Marie est malade' as a result. This tale wasn't true, of course. However, it showed me that ordinary words could have hidden stories within them, some false and some true.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Frances Hardinge's five favourite words | Oxford English Dictionary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Frances Hardinge was brought up in a sequence of small, sinister English villages, and spent a number of formative years living in a Gothic-looking, mouse-infested hilltop house in Kent. She studied English Language and Literature at Oxford, fell in love with the city's crazed archaic beauty, and lived there for many years.

# data[].attributes.body
Watch this short video about the age of the dictionary. Next, complete some independent research about the history of the dictionary and find an interesting, informative (and possibly creative) way to display this.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The History of English - The Age of the Dictionary (7/10)

# data[].attributes.body
Use this website to research the etymology of some of your favourite words; where have these words come from and how have they been used in the past? Can you create a visual timeline that tracks the etymology of at least one of these words?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Etymonline - Online Etymology Dictionary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The online etymology dictionary (etymonline) is the internet’s go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms. It is professional enough to satisfy academic standards, but accessible enough to be used by anyone.

# data[].attributes.body
If you enjoy a quiz, see how many of these dictionary quizzes you can work through; you will need access to the OED online dictionary to find the answers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By clicking 'continue' or by continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

Jump to Content

Find the answers by using OED Online!

Quiz one

1. What was the original meaning of skyscraper? (Hint: the oldest meaning of a word is defined first in the OED)

2. When did mobile phone first enter the English language? (Hint: check the quotations under the definition to find the earliest recorded use)

3. Which 6 letter word for an animal starts with Z and ends with Y? (Hint: use the wildcard ? to denote a missing letter)

4. How many different types of phobia feature in the OED? (Hint: use the wildcard * before phobia to find all words ending in phobia)

5. Who, according to the OED, was the first person to use the word cold-hearted, and when? (Hint: check the first quotation to find the author and date)

6. Name 4 words which have an Arabic origin (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option, and then type 'Arabic' into the 'Language of Origin' box or use 'Language' in the drop down list)

7. Name 4 words which entered English in 1985 (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option, and use the 'Date of Entry' box)

8. What does the word robot mean in South Africa? (Hint: scroll through the entry to find the answer)

9. "Beware the jubjub bird" is a quote from which book? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option, and then Quotation Text in the drop down list)

10. Which word means a type of dance and a type of sauce? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option and do an AND search for both the terms in Definitions)

Need help? Take a look at the answers!

Quiz two

1. What was the original meaning of the adjective "nice"? (Hint: the oldest meaning of the word is defined first in the OED)

2. When was the noun "text message" first recorded in English? (Hint: check the date of the first citation)

3. Why was the song containing the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" the subject of a law suit? (Hint: the answer can be found in the entry for this word)

4. How many words appearing in the OED end in "ology"? (Hint: use the wildcard * before ology to find all the words ending in 'ology')

5. Which words of Hindi origin, and relating to food, entered English before 1900? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option. Type 'Hindi' into the 'Language of Origin' box, 'Food and Cooking' into the 'Subject' box, and '-1900' into the 'Date of Entry' box)

6. What is the name for the part of an animal's back which it can't reach to scratch? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option and do an AND search for two relevant terms in 'Definitions')

7. How many words appearing in OED came into English during the sixties? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option and use the 'Date of Entry' box)

8. Which noun first used by Jack Kerouac, and included in the OED, came into English between 1900 and 1950? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option and use the 'First Quotation, Date of Entry, and Part of Speech boxes)

Need help? Take a look at the answers!

Quiz three

1. What is a sniffer program? (Hint: enter the search term in the Quick Search box)

2. What was the original meaning of silly? (Hint: the oldest meaning of a word is defined first in the OED)

3. "I could just murder a cup of tea" is a quote from which TV series? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option and select Quotation from the drop down list)

4. From which language does juggernaut originate? (Hint: search for the word, and look at the Etymology section when you are in the entry)

5. Which 6-letter word for a wading bird starts with J and ends with U? (Hint: use the wildcard ? to denote a missing letter)

6. Which is the longest word in the OED which starts super and ends ious? (Hint: use the wildcard * to denote one or more missing letters)

7. Which band, according to the OED, were the first to use the phrase cool Britannia, and when? (Hint: when in the entry, check the first quotation to find the author and date)

8. Name 4 words which have an Urdu origin (Hint: choose the Advanced Search, and then Language in the drop down list, and enter your search term in the box or select Urdu in the 'Language of Origin' box)

9. Name 4 words which entered English in 1995 (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option, and then First Quotation in the drop down list)

10. "Don't be such a big girl's blouse!" is a quote from which TV series? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option, and then Quotation Text in the drop down list)

11. Which word has meant dissolute, effeminate, and elegant over the course of time? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option and do an AND search for all the terms having chosen Definitions from the drop down list)

12. Which Malay word for a garment was first recorded in English in 1834? (Hint: choose the Advanced Search option and do an AND search for all the terms having chosen Language, Definitions, and First Quotations Date as appropriate from the drop down list)

Need help? Take a look at the answers!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We use cookies to enhance your experience on our website. By clicking 'continue' or by continuing to use our website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Jump to Content Find the answers by using OED Online!

# data[].attributes.body
The Cambridge Dictionary website has a couple of interesting blogs about idioms.
1. Read at least one of these and make sure you understand what an idiom is.
2. Collect a list of at least ten idioms.
3. Write a short story or drama script in which you use as many idioms as you can.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
About Words - Cambridge Dictionaries Online blog

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by Liz Walter​

Students of English are usually introduced to personality words such as friendly, shy, confident or lazy fairly early on in their studies. This blog offers a selection of colourful yet common idioms that can offer a more interesting response to the question ' What's s/he like? '.

For instance, we often say that shy people wouldn't say boo to a goose (British)/ wouldn't say boo (US), while lazy people don't lift a finger and tend to think that the world owes them a living. Someone who is always confident enough to give their opinion is not backward in coming forward. (This phrase usually implies that the person is a little bit more assertive than the speaker would like!)

A useful way of describing the sort of person who frequently manages to cause offence or annoyance is to say that they tend to rub people up the wrong way, while someone who boasts a lot about what they are going to do but never actually does is all mouth and no trousers (British)/ all mouth (US).

Someone who doesn't suffer fools gladly doesn't hide their impatience if someone says or does something silly. This phrase is often used to imply that the person is rather scary, but it can also sound slightly admiring. We also say that a frightening and aggressive person will eat you for breakfast, while if someone's bark is worse than their bite, they are not really as scary as they seem.

A person who keeps himself to himself (or herself to herself) leads a very private and unsociable life, while someone who is always lively and cheerful is the life and soul of the party and someone who shows their emotions a lot wears his/her heart on his/her sleeve.

Many of the best phrases seem to be connected with negative descriptions, and even seemingly positive ones sometimes have an edge of disapproval. For instance to say that someone could charm the birds out of the trees usually implies that their charm may not always be sincere, and if we describe an extrovert and energetic person as a force of nature, we are probably mocking them at least a little.

However, there are a few unashamedly positive phrases for personality. For instance someone who's got their head screwed on can be relied on to act in a sensible manner, while someone who is the salt of the earth is a very good and honest person. If we really want to emphasize someone's admirable character, we can say they don't have a nasty/mean/jealous, etc. bone in their body.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What's she like? Idioms to describe personality

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Liz Walter​ Students of English are usually introduced to personality words such as friendly, shy, confident or lazy fairly early on in their studies. This blog offers a selection of colourful yet common idioms that can offer a more interesting response to the question 'What's s/he like?'.

# data[].attributes.body
Have fun playing these games - if you don't have a dictionary on a bookshelf, use an online dictionary to help you. There are so many games to choose from here so look for something that is the right level of challenge for your skill level. Enjoy!

# data[].attributes.body
Read this article about how Winnie the Pooh has left its impact on words in the dictionary. Can you research other books that have similarly influenced the language we use today?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The publication of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928 coincided with that of The House at Pooh Corner, the sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh which had appeared two years earlier. The character of Winnie-the-Pooh, however, made his first appearance in the collection of poems entitled When We Were Very Young, published in 1924. Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends make several appearances in the OED; the latest update has introduced several new entries drawn from A.A. Milne's delightful stories.

, whose name reflects a childish representation of the donkey's bray, gets an entry all of his own-'a pessimistic, gloomy, or habitually disconsolate person'-which would no doubt give him no satisfaction whatsoever. also appears in the OED, defined as 'a child's word for elephant', with quotations from both Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner: 'He guessed what had happened. He and Piglet had fallen into a Heffalump Trap for Poohs'. The association of these creatures with elephants is not made in the story itself, however; it is only apparent from an accompanying illustration, supplied by E.H. Shepard. As the story of the Heffalump trap demonstrates only too clearly-the trap in which Pooh and Piglet are caught is one they themselves dug to catch heffalumps-Pooh is a bear of little brain, another entry that has now been added to the OED. Defined as 'a person of little intelligence', this phrase is generally used self-deprecatingly, as it is by Pooh bear himself: 'I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me'. Pooh's antipathy to long words is part of what draws him to his friend Rabbit, who uses 'short, easy words, like "What about lunch?" and "Help yourself, Pooh"'.

Another of the dangerous creatures reputed to stalk the Hundred Acre Wood is the woozle; although, having spent some time on its trail, Pooh and Piglet discover that they are walking in a circle and following their own footsteps - a realisation that leads Pooh to declare: 'I am a Bear of No Brain at All'. Appropriately, the mythical woozle does not feature in the OED, but its name lives on in the Woozle effect: a deliberate attempt to mislead by frequent citation of publications lacking evidential support - a useful term for the era of fake news and alternative facts.

The OED does, however, include an entry for Pooh-sticks, a game in which each player drops a stick over one side of a bridge, the winner being the person whose stick is first to reappear on the other side. The global popularity of the game is apparent from a citation included in the entry drawn from The Independent newspaper in 2004: 'At the 21st annual Pooh-sticks race in Wittenham, Oxfordshire, the Czech Republic won the team gold medal'. During one game of Pooh-sticks Eeyore floats helplessly past, having been bounced into the river by Tigger-entries for , , and Tigger-like are all being included in the latest update, describing those who share Tigger's irrepressible energy and enthusiasm, often with disastrous consequences for those around them. By dropping a large stone into the river, Pooh succeeds in 'hooshing' him to the shore, only to find the ungrateful Eeyore disputing the rescue, as captured in the OED entry for : 'Hooshing me? You didn't think I was hooshed, did you?... I dived and swam to the bank'.

Since Pooh is best known for his love of honey, it is particularly apt that he should be cited in its -'He sat down and took the top off his jar of honey'-while Pooh's fondness for a little something for elevenses also appears in the relevant section of the OED: 'Now then, Pooh, time for a little something'. Yet perhaps most fitting of all is the quotation that appears in the entry for , 'a child's toy': 'In that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing'-encapsulating the way the Pooh bear stories live on in the imagination, and in their gifts to the English language.
The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Winnie-the-Pooh in the Oxford English Dictionary | Oxford English Dictionary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The publication of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1928 coincided with that of The House at Pooh Corner, the sequel to Winnie-the-Pooh which had appeared two years earlier. The character of Winnie-the-Pooh, however, made his first appearance in the collection of poems entitled When We Were Very Young, published in 1924.

# data[].attributes.body
Read this interview with children's illustrator Nick Sharratt. Use the questions to help you plan and record an interview with someone in your family about their favourite / least favourite words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Illustrator and author Nick Sharratt is known worldwide for his much-loved work creating and illustrating books for children (and their parents!). Having loved drawing for as long as he can remember, Nick has now illustrated over 250 books both of his own creation and in collaboration with fellow children's authors - perhaps most famously with Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

Now, the OED can be added to this lucky number as Nick has kindly created a birthday illustration in celebration of the 's 90th anniversary - along with one of his favourite word...

Here, Nick shares a little of his relationship with the world of words and the OED:

What do you think of when you hear 'Oxford English Dictionary'?

I think of my dad's' Concise Oxford English Dictionary, which fascinated me as a child because it had indentations that enabled you to open it at the precise letter you wanted. I used to spend hours playing with it. When I was at secondary school I was given my own OED and it's the one I still use. Looking at the words in the addenda takes me straight back to the 1970s: , , , , ...

What's your spelling like?

It's not too bad but I need to look in the dictionary every single time I want to write or . I had to do it just now. For a long time I had trouble with embarrassing and but I've mastered those two.

Do you know any unusual words?

I came across the word when I looking through the 'q's once. It means 'someone given to gossip' and I used it as the name for an imaginary magazine I had to design a cover for when I was at art school.

When I was a toddler I could only say 'Niddus' instead of 'Nicholas', and my mum still calls me that sometimes. I once looked up the nearest equivalent in the dictionary, so I know that a is a place where an insect deposits eggs.

I also know that a is a kind of root vegetable, having discovered the word on a pickle jar label.

What is your favourite word?

Are there any words or phrases that irritate you?

I'm not wild on people saying 'I'm like' when they mean 'I said'. But it really does drive me round the bend when television presenters and journalists who should know better state that something is 'very' or 'completely' or 'totally' unique. Something is either or it isn't - end of story!

Is there a word to describe your creative process?

I think might do it. I always hope my illustrations and texts look spontaneous and effortless, but an enormous amount of thought and effort has gone into even the simplest of my picture books.
The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Nick Sharratt's favourite word | Oxford English Dictionary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Illustrator and author Nick Sharratt is known worldwide for his much-loved work creating and illustrating books for children (and their parents!). Having loved drawing for as long as he can remember, Nick has now illustrated over 250 books both of his own creation and in collaboration with fellow children's authors - perhaps most famously with Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

# data[].attributes.body
Watch the video and hear Catherine Sangster talking about the role of a dictionary in recording the pronunciation of words.
Now do some research of your own: how do your family and friends pronounce certain words and can you find any reasons for the differences you come across? You could start with the words: scone, tomato, garage, bath, laugh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Meet Catherine Sangster, our Head of Pronunciations, whose job it is to 'look after the bits of the dictionary that tell you how to pronounce the word you're looking up'.

In this video, part of our Meet the Editors series for the s 90th anniversary celebrations, Catherine shares a glimpse into her work researching and documenting the pronunciation of words to reflect, 'as much as we can, what's actually going on'. In addition to pinning down pronunciations, Catherine also gets involved in crowdsourcing new evidence for the OED, and tells us about setting up the Dictionary Corner at the annual Nine Worlds convention and the contributions she has collected from its attendees - everything from terms used in knitting to comics and coding.

Find out more about the s pronunciation projects, including the latest pronunciation model added to the dictionary, Manx English.

The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Meet Catherine Sangster, our Head of Pronunciations, whose job it is to 'look after the bits of the dictionary that tell you how to pronounce the word you're looking up'.

# data[].attributes.headline
Meet the World English Editor for the OED

# data[].attributes.subject
Meet the World English Editor for the OED

# data[].attributes.body
Watch this video and hear how Danica Salazar, World English Editor for the Oxford English Dictionary, drafts dictionary entries for the many varieties of English.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introducing Danica Salazar, World English Editor for the Oxford English Dictionary. In this video - part of our Meet the Editors series for the OED's 90th anniversary celebrations - Danica offers an insight into her work drafting dictionary entries for the many varieties of English spoken all around the world, and explains how social media is helping our editors to access and document shifts in language that even ten years ago would have largely been out of reach.

***
The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Meet the Editors: Danica Salazar | Oxford English Dictionary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Introducing Danica Salazar, World English Editor for the Oxford English Dictionary. In this video - part of our Meet the Editors series for the OED's 90th anniversary celebrations - Danica offers an insight into her work drafting dictionary entries for the many varieties of English spoken all around the world, and explains how social media is helping our editors to access and document shifts in language that even ten years ago would have largely been out of reach.

# data[].attributes.body
Learn more about how the Oxford English Dictionary is compiled - can you use this to write your own dictionary quiz and test a friend / family member?

# data[].attributes.body
If you enjoy Roald Dahl novels, have a go this range of activities, all inspired by Dahl's love of inventing 'nonsense' words!

# data[].attributes.body
Read this article from the British Library about Samuel Johnson's efforts to create A Dictionary of English Language in 1755. Can you create a dictionary of words most commonly used in your friendship group / family (choose at least ten of the most interesting words)? Copy the formatting of dictionary layouts carefully.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Description

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language is one of the most famous dictionaries in history. First published in 1755, the dictionary took just over eight years to compile, required six helpers and listed 40,000 words. Each word was defined in detail, the definitions illustrated with quotations covering every branch of learning. It was a huge scholarly achievement, a more extensive and complex dictionary than any of its predecessors - the comparable French Dictionnaire had taken 55 years to compile and required the dedication of 40 scholars.

A group of London booksellers first commissioned Johnson's dictionary, as they hoped that a book of this kind would help stabilise the rules governing the English language. In the preface to the book, Johnson explains how he had found the language to be 'copious without order, and energetick without rules'. In his view, English was in desperate need of some discipline: 'wherever I turned my view ... there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated'. However, in the process of compiling the dictionary, Johnson recognised that language is impossible to fix because of its constantly changing nature, and that his role was to record the language of the day, rather than to form it.

Johnson details the ways in which languages change over time. However much the lexicographer may want to fix or 'embalm' his language, new words, phrases and pronunciations are constantly appearing, whether brought from abroad by merchants and travellers, extracted from the workrooms of geometricians and physicians, or found in the minds of poets.

In all, there are over 114,000 quotations in the dictionary. Johnson was the first English lexicographer to use citations in this way, a method that greatly influenced the style of future dictionaries. He had scoured books stretching back to the 16th century, often quoting from those thought to be 'great works', such as poemas by Milton or plays by Shakespeare. Therefore the quotations reflect his own distinct literary taste and political views. And yet, if Johnson didn't like a quotation, or if a phrase didn't convey the exact meaning he required, he did not hesitate to chop, twist around, or rewrite a few words - Johnson famously scribbled all over his books, underlining, highlighting, altering and correcting the words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language is one of the most famous dictionaries in history. First published in 1755, the dictionary took just over eight years to compile, required six helpers and listed 40,000 words. Each word was defined in detail, the definitions illustrated with quotations covering every branch of learning.

# data[].attributes.body
The poet Stan Carey wrote a 'spine poem' to wish the Oxford English Dictionary a happy 90th birthday! Read about it and then have a go at writing your own spine poem - don't forget to send your teacher a photo of your book stack / completed poem!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As we celebrate the 90 th anniversary of the Oxford English Dictionary's first completed edition, writer and editor Stan Carey has honoured the occasion with a spine poem, titled 'Walking Word by Word':

Walking Word by Word

Caught in the web of words,
The loom of language,
The stuff of thought,
The story of writing -
a line made by
walking word by
word through the
language glass.

Stan Carey is a freelance editor and writer from the west of Ireland, and first published 'Walking Word by Word' on his blog, Sentence First. The poem is dedicated to the OED and to James Murray, the remarkable editor who led the first edition's editorial staff for much of its creation.

Below, Stan shares with us his inspiration for writing spine poetry, how he created 'Walking Word by Word', and his enduring love for the English language - and the dictionaries that record it.

What inspired you to start writing spine poems? Had you ever written any poetry before?

I started making book spine poems in 2010 after seeing some by the artist Nina Katchadourian. I couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to me before: what a fun thing to do with your books! As a young lad I wrote bad existential and love poetry. Nowadays I mostly stick to haiku and nonsense verse.

Could you tell us how you created 'Walking Word by Word'?

It was to be a poem about the OED in some way, but most of the books I have about the OED didn't suit or had featured before. Caught in the Web of Words by K. M. Elisabeth Murray did suit, and the title is already poetic, so I took it off the shelf and browsed for a few more that continued the imagery. I played around with them till I was happy enough with the arrangement.

Have you always been interested in language?

As long as I can remember. I grew up learning Irish, French, and German, and thought about studying languages or literature in college. English was a source of endless wonder, especially the dialects I heard in rural Ireland. But I was into other stuff too, and I ended up studying biology. The focus shifted over the years until I began editing and learned about linguistics. That's when words became a vocation and a career.

How have dictionaries influenced your life? What do dictionaries mean to you?

In childhood I was fascinated by dictionaries and had a pocket Collins that I thumbed to tatters. Later I chanced upon two usage dictionaries, one descriptive, one prescriptive, that sent me down a rabbit hole I've yet to leave. As a copy-editor I consult dictionaries daily, and for research I love delving into the great historical dictionaries like the OED, MWDEU, and Green's Dictionary of Slang. The shift from print to digital has been interesting to watch, but I think there's a place for both in any word-lover's life.
The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Walking Word by Word: a poem for the OED's 90th birthday | Oxford English Dictionary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As we celebrate the 90 th anniversary of the Oxford English Dictionary's first completed edition, writer and editor Stan Carey has honoured the occasion with a spine poem, titled 'Walking Word by Word': Caught in the web of words, The loom of language, The stuff of thought, The story of writing - a line made by walking word by word through the language glass.

# data[].attributes.body
Have you ever wondered how new words make it into the dictionary? Follow the journey of OMG from its invention (in a letter to Sir Winston Churchill!) to its inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary through this interactive feature on their website:

# data[].attributes.body
Read this article about the hundreds of words invented by Shakespeare.  How many can you include when writing your own mini play script?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inventors get a lot of love. Thomas Edison is held up as a tinkering genius. Steve Jobs is considered a saint in Silicon Valley. Hedy Lamar, meanwhile, may have been a Hollywood star but a new book makes clear her real legacy is in inventing the foundations of encryption. But while all these people invented things, it's possible to invent something even more fundamental. Take Shakespeare: he invented words. And he invented more words-words that continue to shape the English language-than anyone else. By a long shot.

But what does it mean to "invent" words? How many words did Shakespeare invent? What kind of words? And which words are those exactly? Rather than just listing all the words Shakespeare invented, this post digs deeper into the how and the why (or "wherefore") of Shakespeare's literary creations.

How Many Words Did Shakespeare Invent?

1700! My, what a perfectly round number! Such a large and perfectly round number is misleading at best, and is more likely just wrong-there is in fact a bunch of debate about the accuracy of this number.

So who's to blame for the uncertainty around the number of words Shakespeare invented? For starters, we can blame the Oxford English Dictionary. This famous dictionary (often called the OED for short) is famous, in part, because it provides incredibly thorough definitions of words, but also because it identifies the first time each word actually appeared in written English. Shakespeare appears as the first documented user of more words than any other writer, making it convenient to assume that he was the creator of all of those words.

In reality, though, many of these words were probably part of everyday discourse in Elizabethan England. So it's highly likely that Shakespeare didn't invent all of these words; he just produced the first preserved record of some of them. Ryan Buda, a writer at Letterpile, explains it like this:

But most likely, the word was in use for some time before it is seen in the writings of Shakespeare. The fact that the word first appears there does not necessarily mean that he made it up himself, but rather, he could have borrowed it from his peers or from conversations he had with others.

However, while Shakespeare might have been just the first person to write down some words, he definitely did create many words himself, plenty of which we still use to this day. The list a ways down below contains the 422 words that almost certainly originated from Shakespeare himself.

But all this leads to another question. What does it even mean to "invent" a word?

How Did Shakespeare Invent Words?

Some writers invent words in the same way Thomas Edison invented light bulbs: they cobble together bits of sound and create entirely new words without any meaning or relation to existing words. Lewis Carroll does in the first stanza of his "Jabberwocky" poem:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Carroll totally made up words like "brillig," "slithy," "toves," and "mimsy"; the first stanza alone contains 11 of these made-up words, which are known as nonce words. Words like these aren't just meaningless, they're also disposable, intended to be used just once.

Shakespeare did not create nonce words. He took an entirely different approach. When he invented words, he did it by working with existing words and altering them in new ways. More specifically, he would create new words by:

Conjoining two words

Changing verbs into adjectives

Changing nouns into verbs

Adding prefixes to words

Adding suffixes to words

The most exhaustive take on Shakespeare's invented words comes from a nice little 874-page book entitled The Shakespeare Key by Charles and Mary Cowden Clarke.Here's how they explain Shakespeare's literary innovations:

Shakespeare, with the right and might of a true poet, and with his peculiar royal privilege as king of all poets, has minted several words that deserve to become current in our language. He coined them for his own special use to express his own special meanings in his own special passages; but they are so expressive and so well framed to be exponents of certain particulars in meanings common to us all, that they deserve to become generally adopted and used.

We can call what Shakespeare did to create new words "minting," "coining" or "inventing." Whatever term we use to describe it, Shakespeare was doing things with words that no one had ever thought to do before, and that's what matters.

Shakespeare Didn't Invent Nonsense Words

Though today readers often need the help of modern English translations to fully grasp the nuance and meaning of Shakespeare's language, Shakespeare's contemporary audience would have had a much easier go of it. Why? Two main reasons.

First, Shakespeare was part of a movement in English literature that introduced more prose into plays. (Earlier plays were written primarily in rhyming verse.) Shakespeare's prose was similar to the style and cadence of everyday conversation in Elizabethan England, making it natural for members of his audience to understand.

In addition, the words he created were comprehensible intuitively because, once again, they were often built on the foundations of already existing words, and were not just unintelligible combinations of sound. Take "congreeted" for example. The prefix "con" means with, and "greet" means to receive or acknowledge someone.

It therefore wasn't a huge stretch for people to understand this line:

That, face to face and royal eye to eye.
You have congreeted.

( Henry V, Act 5, Scene 2)

Shakespeare also made nouns into verbs. He was the first person to use friend as a verb, predating Mark Zuckerberg by about 395 years.

And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do, to express his love and friending to you

( Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5)

Other times, despite his proclivity for making compound words, Shakespeare reached into his vast Latin vocabulary for loanwords.

His heart fracted and corroborate.

( Henry V, Act 2, Scene 1)

Here the Latin word fractus means "broken." Take away the - us and add in the English suffix - ed, anda new English word is born.

New Words Are Nothing New

Shakespeare certainly wasn't the first person to make up words. It's actually entirely commonplace for new words to enter a language. We're adding new words and terms to our "official" dictionaries every year. In the past few years, the Merriam-Webster dictionary has added several new words and phrases, like these:

So inventing words wasn't something unique to Shakespeare or Elizabethan England. It's still going on all the time.

But Shakespeare Invented a Lot of New Words

So why did Shakespeare have to make up hundreds of new words? For starters, English was smaller in Shakespeare's time. The language contained many fewer words, and not enough for a literary genius like Shakespeare. How many words? No one can be sure. One estimates, one from Encyclopedia Americana, puts the number at 50,000-60,000, likely not including medical and scientific terms.

During Shakespeare's time, the number of words in the language began to grow. Edmund Weiner, deputy chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, explains it this way:

The vocabulary of English expanded greatly during the early modern period. Writers were well aware of this and argued about it. Some were in favour of loanwords to express new concepts, especially from Latin. Others advocated the use of existing English words, or new compounds of them, for this purpose. Others advocated the revival of obsolete words and the adoption of regional dialect.

In Shakespeare's collected writings, he used a total of 31,534 different words. Whatever the size of the English lexicon at the time, Shakespeare was in command of a substantial portion of it. Jason Kottke estimates that Shakespeare knew around 66,534 words, which suggests Shakespeare was pushing the boundaries of English vocab as he knew it. He had to make up some new words.

The Complete List of Words Shakespeare Invented

Compiling a definitive list of every word that Shakespeare ever invented is impossible. But creating a list of the words that Shakespeare almost certainly invented can be done. We generated list of words below by starting with the words that Shakespeare was the first to use in written language, and then applying research that has identified which words were probably in everyday use during Shakespeare's time. The result are 422 bona fide words minted, coined, and invented by Shakespeare, from "academe" to "zany":

Words That Shakespeare Invented - Resource List

Words, words, words.

( Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 422 Words That Shakespeare Invented - LitCharts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inventors get a lot of love. Thomas Edison is held up as a tinkering genius. Steve Jobs is considered a saint in Silicon Valley. Hedy Lamar, meanwhile, may have been a Hollywood star but a new book makes clear her real legacy is in inventing the foundations of encryption.

# data[].attributes.body
If the dictionary linked Lost Words lessons capture your interest in the natural world, this link encourages all sorts of creative responses ...

# data[].attributes.body
See how you get on in this online spelling test!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Test Your Spelling

Choose the correct spellings for the words shown in red from the alternatives given below by clicking the radio button next to each choice. To find out your score, press the 'submit' button at the foot of the page.

Use the dictionary to help you if necessary. There's also a list of top 10 spelling tips.

All the words use standard British English spelling.

About this book
Price, bibliographic details, and more information on the book

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
OUP Companion web site:Test Your Spelling

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Choose the correct spellings for the words shown in red from the alternatives given below by clicking the radio button next to each choice. To find out your score, press the 'submit' button at the foot of the page. Use the dictionary to help you if necessary.