New Oxford American Dictionary
Third Edition
From Our Blog
Refudiate has been named the New Oxford American Dictionary's 2010 Word of the Year! Now, does that mean that 'refudiate' has been added to the Dictionary? No it does not. Currently, there are no definite plans to include 'refudiate' in the NOAD, the OED, or any of our other dictionaries.
Posted on November 15, 2010
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It's the moment you've all been waiting for. New words, senses, and phrases have been added to the New Oxford American Dictionary! I'm not going to list every addition, but here's a sampling I think you'll all find interesting'¦. BFF, Big Media, Bromance, Carbon Credit, Cloud Computing and Eggcorn.
Posted on September 16, 2010
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One question I often field in my capacity as OUP's editor for American dictionaries is, 'What's the longest word in the dictionary?' I don't hear it as often as 'How do I get a new word in the dictionary?' but it still comes up from time to time. My stock answer isn't very interesting: 'It depends'¦'
Posted on August 23, 2007
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Do you keep the tires on your car properly inflated to maximize your gas mileage? Have you removed the roof rack to streamline the car and reduce drag? Do you turn your engine off rather than idle at long stoplights? If you said yes to any of these questions you just might be a 'hypermiler'.
Posted on November 10, 2008
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If you haven't already heard, 'unfriend' is the New Oxford American Dictionary 'Word of the Year'. In honor of this announcement, I surveyed Facebook users across the country about why they would choose to unfriend someone. The results ranged from robots and rages, to baby photos and politics.
Posted on November 19, 2009
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Birds are singing, the sun is shining and I am joyful in the morning without caffeine. Why? Because it is Word of the Year time (or WOTY as we refer to it around the office). Every year the 'New Oxford American Dictionary' celebrates the holidays by making its biggest announcement of the year.
Posted on November 16, 2009
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By Katherine Martin The GIF, a compressed file format for images that can be used to create simple, looping animations, turned 25 this year, but like so many other relics of the 80s, it has never been trendier. GIF celebrated a lexical milestone in 2012, gaining traction as a verb, not just a noun. The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace.
Posted on November 12, 2012
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There has also been some widespread confusion on a few things relating to GIF's selection as Word of the Year [USA], so we thought it would be helpful to give a little roundup for clarification. (1) Oxford Dictionaries USA and The New Oxford American Dictionary (and Oxford Dictionaries UK and Oxford Dictionary of English) are not the Oxford English Dictionary. OUP publishes many dictionaries and the OED is only one of them.
Posted on November 14, 2012
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By Alice Northover When people think of GIFs, they often imagine a silly animation for a quick joke. But like any medium, it has potential beyond our cat-centric imagination. 'The GIF has evolved from a medium for pop-cultural memes into a tool with serious applications including research and journalism, and its lexical identity is transforming to keep pace,' Head of US Dictionaries, Katherine Martin, recently commented. So it's only appropriate to highlight a few GIFers who take the file format beyond a basic form.
Posted on November 17, 2012
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By Alice Northover Many people are curious about the process behind the selection of Word of the Year and I thought it would be appropriate to express this in gif form. Here's my completely biased perspective as blog editor on my first Word of the Year committee.
Posted on November 13, 2012
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By Alice Northover Reaction has been mixed from people around the United States and the world to the USA Word of the Year, so I thought I'd bring together a few highlights. Don't forget the GIF WOTY confusables!
Posted on November 14, 2012
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