OED editions
The Oxford English Dictionary was originally published in fascicles between 1884 and 1928. A one-volume supplement was published in 1933, and four further supplementary volumes were published between 1972 and 1986. In 1989, a complete Second Edition was published, consisting of the original OED amalgamated with the supplementary volumes, and together with 5,000 completely new entries. In 1993 and 1997, three volumes of Additions to the Second Edition were published. (For more details, see the history of the Dictionary.)
The OED is now, for the first time, being completely revised, with the aim of producing an updated Third Edition. (For more details, see the preface to the Third Edition.)
The online Dictionary contains the complete A to Z sequence of the Second Edition, its three-volume Additions Series, and also draft material from the revision programme, which represents the latest progress towards the Third Edition. More revised and new entries will be added to the online Dictionary every quarter, and these will eventually cumulate to form the complete new edition.
The prefaces to the previous editions of the OED, and a list of staff and contributors to each edition, are archived on the following pages: