This title includes the following features: Major new edition based on the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary, with over 3,000 new words and meanings drawn from research done for the new edition of the OED; More than a third of the content of the OED in one tenth of the size; Over half a million definitions: extensive coverage of new words and also contains all major words in English used after 1700; Thousands of illustrative quotations: 83000 quotations from 7000 authors; Extensive coverage of English from around the world; Provides details of many rare and obsolete words; Covers the vocabulary of Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, and the King James Bible; Entries show historical development by listing meanings chronologically and giving datings for first use of each sense; New open design make entries easy to navigate and information easy to find; The First edition, a 2 volume abridged version of the Oxford English Dictionary, was published 1933. Second edition was published 1936 with 3000 revisions and additions. Third edition was published 1944 with appendix of addenda and corrigenda. This edition was reprinted several times with corrections and additions, the most significant being in 1973, with enlarged addenda. The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary was published 1993. This was a reabridgement of the OED and its supplements. For this new edition in 2002 the title has changed back to the original Shorter Oxford English Dictionary to emphasize the link with the 20 volume OED, and the text has been thoroughly updated with thousands of new words. ; This title replaces the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary plain and thumb index editions: ISBNs 0-19-861134-x and 0-19-861271-0