Canadian Oxford Dictionary

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary was the runaway bestseller of 1998, spending over a year on the Globe and Mail's bestseller list and winning the Canadian Booksellers Association's Libris awards for Non-fiction Book of the Year and Specialty Book of the Year. Now this wonderful resource is available in a major new edition. The dictionary's 300,000 words, senses and definitions combine in one reference book information on English as it is used worldwide and as it is used particularly in Canada. Definitions, worded for ease of comprehension, are presented so that the meaning most familiar to Canadians appears first and foremost. Each of these entries is exceptionally reliable, the result of thorough research into the language and Oxford's unparalleled language resources. Five professionally trained lexicographers spent five years examining databases containing over 20 million words of Canadian text from more than 8,000 Canadian sources of an astonishing diversity. The lexicographers also examined an additional 20 million words of international sources. This new edition is completely up to date with 5,000 new words and senses. In addition it features 2,200 uniquely Canadian words and senses, 350 usage notes, 7,000 idiomatic expressions, 5,500 biographical entries, and over 5,600 place names. There are also several new features in this edition: preferred word breaks are given throughout, parts of speech are written in full, and the first print run will feature cut thumb-indexing tabs.

Katherine Barber, who heads Oxford University Press's Canadian Dictionary Department and was Editor-in-Chief of The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, appears regularly discussing Canadian English and interesting words on radio and TV across the country. In 1999, she won the Canadian Booksellers Association's Editor of the Year Award.