Jargon Buster
Corpus
A corpus is a collection of written texts, especially the entire
works of a particular author or a body of writing on a particular subject. In
the context of dictionaries the term refers to a collection of written or spoken
material in a searchable database, assembled for the purpose of studying the ways
that words are used or the frequency with which they occur.
Oxford dictionaries are written and revised using the Oxford English Corpus, a collection of words of 21st century written and spoken English. The OEC included all different registers and styles of English from academic works, technical manuals, and serious novels to newspapers, magazines, and children's works.
By searching for examples of a particular word in the BNC, Oxford lexicographers
can find out just how that word is really used in modern English. The BNC is
used in conjunction with the Oxford Reading Programme, which
is constantly updated and gives examples of English from around the world, and
of rare and unusual words which may not be found in the Corpus.
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