O.E.D. Ranked

The key art for the podcast.

O.E.D. Ranked is a podcast undertaking the ambitious and unconventional task of ranking almost every single word in the Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition CD-ROM Version 4.0, which includes 500,000 words with 2.5 million source quotations, along with 7,000 new words and meanings. It includes Vocabulary from OED Second Edition as well as all 3 Additions volumes.

The Official Rankings

Warning: The rankings are updated as the show is recorded.

We have collapsed the table out of respect for those who would like to avoid "spoilers."

S	A	B	C	F
œstrogen Med.	Acronyms (Holistic)

Active Tournament

This is the active word tournament: NUMBER WORDS

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Draft Entries

Some entries in the OED2ECDV4.0 are labeled as "Draft Entries," denoting entries that, as of the CD-ROM's release in June of 2009, were still to be considered for entry into the O.E.D. proper. With the completion of each letter set, a tournament occurs which pits all of the selected Draft Entries from that letter against each other. Some entries have Draft entries as addendums at the bottom of the definition proper. These are considered a part of the main entry and not drafts. Some Draft Entries may be dismissed out of hand for being too similar to other Draft Entries, or for being otherwise objectively irrelevant for inclusion. Old Draft Entries can be found by clicking the words Old Draft Entries.

Number Words Draft Entries

Draft Date	Word	Definition	Status
March 2004	0898 number, n. Brit.	A U.K. telephone number with the prefix 0898 offering services (esp. chat lines) for which callers are charged at a premium rate; (in extended use) any premium-rate telephone service, esp. a chat line offering sexual content.
June 2004	101, a. orig. and chiefly U.S.	as postmodifier: designating an introductory course at U.S. colleges or universities in the subject specified. In extended use (chiefly humorous): designating the basic or elementary facts or knowledge associated with the field or subject specified.
September 2003	1984, n.	A totalitarian society in which propaganda and intensive surveillance techniques are used to subjugate the population. Hence allusively: a society in which personal freedom is (thought to be) similarly curtailed or controlled.
June 2001	24-7, adv. colloq. (orig. and chiefly U.S.)	Twenty four hours a day, seven days a week; constantly.
June 2003	360-degree, a.	1. Consisting of three hundred and sixty degrees, the number of degrees through which an arm of a circle rotates about a point to describe a full circle. 2.a. Of, involving, or characterized by rotation about three hundred and sixty degrees; operating throughout a full circle. b. fig. All-encompassing, comprehensive (esp. of a study or assessment); (Business) designating or relating to an evaluation of job performance in which an employee is assessed by peers and subordinates in addition to a superior or superiors.
March 2006	401(k), n. U.S.	[‹401(k), designation of the section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, introduced in 1978, which delineates this provision.] More fully 401(k) plan. A provision for retirement savings that enables an employee to invest a percentage of (pre-tax) income, often matched by the employer, into an account where it will not be taxed until withdrawn, withdrawals before a specifed [sic] date typically incurring a penalty; (also) an account of this type.
June 2002	4-H, n. U.S. / 4-H'er, n. U.S.	A government-sponsored organization of educational clubs, originally established for youths in the rural United States with the aim of fostering civic responsibility and teaching various practical skills (esp. in farming and home economics), and later extended to offer similar schemes in urban areas and internationally. / A member of 4-H, a government-sponsored organization of local (originally rural) educational youth clubs.
June 2002	4WD, n. Motoring.	Four-wheel drive (freq. attrib.). Also: a vehicle with four-wheel drive. Cf.
June 2002	4x4, n.	Four-wheel drive; (more usually) a vehicle with four-wheel drive. Cf.
September 2003	900 number, n. N. Amer.	In the United States and Canada: a telephone number with the digits 900 in place of an area code, chiefly used to access information or entertainment services for which callers are charged by the minute, usually at a premium rate.
September 2003	911, n. N. Amer.	1. In the United States and Canada: a telephone number used to contact the emergency services; the service provided when this number is dialled. 2 U.S. In extended use: a person or thing one may have recourse to in an emergency or crisis; (also) a signal to take urgent action, an alert.
September 2003	999, n. Chiefly Brit.	In the United Kingdom and elsewhere: a telephone number used to contact the emergency services; the service provided when this number is dialled.

Excluditary Concerns

Some words will be excluded from the rankings on basis collated in this section of the wiki.

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Obsolete words may be excluded from ranking unless they are cool, in which case they are ranked and therefore made adsolete.

If a word's definition just sort of tells you to see a different word and nothing else, it is excluded from ranking.

Acronyms: See rankings.

Assorted References

The spelling of One-oh-One.