It’s here! After five years’ work, and more than 30,000 hours of editing, the new 8th edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary has finally arrived.
Producing a new edition of the world’s best-selling English learner’s dictionary is no mean feat. Have a look at the statistics and see for yourself:
- 4,600 hours for printing
- 5,500 hours for folding
- 5,800 hours for sewing
- 7,600 kg of ink
- 28,860,400 sheets of paper= 614,500 kg of books!
And of course these statistics don’t include the many future printings of the 8th edition or the time spent developing the website and the CD-ROM.
But the thing which makes the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary really special is not the time spent editing it or the volume of ink the printers used – it’s the fact that for more than 60 years, millions of people around the world having been using it to teach, learn, and improve their English.
The teachers and learners that we’ve spoken to say that the things they love most about OALD are the clear explanations, the example sentences, and all the help with vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.
For the new 8th edition we’ve enhanced all of these popular features, and we’ve added plenty of new ones too – hundreds of vocabulary notes, thousands of colour illustrations, and the Oxford iWriter, to name just a few.
So although the dictionary has come a long way since A. S. Hornby’s first edition in 1948, the guiding principle behind it is still exactly the same: it’s a dictionary designed for learners and teachers of English, with their needs in mind.
And that’s why, with the arrival of the 8th edition, we’re confident that millions more learners and teachers will continue to enjoy using the OALD for many years to come.
Paddy Phillips, Editor, ELT Dictionaries, Oxford University Press
