Comparison of English dictionaries


These tables compare modern and notable English dictionaries, split by market segment. Unless noted after the edition number, all are single-volume works.

Number of entries

Note that the publisher's definition of an entry differs. Some publishers count derivatives as separate entries while others count expressions consisting of more than one word as separate entries. The number of entries is basically a marketing term that should never be used to compare dictionaries.
As an example, the 6th Edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary contains approximately:
The 2nd Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary includes more historical entries because it also lists words that have been obsolete for centuries due to changes in meaning and orthography. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary only covers usage back to the 18th century.
Learner's dictionaries typically contain 40,000 to 50,000 words, which is half to one-third of the current usage, but still claim hundreds of thousands of "entries".

Full-size

These dictionaries generally aim for extensive coverage of the language for native speakers. They typically only cover one variety of English, either British or American.
TitlePublisherFirst
published		Latest editionYearPagesEntries
Main dialectPronunciation
guide
American Heritage Dictionary Houghton Mifflin Harcourt19695th 2011AmericanDiacritical
The Chambers DictionaryChambers Harrap187213th 2014BritishDiacritical
Collins English DictionaryHarperCollins197912th 2014BritishIPA
Concise Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press191112th 2011BritishIPA
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary Merriam-Webster182818th 2016AmericanDiacritical
New Oxford American Dictionary Oxford University Press20013rd 2010AmericanDiacritical
Oxford Dictionary of EnglishOxford University Press19983rd 2010BritishIPA
Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press18952nd 1989BritishIPA
Random House Webster'sRandom House19662nd 2002AmericanDiacritical
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press19336th 2007BritishIPA
Webster's Third New International Dictionary Merriam-Webster19613rd 2002AmericanDiacritical

Collegiate

These dictionaries generally contain fewer entries than their full-size counterparts but may contain additional material, such as biographical or geopolitical information, that would be useful to a college student. They may be revised more often and thus contain more up to date usage. Sometimes the term collegiate or college is used merely to indicate a physically smaller, more economically printed dictionary.
TitlePublisherFirst
published		Latest editionYearPagesEntries
Main dialectPronunciation
guide
American Heritage College DictionaryHoughton Mifflin Harcourt20024th 2010AmericanDiacritical
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate DictionaryMerriam-Webster189811th 2003AmericanDiacritical
Webster's New World College DictionaryHoughton Mifflin Harcourt19535th2014AmericanDiacritical

Learner's

These dictionaries generally contain fewer entries than full-size or collegiate dictionaries but contain additional information that would be useful to a learner of English, such as more extensive usage notes, example sentences or phrases, collocations, and both British and American pronunciations. In addition, definitions are usually restricted to a simpler core vocabulary than that expected of a native speaker. All use the IPA to indicate pronunciation.
TitlePublisherFirst
published		Latest editionYearPagesUsage examples
Main dialect
Cambridge Advanced Learner's DictionaryCambridge University Press20034th 2013British
Collins COBUILD Advanced DictionaryCollins Cobuild19879th 2018British
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishPearson-Longman19786th 2014British
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced LearnersMacmillan Education20022nd 2012British
Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English DictionaryMerriam-Webster20082nd 2016American
Oxford Advanced Learner's DictionaryOxford University Press194810th 2015British