How do you decide which words go into a children's dictionary?
Our children’s dictionaries, of which there are 17 in the UK alone, are structured by age, with each dictionary specifically written with a certain age group in mind, and with headwords and levels of definition varying according to what that child will need most at any given age.
All our dictionaries are designed to reflect language as it is used, rather than seeking to prescribe certain words or word usages.
We employ extremely rigorous editorial guidelines in determining which words could be included in each dictionary, based on several criteria. These include:
- the current frequency of words in the daily language of children of that age children’s culture, including their reading of fiction and non-fiction
- and commonly misspelled or misused words
Much of this is informed by the Oxford Children’s Corpus, a unique database of millions of words used in reading and writing for and by children. Our dictionary team uses the Oxford Children’s Corpus as part of their research into how children read and use language and to ensure our dictionaries are age appropriate and up to date as language usage changes. It helps to identify new or re-emerging word trends, words children find tricky to spell, and common issues with grammar and punctuation. We also take current curriculum requirements into account.
These criteria then need to be balanced against the appropriate length of any given dictionary, to create accessible resources appropriate for the age of the child the particular dictionary is aimed at. For example, the Oxford Junior Dictionary, is aimed at six to seven-year-olds with 288 pages and approximately 4,700 headwords. As such it is very much an introduction to language. However, as children get older they will progress to the Oxford Primary Dictionary aimed at eight to eleven-year-olds. This has 608 pages and 12,000 headwords.
