The OED has gone through a succession of stages since its original publication between 1884 and 1928. The most up-to-date version can only be seen online (radically reconfigured in a re-launched website in December 2010), but since many libraries still have print copies of the 1989 second edition on their shelves - and since you can still pick up pre-1989 versions of OED from second-hand sources - it is useful to know what edition or version was published when, and what each contains. Equally, when consulting OED Online, the user needs to be able to understand the nature and provenance of the information that appears on the screen - and interpret the results turned up by its powerful new search tools.

To read more about the history of the editions and about what material each contains, click on Which edition contains what? The history and progress of the new, revised Third Edition of OED is outlined at OED Online and OED3, while to go straight to an account of the recent changes made to the current form of the OED, click on Re-launched OED Online. Further pages (in the links listed below) discuss new features of the re-launched web-site, and provide case-studies of the treatment of particular words.