The online version of the 20-volume dictionary. Not only useful for pronunciation, etymology, and historical meanings, but also a rich source of quotations and first-known usages.

Features lively, accessible introductions to major writers, artists, philosophers, topics and periods. All are collections of specially commissioned essays, shaped and introduced to appeal to student readers.

Lists over 460,000 items published between 1473 and 1800, mainly in Britain and North America, mainly, but not exclusively, in English, and from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries.