• The CD-ROM features the full text of the Sixth Edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, with more than 600,000 words, phrases, and definitions, and coverage of language from the entire English-speaking world, from North America and the UK to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and the Caribbean
• Fully updated with 2,500 new words and meanings based on the ongoing research programme of Oxford Dictionaries and the Oxford English Corpus
• Contains all the vocabulary current in general English from 1700 to the present day, with senses organized chronologically, as well as earlier major literary works, including Shakespeare, Milton's poetry, the Authorized Version of the Bible, and Spenser's Faerie Queene
• Excellent coverage of all types of English encompassing slang, dialect words, technical, historical, and literary terms, and rare and obsolete words
• Contains over 80,000 quotations illustrating words in use throughout the centuries and thousands of newly discovered antedatings based on the ongoing research for the OED
• Includes a never-before-published, introductory essay by eminent language commentator David Crystal on the History of English provides a stimulating and highly readable account of the development of the English language
• Features a fully customizable interface, fast and intuitive quick search plus powerful advanced search capabilities, crossword and anagram solver, and automatic look-up from other applications
• Runs on both Windows and Apple Macintosh operating systems and is compatible with Vista; it can also be controlled solely from the keyboard
• Supported operated systems: Windows: Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor (or equivalent); 512MB of RAM; Microsoft® Windows® Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Widows 2000. Macintosh: PowerPC® G3 500MHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM or Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz or faster processor, 512MB of RAM; Mac OS x 10.3.9 or later (Power PC) or MacOS x 10.4 x or 10.5 x (Intel). All platforms: 300MB free hard disk space; monitor with 1024x768 pixels and high colour (16 bits per pixel, i.e. 65,536 colours); CD-ROM drive; 16-bit sound card.
• Automatically installs to the hard drive
• Network licences available; price on application. network-cds@oup.com
• Upgrades available to purchasers of previous versions. For further details, contact: Customer Service, telephone +44 (0) 1865 353534 or email: ep.info@oup.com

Readership: Scholars, researchers, and anyone with a serious interest in, and love for, the English language. With new coverage of global English, as well as slang, dialect, technical, historical, and literary terms, and rare and obsolete words, the Sixth Edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary allows the general reader access to an unparalleled level of scholarship, as well as being an essential tool for academics and researchers.

Review(s) from previous edition

"The Shorter is the Matterhorn to the great OED's Everest - elegant, awesome and marvelous to behold, differing only in size. A stupendous achievement. - Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman

". . . truly a dictionary of global English. " - Sydney Morning Herald

"The Shorter is a mine of information " - Toronto Star

". . . astonishingly good value . . . the new SOED is all that one would expect of it." - Keith Waterhouse, Daily Mail

"It is a dictionary with zest . . . a rare treasure. " - Frank Devine, The Australian

"The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary redefines hip." - The New York Post

• Windows: Intel® Pentium® III 1GHz or faster processor (or equivalent); 512 MB of RAM; Microsoft® Windows® Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000
• Macintosh: PowerPC® G3 500MHz or faster processor; 512MB of RAM or Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz or faster processor; 512MB of RAM; Mac OS x 10.3.9 or later (PowerPC) or MacOS x 10.4.x or 10.5.x (Intel)
• All platforms: 300MB free hard disk space; monitor with 1024x768 pixels and high colour (16 bits per pixel, i.e. 65,536 colours); CD-ROM drive; 16-bit sound card