Authoritative and up to date, this eleventh edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary contains over 240,000 words, phrases, and definitions, including 900 new words. It offers rich vocabulary coverage, with full treatment of World English, rare, historical, and archaic terms, as well as scientific and technical vocabulary, and provides hundreds of helpful notes on grammar and usage. New to this edition is a fascinating Word Histories feature, telling the often bizarre stories of the origins and development of 100s of words. For example, did you know that the word grammar is related to glamour, or that cockney used to mean a spoilt child? This dictionary contains full appendices on topics such as alphabets, currencies, electronic English, and the registers of language, from formal to slang, plus a useful Guide to Good English with advice on grammar, punctuation, and spelling. This new edition replaces ISBNs 0-19-860572-2 and 0-19-860636-2.