Dictionary Facts
First Edition
Proposed size: 4 volumes, 6,400 pages (with provision for ‘a larger dictionary containing not fewer than 10 volumes, each containing not less than 1,600 pages’)
Actual size: 10 volumes, 15,490 pages
Proposed time to complete: 10 years
Actual time to complete: 70 years (from approval date)
Publication date: 1884-1928 in 128 fascicles. Published in 10 volumes in 1928 and reissued in 12 volumes in 1933, with addition of one-volume Supplement
Price of fascicles: 12 shillings and sixpence for large sections
Price of bound volumes (1928): from 50 to 55 guineas for the set, depending on binding
Number of pages edited by James Murray: est., 7,200
Number of entries: 252,200
Number of word forms defined and/or illustrated: 414,800
Number of contributors (readers): est. 2,000
Number of quotations submitted by contributors: est. 5 million
Number of quotations used in Dictionary: 1,861,200
Number of authors represented in quotations: 2,700
Number of works represented in quotations: 4,500
Supplement (1972-1986)
Proposed size: one volume, 1,300 pages
Actual size: 4 volumes, 5,730 pages
Proposed time to complete: 7 years
Actual time to complete: 30 years
Publication date: vol. 1, 1972; vol. 2, 1976; vol. 3, 1982; vol. 4, 1986
Number of entries: 69,300
Number of quotations: est. 527,000
Second Edition (1989)
Proposed size: 20 volumes
Actual size: 20 volumes, 21,730 pages
Publication date: 1989
Weight of text: 62.6 kilos or 137.72 lbs.
Amount of ink used to print complete run: 2,830 kilos or 6,243 lbs.
Number of words in entire text: 59 million
Number of printed characters: 350 million
Number of different typographical characters used in text: approx.: 750 (660 special plus approx. 90 on regular keyboard)
Equivalent person years used to ‘key in’ text to convert to machine-readable form: 120
Equivalent person years to proof-read text: 60
Number of megabytes of electronic storage required for text: 540
Number of entries: 291,500
Number of main entries: 231,100
Number of main entries for obsolete words: 47,100
Number of main entries for spurious words: 240
Number of main entries for non-naturalized words: 12,200
Longest entry in Dictionary: the verb ‘set’ with over 430 senses consisting of approximately 60,000 words or 326,000 characters
Number of cross-reference entries: 60,400
Number of cross-references within entries: 580,600
Number of word forms defined and/or illustrated: 615,100
Number of pronunciations: 139,900
Number of etymologies: 219,800
Number of quotations: 2,436,600
Most frequently quoted work (in various full and partial version, and translations): Bible (est. 25,000 quotations)
Most frequently quoted single author: Shakespeare (approx. 33,300 quotations)
Most frequently quoted single work of Shakespeare: Hamlet (almost 1,600 quotations)
Percentage of quotations by centuries:
20th century 20 per cent
19th century 31
18th century 11
17th century 16
16th century 10
15th century 4.5
14th century 3.5
13th century 1
1st to 12th centuries 1
Undated (see note) 0.5
Note: ‘Undated’ includes approximately 1,250 quotations from Beowulf, with the balance consisting of proverbs, nursery rhymes, ‘made up’ illustrations, and references to the appearance of word forms ‘in mod. Dicts.’
OED Additions Series (1993, 1997)
Volume 1 (1993)
Number of entries (new senses added): 3152
Number of pages: 334
Volume 2 (1993)
Number of entries (new senses added): 3335
Number of pages: 336
Volume 3 (1997)
Number of entries (new senses added): 3319
Number of pages: 352
All the above figures should be regarded as approximate.