How to use the OALD app

What's in the dictionary?

How do I look up a word?

What's in an entry?

My OALD

What's new?

Contact us

What's in the dictionary?

The OALD app includes all the entries from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (8th edition) and entries from the Guide to British and American Culture. It includes lots of extra information about words, such as verb forms, grammar points, origins, synonyms, collocations and extra example sentences, which can be accessed from the MENU at the top of most entries.

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How do I look up a word?

There are two main search modes in this app: simple search and full dictionary search. Switch between them using the icon to the right of the search box.

Simple search

Start typing a word in the Search box and then tap the word you want when it appears in the Index. A Did you mean? list will display some suggestions if you spell a word incorrectly.

Full dictionary search

Full dictionary search allows you to search for words within dictionary entries. This mode will display results in more context under the headings: Headwords, Phrases, and Examples.

Wildcard search

To see words containing particular letters, you can do a wildcard search using a question mark(?) or an asterisk(*). Use (?) to replace one letter, or (*) to replace any number of letters. For example:

History

Tap the History icon to see a list of your recent searches.

Moving between entries

To move alphabetically through the dictionary, swipe right/left to move to the next/previous entry.

To move through your recent searches use the forward/back arrows on the top toolbar.

You can also tap on any word within an entry to jump to the entry for that word.

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What’s in an entry?

Audio

To hear how to pronounce a word, tap on the blue speaker for British pronunciation or the red speaker for American pronunciation.
If you are online or have downloaded the files, you can also listen to example sentences by tapping on the speaker symbols at the end of the sentences. Go to Settings to download the sentence files and find other sound options.

Illustrations

There are hundreds of illustrations in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary which will display when you look up a word. Tap on the illustration to see a larger picture which often contains related words and pictures for you to explore.

Extra information MENU

Tap on MENU to open pop-up information about the word you have looked up. Each menu heading provides different information:

Understanding definitions

If there is a word you do not understand in any entry, you can simply tap on it to jump to the entry for that word.

Understanding abbreviations and symbols

Dictionary entries often include abbreviations and symbols. Tap on an abbreviation or symbol to see what it means. Please look at "About OALD" for more information about abbreviations and symbols.

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My OALD

Choosing Favourites

Add interesting, difficult or important words to your Favourites list! You can also make your own Favourites Folders to keep all your favourite words organized in any way you like, for example by topic, difficulty, or usage.

Folders

To create a folder, go to the Favourites tab, then tap the "Add folder" icon on the top toolbar.

Storing and viewing entries

To add an entry to favourites, go to the entry you want to add and tap on the star icon in the toolbar above. All your folders and favourite entries will be stored alphabetically for quick and easy reference. To view your favourites later, go to the Favourites tab and tap on a folder or entry to see it. You can browse your favourite entries by swiping left/right.

Deleting entries

You can delete individual entries or entire folders from your Favourites by tapping and holding on the entry or folder you wish to delete.

Choosing my Design (Settings > General)

You can personalise your OALD in the Settings tab > General. Choose your background colour, text size, and highlighting options.

Choosing what I See (Settings > My View)

My View

You can choose to show or hide pictures, pronunciation, synonyms and opposites, examples, and other elements of an entry. Switch between Full View and My View using the moon icon within a dictionary entry, and select which parts of an entry you want to see in My View on the Settings tab.

Choosing what I Hear (Settings > Sound)

Hide speaker symbols

If you have not downloaded the spoken example sentences, and do not want to listen to them via the Internet, you can hide the speaker symbols (sentences only).

Download spoken sentences

If you want to listen to the spoken example sentences when you are offline, you can download them to your device. A Wi-fi connection is recommended for this, as each set of sentences is around 430 MB.

Remove downloaded sentences

You can remove the downloaded soundfiles at any time. After removing them from your device, you can still listen to the spoken example sentences with an Internet connection.

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What’s new?

In the News section you will receive notifications about our latest products and special offers. You can access the News feature by tapping the Information tab, and update news notifications using the refresh button. You can also configure your news notifications in Settings.

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Contact us

If you need any further help using this app, please contact us at eltsupport@oup.com.

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