March 2014 update

Over 900 new words, phrases, and senses enter the Oxford English Dictionary in this update. Many appear in entries fully updated for the first time since the OED’s original edition. Some words, like book, death, and honey, have now been expanded by dozens of new items.

Additions this March include bestie, bookaholic, and beat boxer. You can read more about the new and revised words and meanings in this article by Katherine Martin, Head of US Dictionaries.

Deputy Chief Editors Philip Durkin and Edmund Weiner have written our release notes which delve a little deeper into the entries that have been revised; Philip Durkin looks in particular at empathy, employ/employee/employment, and empire/emperor, whilst Edmund Weiner investigates the history of toilet and its journey from the French word toile ‘cloth’ to the WC or restroom of today.

See a full list of the new words, subentries, and senses added in this update.