Choosing which words to include

A question commonly asked of every lexicographer is "How do you choose which words go into the Dictionary?"

Oxford's reading programmes pick up thousands of new words each year, but a new word is not included in the OED unless it has "caught on" and become established in the language. Words that are only used for a short period of time, or by a very small number of people, are not included.

We normally require several independent examples of the word being used

To determine whether a word has caught on, we normally require several independent examples of the word being used, and also evidence that the word has been in use for a reasonable span of time. The exact span of time and number of examples can vary from word to word: a word may be included on the evidence of only a few examples, if these are spread out over a long period of time. Conversely, a large number of examples collected over a short period of time can show that a word has very quickly become established.

Of course, even if a word is initially rejected, the evidence for it is kept in our files and databases, in case further examples turn up. The OED's Quotations Room contains thousands of words for which we have only a single example, many of them dating back decades or even centuries: usurance has been awaiting a second example since 1912, and abrasure since 1827!

Obsolete words

The reverse situation does not apply: if a word has dropped out of use, it is not removed from the Dictionary.

Because the OED is a historical dictionary, if a word becomes rare or obsolete, it is simply labelled as such rather than deleted. Anybody coming across the word when reading an old book will still be able to find out what it means by looking it up in the OED.

Aren't all words included?

A common myth about the OED is that it contains every word that is or has ever been part of the English language. Sadly, this is not the case. The English language is far too large and diverse to be fully recordable in a dictionary, even one the size of the OED.

When a word has been chosen for inclusion

Once sufficient evidence has been amassed for a word to be included, the process of writing the definition can begin.