Oxford English Dictionary (2024)

FAQs

How reliable is the Oxford English Dictionary? ›

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely accepted as the most complete record of the English language ever assembled. Unlike typical language dictionaries, which only define words in terms of their current uses and meanings, the OED is a historical dictionary.

It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and usage of 500,000 words and phrases past and present, from across the English-speaking world. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings.

Squoze is apparently the most common of a number of dialectal variants of the past tense of squeeze. It is attested in both British and American dialect: The OED Supplement shows it in American English since 1844.

/ˈædəkwət/ enough in quantity, or good enough in quality, for a particular purpose or need an adequate supply of hot water The room was small but adequate.

However, Merriam-Webster is the largest and most reputable of the U.S. dictionary publishers, regardless of the type of dictionary (general, geographical, biographical, or a thesaurus). Some of the additional reliable American publishers are Oxford University Press, Random House, Macmillan, and American Heritage.

While the Oxford English Dictionary gives you the meaning of the word as well as its origin, the Cambridge Dictionary gives a more practical explanation along with an example of how to use the word in a sentence.

/ˌɪnkəˈrɛkt/ 1not accurate or true incorrect information/spelling His version of what happened is incorrect. Thesaurus. false. mistaken.

"Squoze" is a facetious past participle of the verb 'to squeeze'.

Merriam-Webster: America's Most Trusted Dictionary.

/səˈfɪʃnt/ enough for a particular purpose; as much as you need Allow sufficient time to get there. One dose should be sufficient. sufficient to do something These reasons are not sufficient to justify the ban.

Is adequate enough grammatically correct? ›

'Adequate enough' and 'Sufficient enough' are the appropriate usages. 'Adequate' and 'sufficient' are adjectives in this case. Words ending in '-ly' are adverbs which describe the verbs. Both your examples are correct.

Synonym Chooser

Some common synonyms of adequate are competent, enough, and sufficient.

The Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries have long been considered as the two most credible and trustworthy for British English. In terms of popularity, the Oxford dictionary is the more popular of the two in the UK and is generally cited as the ultimate authority on the language.

The New Oxford American Dictionary is the American version of the Oxford Dictionary of English, with substantial editing and uses a diacritical respelling scheme rather than the IPA system.

The attraction of the Oxford Dictionary of English is that it has a good selection of proper nouns, though not as many as the old Collins, and has a clearer presentation of words and phrases than Chambers.

Oxford's English dictionaries are widely regarded as the world's most authoritative sources on current English.