General Question

NerdyKeith's avatar

What is the most accurate English Dictionary?

Asked by NerdyKeith (5489points) March 4th, 2016

1. Collins English Dictionary
2. Oxford English Dictionary
3. Webster English Dictionary
4. Dictionary.com

If none of the above, feel free to suggest an alternative english dictionary to the four that I have mentioned.

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12 Answers

dxs's avatar

Dictionary.com is my favorite. One of the reasons I especially like it because it contains the word iff.

stanleybmanly's avatar

Define accurate

zenvelo's avatar

I was in a bit of a kerfuffle on this topic just about six weeks ago. In my opinion, for academic purposes for British English, can’t beat the OED, especially now that they do online updates.

For US profane street talk, Urban Dictionary.

For US academic guidance, Dictionary.com or Merriam-Webster’s.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

^^ ditto x 3 and in the same order.

dappled_leaves's avatar

OED. What is this “American English” you people speak of?

NerdyKeith's avatar

@zenvelo Urban Dictionary? Lol I was actually going to add that to my list as a joke. It can be humorous though.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

@NerdyKeith UD is actually very useful to me for understanding the rapidly changing slanguage. I don’t do FB, YouTube or Twitter, etc., much and quickly get lost in rapidly changing meme references, acronyms and abbreviations. I’m rarely exposed to this stuff, but it is the language and I do want to understand what is going on out there. If it wasn’t for UD I wouldn’t understand some of the content even on this site or Quora. I have to use UD about once a week.

I don’t get around much anymore ♪ ♫ ♪♫

NerdyKeith's avatar

@Espiritus_Corvus Well I can understand that, yes it can help to understand the latest slanguage alright. But it has its humorous elements to it too, when trying to look for other definitions.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

Oh, yeah. It’s funny and sexist and racist and ugly at times, but they are the authority on this particular subject. Even Encyclopedia Dramatica can be useful, but they are all of the 4chan ilk. It’s all a part of internet culture. Here tharrr be dragons.

kritiper's avatar

Webster’s is very good. Of course, the ones that have ALL of the words are the best. I always enjoyed the big library editions. Wikipedia isn’t very accurate from what I’ve heard.

marinelife's avatar

OED, although most of the time I use Webster’s.

dxs's avatar

Oh yeah, Urbandictionary is very accurate as well. I also consult that one frequently.

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