Content Get full (or shorter) OED on Kindle?

The included Oxford Dictionary of English on the Kindle is fine. But I would love to get the full Oxford English Dictionary (you know, that 20+ volume monstrosity with the whole history of the English language) in epub/kindle format. Or failing that due to the obvious file size issues, at least the 2 volume Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 6th ed., which I have in paper and supposedly has 1/3 of the entries in the full OED, as well as all words after 1700, and all words from Shakespeare or the KJV Bible that were pre-1700.

This screen shot of an entry from the OED online (which I can access via my public library membership) gives just a small taste of why the OED is so awesome. I love the historical citations showing a word's history and usage:



How awesome would it be to have at least the Shorter OED available to you as a dictionary in Kindle? If somebody knows something I don't, and there's a legit copy of either of these dictionaries out there for sale, please, let me in on the secret.

[crane3]

I have the Shorter OED which has installs for both win10 & macos & have installed in both os; no longer have the mac mini which died with an update that changes the file system.

Regarding "SACCADE", the Shorter OED on win10 does not provide as much info as was posted, just line 'a' & 'b'; just like 'any' dictionary.

Do no believe the digital Shorter OED CD is worth the price; easier to get a correct spelling when entering the word on Google.

Originally Posted by crane3

Do no believe the digital Shorter OED CD is worth the price; easier to get a correct spelling when entering the word on Google.

Agree with you on the computer-based versions. I like the CONTENT of both the OED, and the Shorter. But Oxford Press had never seemed to be very good at developing software or apps. I've had both that CD version, and the full OED CD version in the past. They worked, but wow were they clunky. I don't use either anymore. Just the online OED, or my hardcover Shorter.

[montalex]

I recently searched for the full OED for Kindle. I'm reading Joshua Cohen's "Book of Money" which sorely challenges my vocabulary, and, sadly, neither the Oxford basic dictionary for Kindle nor the Oxford Dictionary of American Engish for Kindle is up to the project. But it sure beats underlining words in paper books to look up later when the need for meaning has passed.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by montalex

I recently searched for the full OED for Kindle. I'm reading Joshua Cohen's "Book of Money" which sorely challenges my vocabulary, and, sadly, neither the Oxford basic dictionary for Kindle nor the Oxford Dictionary of American Engish for Kindle is up to the project. But it sure beats underlining words in paper books to look up later when the need for meaning has passed.

I don’t see OED in Kindle Store, but there is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Advanc...al-text&sr=1-4

184,600 words. But it is $26.16...

[montalex]

I was able to install that Oxford Advanced Dictionary on my Kindle Keyboard! There is no dictionary folder in the Kindle 3, so you just put it in the documents folder, or use Calibre to sideload. Works great! Thanks for the tip!

Good tip! Before I buy: It's my understanding that the "Oxford dictionary of English" and the "Oxford American Dictionary" included with Kindle are roughly similar size, scope, and content, except the American one is customized for American English. On the Oxford Press site, it mentions that the current 3rd edition of the Oxford American has over 350,000 terms and definitions. The one included on my Kindle PW4 is the 2nd Ed., but let's assume for the sake of argument that it's still pretty comprehensive, at least somewhere between 300 and 350K terms. (ETA: I just noticed on my android Kindle apps, you can download/run the THIRD editions of Oxford dictionary, but on PW4, it's only 2nd ed. Weird, but I digress).

Do we have reason to think this Oxford Advanced Learner dictionary has other, or more, content than the included one? (I just want to avoid buying duplicate material or something that won't improve on the already included ones).

Thanks!

OK, so this is slightly OT from the OP, but I wanted to find out why my new PW4 has the second edition of the included Oxford dictionaries, while the Android app has the third. I removed the 2 dictionaries from PW4, thinking to re-download and get the latest editions. Strangely enough, it wouldn't download ANY dictionary. And you couldn't find these dictionaries of any edition in the store either, I assume because they're included.

Finally I called Amazon service, and it turns out they will 'push' the third editions of both dictionaries to your Kindle e-ink device on request.

[montalex]

Oxford Dictionary: 350,000 words, phrases and meanings
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary: 145,000 words, phrases and meanings
That's what I have been able to find, at any rate. The Advanced Learner's Dictionary has more elaborate definitions, but, so far, I'm not impressed with it on my Kindle.

I feel your pain. :-) One good news item is Amazon has been really good about returning an ebook if I have a problem with it or not what I expected. The included Oxford 3rd ed is very, VERY good---as a 1 volume dictionary. Problem is any time you need more information, or you hit a weird word say in Shakespeare, it's never quite comprehensive enough. I would seriously pay a moderately hefty price for a nice OED app. But given it has 20+ volumes, and the Kindle has limited processing power, not sure how they'd deal with the problem of looking up words if they have to chop up the dictionary content into multiple files. It could be done, but they'd have to do fancy indexing, preloading of files, blah blah blah, in order to keep the definitions ready-at-hand and coming up quickly when you select a word. Doable, but hard. And maybe not much demand, only from word nerds like us. :-) Which is probably why they haven't done it yet.

[montalex]

Miriam Webster's Collegiate seems better to me than the standard Oxford dictionaries. At least, in the book I'm currently reading, it has definitions that the standard dictionaries lack.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by maximus83

But given it has 20+ volumes, and the Kindle has limited processing power, not sure how they'd deal with the problem of looking up words if they have to chop up the dictionary content into multiple files.

What makes you think that it is necessary to chop up the digital version into discrete volumes? The only reason the paper version has multiple volumes is for convenience, so that you don't have to pick up a 50+ pound book

A Kindle handles large books just fine without any noticeable performance penalties.

[HarryT]

I suspect that the licensing costs would be the main issue. A personal subscription to the full OED costs £17 a year.

Originally Posted by HarryT

I suspect that the licensing costs would be the main issue. A personal subscription to the full OED costs £17 a year.

Yes that would be an issue. For a nicely laid out and indexed version of OED, I'd probably pay to own an epub copy if it wasn't too insane.

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What makes you think that it is necessary to chop up the digital version into discrete volumes? The only reason the paper version has multiple volumes is for convenience, so that you don't have to pick up a 50+ pound book

A Kindle handles large books just fine without any noticeable performance penalties.

Maybe it wouldn't be. If not, great. I've worked on a few programming issues similar to this before, sometimes for perf reasons you do have to partition files.