This is a survey of how English is really spoken in the late 1990s. British English is recorded not using traditional RP (Received Pronunciation, for example as spoken in the past by television broadcasters, members of high social classes etc.) but using the accent which is most widely acceptable and intelligible to native British speakers. This model is not regionally-biased, nor redolent of class. The aim in recording American pronunciations has been to produce a standard model, with relative avoidance of marked regional features. For each headword in the dictionary, British and US pronunciations are clearly labelled. If the headword is a word which has been adopted into English but is not completely naturalized, the original pronunciation is also given and labelled. If there are alternative spellings for a word, the variants are given at their correct place in the alphabetic listing. Pronunciations are recorded using the internationally recognized transcription system IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet). This is the accepted pronunciation system used in many dictionaries and by native-speaker students and academics in the field of English language and linguistics, and is also widely used in non-English speaking countries to help in the teaching of English. Stress marks are given for all words providing advice on how they should be stressed.