The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a historical dictionary, containing over 500,000 entries and 3.5 million quotations to capture over 1,000 years of English. We update the OED every quarter, revising versions of existing entries as well as defining new words and senses, all subtly broadening our understanding of the English language.

10 highlights from this quarter’s update 

1. This update contains more than 500 new words, phrases, and senses, including doomscrolling and to touch grass. The OED Executive Editor, Craig Leyland, shares more about the words added this quarter in our new words notes.

2. With more than 950 revised senses, we’ve updated the entries relating to various major word families, such as bounce, heal, and drop. Word groups such as these are fundamental, wide-ranging, and productive elements of English. Through the centuries they appear in new contexts, in new locations, and are adapted by people to fit their changing circumstances. For example, we now show that people have talked of bouncing babies on their knees since at least 1836, of healing gardens since 1707, and of drop nets being used by fishermen since 1695. 

3. Our entry for charismatic shows a new sense, where it’s used to designate animals as particularly appealing to humans, and therefore popular with conservation causes that use them to gain support.

4. OED editor, Jeffrey Sherwood, uncovers the history of the word snob, which originally meant almost the opposite of what it means today.

5. We also recognize jelly as an adjective to cover a more recent use meaning ‘jealous’.

6. As part of our World English programme, this release sees additions from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, and Ireland. Find out more in our release notes by OED Executive Editor, Danica Salazar.

7. In Malaysian and Singaporean English, agak-agak denotes guesswork or estimation, and is most frequently used in the context of a particular way of cooking, in which ingredients are added based on estimation and intuition rather than accurate measurement.

8. The Hong Kong pastry, pineapple bun, does not contain pineapple, but its cracked, baked topping resembles the skin of this fruit. Meanwhile, a boodle fight is a communal meal at which different kinds of food are laid out, typically on banana leaves, and eaten with the hands.

9. Ah sure look or ah sure look it, dating to 2011 and 1986 respectively, is a colloquial phrase used by Irish people to introduce or emphasize a statement, or to express resignation or acceptance of a situation.

10. We are now providing multiple audio pronunciations for some British and U.S. transcriptions. Find out more in this commentary from Holly Dann, pronunciation editor.

Explore the update in more depth here.

Managing Director of OxfordAQA

“At OxfordAQA, our commitment is simple: to make international exams work better for everyone. These enhancements are a direct response to what schools have told us they need. By releasing results earlier, expanding exam series, and providing greater flexibility for the International EPQ, we are helping schools tailor assessment to their teaching programmes and giving students more opportunities to succeed.”

We are pleased to announce the launch of the first in a series of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, designed to help teachers save time, personalize learning, and navigate some of the biggest challenges faced in the classroom. 

The tool, Plan Assist, has been developed in partnership with leading global edtech provider Avallain, combining our pedagogical expertise with advanced AI technology.

With resource generation at its core, Plan Assist works to help teachers to create custom materials, such as lesson plans, glossaries, flashcards, and much more. When generating questions and answers through Avallain’s technology, it leverages trusted OUP content in the prompts to produce high-quality, curriculum-aligned outputs. By simplifying the planning process, it helps to save time for teachers while delivering results tailored ​​​for​ them and their students. 

Ensuring value through teacher-led testing

The technology that powers Plan Assist has already been recognized in major edtech awards, including BETT and the Learning Technology Awards.

Ahead of launch, we carried out a rigorous research and testing programme involving external subject matter experts, pilot trials with UK and international teachers, and extensive testing across four languages and multiple regions. This ensured the tool is robust, reliable, and provided real value for diverse classrooms, with participating teachers reporting ​that ​the tool provides “a range of resources to support a teacher successfully in the classroom with ideas, content, and activities” and praising “its ability to instantly rewrite the same content for different audiences”.

Teacher voices driving more effective support

To reflect the realities of classroom life, we gathered feedback from our global teacher network to provide insights into the pressures they are currently facing and what they need from digital platforms to work more efficiently.

Across the responses, three challenges were highlighted in particular: 

• not having enough time and feeling over-stretched (74%) 
• mental health and wellbeing (55%) 
• budget restrictions (54%) 

Alongside these pressures, teachers also outlined what an effective digital platform must offer to truly support their work. Teachers said they needed: 

• The ability to download, adapt, and print ready‑made teaching and planning resources (56%) 
• Tools to support front‑of‑class teaching using high‑quality presentations (54%) 
• Functionality to monitor and report on student progress (52%) 
• AI features to help create lesson plans and teaching resources (50%) 

They also emphasized the importance of: 

• Immediate, actionable feedback for learners 
• Auto‑marking and data tracking 
• Exam board or subject specificity 
• Student interactivity and engagement features 

These insights provided a clear picture of the challenges teachers face and the digital capabilities they value most, shaping the focus of our support to ensure all products and services make a real difference.

Fiona Fortes

International Product Director in our Education division

“Teachers everywhere are being asked to do more with less time. By combining OUP’s trusted content with responsible, innovative AI capabilities, we are giving teachers practical tools that make a real difference in the classroom. At OUP, our focus has always been to lead with learning and ensure that technology is there to support teachers. Our key principles remain at the heart of everything we do – creating resources that have real purpose and a human in the loop, while prioritizing quality content and pedagogy and safe, ethical use.

As we continue to innovate, we look for opportunities where technology can deliver meaningful, positive change within education, when developed responsibly and in collaboration with our global teaching community.”

Monika Morawska, COO at Avallain, said: 

“Building on our expertise in digital content creation technology and the rich feedback of the 60,000 highly engaged educators actively using our existing AI toolset TeacherMatic, we are delighted to bring proven, practical, and ethical AI features to more teachers through Plan Assist. Our collaboration with OUP has been one of shared goals and values: putting humans, educational outcomes, and creative, impactful content first.” 

Plan Assist will be available on Kerboodle, our online learning platform which supports teachers to save time and engage students with a range of resources. It will continue rolling out to courses in 2026.

You can find out more about Plan Assist here.