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When the popular first edition of The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary appeared in 1991, readers greeted it as an innovative all-in-one reference book, providing within a single volume a comprehensive dictionary of current English supported by in-depth articles on a huge variety of complex topics. Now this extensively revised second edition of the Oxford Encyclopedic Reference Dictionary offers the comprehensive authority of the first edition, brought completely up to date to incorporate all the swiftly unfolding events of recent years. The 9,000 entries on people and places have been reconsidered, expanded, and updated, and new words and phrases from carjacking and supermodel to Game Boy and buckyball have been added to offer readers up-to-the-minute coverage.The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary features more than 200,000 dictionary entries written in a straightforward, readable style, with the minimum of special symbols and abbreviations. Careful attention has been paid to provide clear explanations of grammar, usage, and word origins. The 15,000 encyclopedic articles remain the fullest to appear in a dictionary of this size. They cover a wide range of subjects such as current affairs, influential men and women through the ages and across the globe, science and technology, medicine, history, the arts, philosophy, mythology, sport, and places including countries, cities, rivers, and mountains. There are entries for people in the news such as Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, Bill Gates and Steven Spielberg; organizations including the African National Congress and the European Parliament; and many other topics such as acid house, chaos theory, and desktop publishing. Further encyclopedic information is given in over 100 pages of appendices, including information on Presidents of the United States, the law-making processes of the European Community, Indo-European languages, the chemical elements, musical notation, weights and measures, the major skeletal and musculature structure of the human body, astronomy, sports, and many other topics. There is a chronology of world events from the paleolithic age to the collapse of communism and beyond; and a chronology of scientific achievements divided into trends in medical science, the telecommunications revolution, computer technology, and space exploration.As convenient and affordable as it is comprehensive and authoritative, the Oxford English Reference Dictionary is an essential reference and guide.