The Oxford English Dictionary is now available online at all library locations and to Ann Arbor District Library cardholders from home or office. The Oxford English Dictionary is a historical dictionary providing the meaning, etymology, pronunciation, and usage for over half a million words from across the English-speaking world.

The advanced search offers some useful features. You can use wildcards in your search. The question mark, “?”, can be used to replace any one single character. The asterisk, “*”, can be used to represent any number of characters (or no character at all). In the advanced search you can combine two or more words in your search. You can use “and”, “or”, “and not”, and “near” to combine words. With “near” you can choose whether your search words need to appear within 1, 2, 5, or 10 words of each other.

If you want to find a word for a lover of words, then you can enter “love*”, select “near” and enter “words”, then choose within 2 words from the pull-down menu on the right.

The eight search results include logophile, defined as a lover of words.

If you wonder how many other words there are that end with –phile, then you can use the wildcard “*”. Type *phile in the Find Word search box in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Ninety-four words appear that end with –phile.

In a jam working a crossword puzzle? Try using the wildcard “?”. If you have a nine letter word and you have five of the letters figured out, then do a search in the Find Word search box (upper right hand corner of the screen). Try this search: ?a??ala?e.

The library also has the print OED in the reference collection on the second floor of the Downtown Library.