The Oxford English Dictionary is the world's leading authority on the history and development of the English language since 1150. The OED Online offers quick and easy searching of the text of all 23 volumes. It allows users to find terms when the meaning is known, but the word is forgotten; find words that have come into English via a particular language; search for quotation from a specific year, author or work; and turn pronunciation, etymologies, variant spellings and quotation on and off.