MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Content Get full (or shorter) OED on Kindle?

maximus83 · 03-18-2019, 02:42 PM

To bring this thread to some sort of resolution, it seems like here are a few useful takeaways for Kindle users wanting a top-notch dictionary. Some of this may be old news to long-time Kindle owners, but since I had about a 6-7 year gap since I last bought a Kindle of any type, this was all new/useful info to me.

* There's currently no *legal* way that I can find to get full OED on your Kindle. Best options if you need OED are a physical or online library you already have access to, or the $90 annual subscription, which currently is a steal compared to their normal rate.
* The built-in Oxford English, and Oxford American, 1-volume dictionaries are still very good (though they don't include the historical citations of the OED). I am a total dictionary nerd, I own probably too many :-), and for 1-volume dictionaries if I were buying a paper dictionary today, I'd either get one of these Oxfords or the latest American Heritage dictionary. I'm not aware of any included dictionary on any other device that equals these for comprehensiveness and quality. The Oxford dictionaries have a very evidence-based approach where they scan a vast library of English usage to create their definitions, it's one of the most rigorous approaches I'm aware of to build an accurate, modern English dictionary. They describe their method in detail in the prefatory material.
* If you want, you can try what I did to get the latest (third) editions of both Oxford dictionaries on your Kindle. It appears that new Kindles, like the PW4 I recently got, include the older 2nd edition Oxfords by default. And I never did find a way to manually update to the 3rd editions by yourself. But if you contact service as I did, they should be willing to "push" the 3rd editions to your device. I'd also be interested to learn if anyone else is getting brand new Kindles that include the third editions of the Oxfords by default.

03-18-2019, 02:42 PM	#30
maximus83 Nameless Being	To bring this thread to some sort of resolution, it seems like here are a few useful takeaways for Kindle users wanting a top-notch dictionary. Some of this may be old news to long-time Kindle owners, but since I had about a 6-7 year gap since I last bought a Kindle of any type, this was all new/useful info to me. * There's currently no legal way that I can find to get full OED on your Kindle. Best options if you need OED are a physical or online library you already have access to, or the $90 annual subscription, which currently is a steal compared to their normal rate. * The built-in Oxford English, and Oxford American, 1-volume dictionaries are still very good (though they don't include the historical citations of the OED). I am a total dictionary nerd, I own probably too many :-), and for 1-volume dictionaries if I were buying a paper dictionary today, I'd either get one of these Oxfords or the latest American Heritage dictionary. I'm not aware of any included dictionary on any other device that equals these for comprehensiveness and quality. The Oxford dictionaries have a very evidence-based approach where they scan a vast library of English usage to create their definitions, it's one of the most rigorous approaches I'm aware of to build an accurate, modern English dictionary. They describe their method in detail in the prefatory material. * If you want, you can try what I did to get the latest (third) editions of both Oxford dictionaries on your Kindle. It appears that new Kindles, like the PW4 I recently got, include the older 2nd edition Oxfords by default. And I never did find a way to manually update to the 3rd editions by yourself. But if you contact service as I did, they should be willing to "push" the 3rd editions to your device. I'd also be interested to learn if anyone else is getting brand new Kindles that include the third editions of the Oxfords by default.