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 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 1969 5th () 2011 American DiacriticalEncarta Webster's Dictionary of the English LanguageBloomsbury19992nd ()2004400,000IPA Canadian Oxford Dictionary Oxford University Press 1998 2nd () 2004 Canadian Diacritical The Chambers Dictionary Chambers Harrap 1872 13th () 2014 620,000 British Diacritical Collins English Dictionary HarperCollins 1979 14th () 2023 223,000 British IPA Concise Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press 1911 12th () 2011 British IPA Macquarie Dictionary Macquarie 1981 9th () 2023 Australian IPA New Oxford American Dictionary Oxford University Press 2001 3rd () 2010 American Diacritical Oxford Dictionary of English Oxford University Press 1998 3rd () 2010 British IPA Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press 1895 2nd (20 vols., ) 1989 British IPA Random House Webster's Random House 1966 2nd (rev., ) 2002 American Diacritical Shorter Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press 1933 6th (2 vols., ) 2007 British IPA Webster's Third New International Dictionary Merriam-Webster 1961 3rd () 2002 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 () 2010 American Diacritical Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Merriam-Webster 1898 12th, revised () 2026 1,856 American Diacritical Webster's New World College Dictionary HarperCollins 1953 5th () 2020 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 () 2013 (24.06) British Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary Collins Cobuild 1987 10th () 2023 (13.04) 1,920 British Collins COBUILD Advanced American English Dictionary Collins Cobuild 2006 3rd () 2023 (09.11) 1,680 American Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Pearson-Longman 1978 6th () 2014 (17.04) British Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners Macmillan Education 2002 2nd () 2007 British Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary Merriam-Webster 2008 2nd () 2016 (01.10) American Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary Oxford University Press 1948 10th () 2020 (09.01) British
See also List of Canadian English dictionaries List of dictionaries by number of words
Notes
References