- 1604 – “A Table Alphabeticall, containing and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard usuall English words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, and French”
-first unilingual dictionary explaining 3000 words by English equivalents (Robert Cawdrey)
- 1721 – “Universal Etymological Dictionary”
- first etymological dictionary, explained etymology of words and included pronunciation (Nathaniel Bailey)
- 1775 – explanatory dictionary by Dr Samuel Johnson
-words were illustrated by examples from English literature
-pronunciation was not included
-helped to preserve the English spelling in its conservative form
- 1780 – first pronouncing dictionary (Thomas Sheridan)
- 1791 – “The Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language” (John Walker)
- 1858-1928 – New English Dictionary (NED), 12 volumes, included all words existing in the language
- 1933 – Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 13 volumes
-includes spellings, pronunciations, detailed etymologies, quotations
- “A Shorter Oxford Dictionary”, 2 volumes, smaller number of quotations
- 1911 – “The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English”, contained only word of current usage, no quotations
- “English Dialect Dictionary” by Joseph Wright
