Proper noun

Singular Oxford English Dictionary

Plural -

Oxford English Dictionary

1. A comprehensive dictionary of the English language published by Oxford University Press, considered something of a gold standard for dictionaries. Abbreviated OED.
   • 1983 February 24, Penguin Classics (publisher), Selected Tales, preface

     ...the initiation of the great Deutsches Wörterbuch, the many volumes of which were not completed by later scholars until 1961 and which has become the equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary.

   • 2000, Steven A. Benner et al., "Functional inferences from reconstructed evolutionary biology involving rectified databases—an evolutionarily grounded approach to functional genomics", Research in Microbiology, volume 151, part 2

     The indexing makes possible not only the easy retrieval of genetic data (much as an index allows the retrieval of data from the Oxford English Dictionary), but also the comparison of genetic data within the database.

   • 2001, Archives of Dermatology

     Sad to say, until a dictionary of dermatology equivalent to the Oxford English Dictionary comes into being, dermatology will forever be a twiglike imposter, rather than an authentic branch of knowledge.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by the Oxford University Press, is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language. Two fully-bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. As of December 2008, the editors had completed one quarter of a third edition.