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 a marketing term that should never be used to compare dictionaries.

As an example, the 6th Edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED6, 2007) contains approximately:

104,000 entries (where only the word "back" is listed.)
125,000 entries when parts of speech are separately listed ("back" is listed 5 times, 2 times as a noun, as an adjective, as a verb, and also as an adverb.)
172,000 entries when derivatives are also counted.
600,000 entries when different meanings (12 meanings for the first "back" noun listing alone) and phrases (at the back of, back and edge, behind one's back etc) are also counted.

The 2nd Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) includes more historical entries because it also lists words that have been obsolete for centuries (back to the 7th century) 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.

Title	Publisher	First published	Latest edition	Year	Pages	Entries (approx.)	Main accent	Pronunciation guide
American Heritage Dictionary (AHD)	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	1969	5th (ISBN 0-547-04101-2)	2011	2,074	70,000	American	Diacritical
The Chambers Dictionary	Chambers Harrap Publishers	1872	13th (ISBN 9781473602250)	2014	1,920	62,500^[1]	British	Diacritical
Collins English Dictionary	HarperCollins Publishers	1979	12th (ISBN 9780007522743)	2014	2,340	100,000	British	IPA
Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED)	Oxford University Press	1911	12th (ISBN 9780199601080)	2011	1,728	240,000	British	IPA
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	355,000	British	IPA
Oxford English Dictionary (OED)	Oxford University Press	1895	2nd (20 vols., ISBN 0-19-861186-2)	1989	21,730	291,500	British	IPA
Random House Webster's	Random House	1966	2nd (rev., ISBN 978-0375425998)	2002	2,256	315,000	American	Diacritical
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (SOED)	Oxford University Press	1933	6th (2 vol., ISBN 9780199206872)	2007	3,804	125,000	British	IPA
Webster's Third New International Dictionary (W3)	Merriam-Webster	1961	3rd (ISBN 0-87-779201-1)	2002	2,783	263,000	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	Year	Pages	Entries (approx.)	Main accent	Pronunciation guide
American Heritage College Dictionary	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	2002	4th^[2] (ISBN 0-547-24766-4)	2010	1,664		American	Diacritical
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary	Merriam-Webster	1898	11th (ISBN 0-8777-9809-5)	2003	1,664	165,000	American	Diacritical
Webster's New World College Dictionary	Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	1953	5th	2004	1,736	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	Year	Pages	Usage examples (approx.)	Main dialect
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary	Cambridge University Press	2003^[3]	4th (ISBN 9781107619500)	2013	1,810		British
Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary	Collins Cobuild	1987	7th (ISBN 9781424027514)	2012	2,080		British
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English	Pearson-Longman	1978	6th (ISBN 1-408-21533-0)	2015	2,082	165,000	British
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners	Macmillan Education	2002	2nd (ISBN 1-4050-2526-3)	2007	1,872		British
Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary	Merriam-Webster	2008	1st (ISBN 0-87779-550-9)	2008	2,032	160,000	American
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary	Oxford University Press	1948	9th (ISBN 0-19-479900-X)	2015	1,796	185,000	British

Notes

↑ Kaminski, Mariusz (2013). A History of the Chambers Dictionary. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 95–96.
↑ The 2010 "4th edition" of The American Heritage College Dictionary (ISBN 0-547-24766-4) is the second revision of the original "4th edition" published in 2002; it was originally derived from the 4th edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, which was published in 2000.
↑ Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary was originally published as Cambridge International Dictionary of English in 1995.

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