Training Presentation Notes
Background information
1. Oxford Dictionaries Online is Oxford’s innovative modern English dictionary and
language reference service. Launched June 2010 as ‘an integrated one-stop
shop for questions about the English language’.
2. Smart-linked, fully searchable content from Oxford’s largest modern English
dictionaries and thesauruses.
3. More than 350,000 entries and definitions, and 600,000 synonyms and antonyms
4. A vast bank of over 1.9 million example sentences, taken from real English.
(Show more examples from Word of the day)
5. Regular updates with some or all of the following: new words and senses, special
features on language change, revised encyclopedic entries, and improved
functionality. What’s new – follow a link to new word, then to list of new words.
6. ‘My Oxford Dictionary’ feature for creating your own profile and saving entries
and searches
7. Comprehensive coverage of British, US, and World English - with audio
pronunciations (‘garage’)
8. OxfordWords blog
9. Extensive sections with detailed writing, grammar, and spelling guidance
10. Specialist language reference resources for professional writers and editors
11. Entry level linking to OED & OLDO for subscribers
12. A basic free dictionary site, optimized for search engines, is available to help
drive traffic to the site and improve discoverability and increase usage
13. Lots of useful features for ESOL users – spoken pronunciation, synonyms, look
up phrases, idioms etc., collocates, suggestions for misspellings, pop-up quick
definitions, top 1000 frequently used words
Home Page
1. Change US/World English
2. Look up tools – demo by installing then using with BBC website
3. Information about dictionaries – left column, About – top line (What can you do
with…)
4. Word of the day
5. Browse by category
6. Jump to (right column), browse alphabetically
7. Browse Thesaurus
8. For Writers & Editors
Search
1. email – links to other parts of ODO, extra information in OED, & translations in
OLDO, reference in ORO. Example sentences tab – learners can e.g. find out
that ‘feel free to email me’ is a common phrase. (‘juniper’ for image link to ORO)
2. nice – for example sentences, synonyms, pop-up definitions, comparison with
OED entry, thesaurus entry
3. *mania for wildcard searching
4. counterpoint – categories, music – musical direction, save
5. knock it on the head – suggested result, phrases, synonyms
6. reciept – for suggested spellings
Last update 19.11.13
Training Presentation Notes
My Oxford Dictionary
Save words, subjects, searches
Browse
1. Subject/Consumables/Drink/Tea
2. Meaning/Unspecified Thing/Minor Thing – see breadcrumb trail
3. Usage/derogatory
4. Region/Australia/Usage/Informal
For Writers and Editors
1. Search all for lists, apostrophe
2. Browse each title
Writing Skills
1. Styles & Usage/Practical Writing/CV
2. Vocabulary Builder
Puzzles
1. Spelling challenge
2. Crossword
3. Word games
4. Hangman
5. Solvers
Advanced Search
1. ‘clumsy’ in definition, British, informal
2. Indian English verbs
Last update 19.11.13