Link: Oxford English Dictionary

About: Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. The OED provides authoritative definitions of over 500,000 words, traces the usage of words from their first recorded occurrence to the modern period through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international language sources, offers the best in etymological analysis and detailed listings of variant spellings, uses the International Phonetic Alphabet to show pronunciation. Full text.

Dates of Coverage: from the beginning of the English language to present.

Truncation: [*]. (To use truncation, enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with a truncation symbol. The search engine will then find all forms of that word. For example, type comput* to find the words computer or computing).

Wildcard: [?]. (The wildcard helps when the spelling of a word is incomplete. To use the wildcard, enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with the appropriate wildcard symbol. The search engine finds all citations of that word with the symbol replaced by a letter. For example, type ne?t to find all citations containing neat, nest or next). 

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