Entry display

Results display

step 18 of 37

Map display

There are several parts to each entry in the OED, and you have control over which you display. You may choose to switch off the display of alternative and historical spellings, pronunciation, etymology, quotations, the date chart, or any Additions material, letting you focus on the parts of the entry that you are interested in without seeing those parts which are not relevant to you at the time.

The buttons that control the display of information for an individual entry are arranged in a row across the top of the entry. Those options that are being displayed at any time are coloured red, while those that are being suppressed (but are available) are coloured blue.

An individual entry may contain any of the following buttons. The default display includes all options switched off except quotations:

The pronunciation, spellings, etymology, quotation, and Additions details reflect the full information contained in the printed versions of the OED. OED Online also lets you display a new view of the quotation information, in the form of a date chart, which shows just the dates of the quotations in the entry, arranged to show their historical distribution. The date chart makes it easy to see at a glance the spread of recorded evidence of a word and helps to show its age and development.

To see how these options affect an entry we've already seen, here's how OED Online would initially display it:

[shrink]

While clicking on the Quotations button will show the entry with quotations suppressed.

[shrink]

Clicking on all the buttons will show all the available information about the entry.

[shrink]

The options you select for showing or suppressing portions of an entry persist as you move between entries, so that, for example, you only need to switch quotations off once during any working session and they'll stay off until you switch them on again, or sign out from the service.

Note also that if you have gone to an entry directly from a list of search results, there will be a button at the top left-hand corner that will take you back to the results list.

Results display

step 18 of 37

Map display