# Comparison of English dictionaries

This is a comparison of English dictionaries, which are dictionaries about the English language. The dictionaries listed here are categorized into "full-size" dictionaries (which extensively cover the language, and are targeted to native speakers), "collegiate" (which are smaller, and often contain other biographical or geographical information useful to college students), and "learner's" (which are even smaller, targeted to English language learners, and which all use the International Phonetic Alphabet to indicate pronunciation).

## Full-size

These dictionaries generally aim for extensive coverage of the language for native speakers. They typically only cover one variety of English.
| Title | Publisher | First published | Latest edition | Date | Pages | Entries (approx.) | Words and definitions (approx.) | Main dialect | Pronunciation guide |
| American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 1969 | 5th (ISBN 0-547-04101-2) | 2011 | 2,074 | 200,000 | | American | Diacritical |
| Encarta Websters Dictionary of the English Language | Bloomsbury | 1999 | 2nd (ISBN 1-58234-510-4, 0-7475-6243-1) | 2004 | 2,166 | 100,000 | 400,000 | | IPA |
| Canadian Oxford Dictionary | Oxford University Press | 1998 | 2nd (ISBN 978-0-19-541816-3) | 2004 | 1,830 | | 300,000 | Canadian | Diacritical |
| The Chambers Dictionary | Chambers Harrap | 1872 | 13th (ISBN 978-1-4736-0225-0) | 2014 | 1,920 | 62,500 | 620,000 | British | Diacritical |
| Collins English Dictionary | HarperCollins | 1979 | 14th (ISBN 978-0-00-851134-0) | 2023 | 2,336 | | 732,000 | British | IPA |
| Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED) | Oxford University Press | 1911 | 12th (ISBN 978-0-19-960108-0) | 2011 | 1,728 | | 240,000 | British | IPA |
| Macquarie Dictionary | Macquarie | 1981 | 9th (ISBN 978-1-76126-774-1) | 2023 | 1,856 | | | Australian | IPA |
| The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (MWD) | Merriam-Webster | 1828 | 18th (rev., ISBN 978-0-87779-095-2) | 2022 | 960 | | 75,000 | American | Diacritical |
| New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD) | Oxford University Press | 2001 | 3rd (ISBN 0-19-539288-4) | 2010 | 2,096 | | 350,000 | American | Diacritical |
| Oxford Dictionary of English | Oxford University Press | 1998 | 3rd (ISBN 0-19-957112-0) | 2010 | 2,112 | | 350,000 | British | IPA |
| Oxford English Dictionary (OED) | Oxford University Press | 1895 | 2nd (20 vols., ISBN 0-19-861186-2) | 1989 | 21,730 | 600,000 | | British | IPA |
| Random House Webster's | Random House | 1966 | 2nd (rev., ISBN 978-0-375-42599-8) | 2002 | 2,258 | 315,000 | | American | Diacritical |
| Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED) | Oxford University Press | 1933 | 6th (2 vol., ISBN 978-0-19-920687-2) | 2007 | 3,804 | 220,000 | 600,000 | British | IPA |
| Webster's Third New International Dictionary (W3) | Merriam-Webster | 1961 | 3rd (ISBN 0-87-779201-1) | 2002 | 2,820 | 476,000 | | American | Diacritical |

## Collegiate

These dictionaries generally contain fewer entries (and fewer definitions per entry) 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.
| Title | Publisher | First published | Latest edition | Date | Pages | Entries (approx.) | Main dialect | Pronunciation guide |
| The American Heritage College Dictionary | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 2002 | 4th (ISBN 0-547-24766-4) | 2010 | 1,664 | | American | Diacritical |
| Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary | Merriam-Webster | 1898 | 11th, revised (ISBN 0877798079) | 2019 (01.08) | 1,664 | 165,000 | American | Diacritical |
| Webster's New World College Dictionary | HarperCollins | 1953 | 5th (ISBN 0358126614) | 2020 (02.06) | 1,728 | 163,000 | American | Diacritical |

## 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 (sometimes multiple variants of the latter). 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.
| Title | Publisher | First published | Latest edition | Date | Pages | Usage examples (approx.) | Main dialect |
| Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary | Cambridge University Press | 2003 | 4th (ISBN 9781107619500) | 2013 (24.06) | 1,856 | 140,000 | British |
| Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary | Collins Cobuild | 1987 | 10th (ISBN 978-0008444907) | 2023 (13.04) | 1,920 | | British |
| Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | Pearson-Longman | 1978 | 6th (ISBN 9781447954194) | 2014 (17.04) | 2,224 | 165,000 | British |
| Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners | Macmillan Education | 2002 | 2nd (ISBN 9781405025263) | 2007 | 1,748 | | British |
| Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary | Merriam-Webster | 2008 | 2nd (ISBN 9780877797364) | 2016 (01.10) | 1,994 | 160,000 | American |
| Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary | Oxford University Press | 1948 | 10th (ISBN 9780194799485) | 2020 (09.01) | 1,960 | 185,000 | British |