Oxford English Dictionary

Facts and Figures

Number of headwords: over 300,000

Number of words and phrases covered: 640,000

Number of quotations: almost 2.5 million

Number of words of text: 60 million

Most-quoted male author: William Shakespeare

Most-quoted female author: George Eliot

Most-quoted work: the Bible

Most-quoted twentieth-century author: James Joyce

Longest word: ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’, a factitious word alleged to mean ‘a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust’ (but occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word!)

Longest entry: the verb ‘set’ (60,000 words)

Shortest entry: ‘m. Var. MA’AM’

Letter containing the largest number of headwords: S

Letter containing the smallest number of headwords: X

For more facts and figures visit the OED Online site: Dictionary Facts