Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary

A 40-year project in the making, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is the first historical thesaurus to include almost the entire vocabulary of English, from Old English to the present day. Conceived and compiled by the Department of English Language of the University of Glasgow, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is a groundbreaking analysis of the historical inventory of English, allowing users to find words connected in meaning throughout the history of the language.

The largest thesaurus resource in the world, covering more than 920,000 words and meanings, based on the Oxford English Dictionary

The very first historical thesaurus to be compiled for any of the world's languages

Synonyms listed with dates of first recorded use in English, in chronological order, with earliest synonyms first

For obsolete words, the Thesaurus also includes last recorded use of word

Uses a specially devised thematic system of classification

Comprehensive index enables complete cross-referencing of nearly one million words and meanings

Contains a comprehensive sense inventory of Old English

Includes a free fold-out color chart which shows the top levels of the classification structure

Made up of two volumes: The main text, comprising numbers sections for semantic categories, and the index, comprising a full A-Z look up of nearly one million lexical items

The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is a unique resource for word-lovers of all types-linguists and language specialists, historians, literary commentators, among others-as well as being a fascinating resource for everyone with an interest in the English language and its historical development. It is a perfect complement to the OED itself, allowing the words in the OED to be cross-referenced and viewed in wholly new ways.