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Oxford: Database Tips: Home

This guide highlights the Oxford databases and their features.

More Help

Need more help with your search? Check out the links below or visit a librarian!

Oxford Scholarship Online Help Page

Oxford English Dictionary Help Page

Welcome to the Oxford Databases!

These databases provide access to hundreds of resources published by Oxford University. Oxford Scholarship Online includes hundreds of books on the humanities, social sciences, science, medicine, law, and more from Oxford University Press. Finally, the Oxford English Dictionary provides access to the highly regarded academic dictionary with the meaning, pronunciation, and history of over 600,000 words. Whether you need the etymology of a phrase or a book about the history of the gothic novel, these are great sources to check out.

Tips and Tricks

  • To get started, type your search into the search bar or browse through the collection by subject. You can also search within the book to find the exact chapter you need.
  • Want to come back to your search results later? You can download your search results, email them to yourself, or save your search if you have an account. You can also email single sources to yourself or download them for later.
  • Need a physical copy of the book? You can also see if the book is available at the library by clicking on the "Find in Library" or "Find in Worldcat" button. 
  • If you want to take a closer look at a restricted item, try searching for the title in the library search. Even though we don't have access through Oxford, we might have it somewhere else.
  • You can also create a citation for APA, MLA, or Chicago by clicking the pencil in the top right. But be sure to double check it!
  • If you want to do a single search across the  Oxford dictionary, reference, and scholarship databases, type your search into the "search in Oxford Index" button at the bottom of the page.
  • To get started, type the word you want to find into the search box or try an advanced search to narrow it down by region, part of speech, etc. Can't think of a word to search? Try the "Lost for Words?" link right below the search box.
  • If you want to find a similar word to the one you searched, you can also click on the "Thesaurus" link at the end of the right of the entry.
  • Looking for older definitions or the history of the word? You can also see the history of the entry and the ways it's changed by clicking the "Entry History" or "Previous Version" to the right of the entry.
  • Want to use this entry again later? You can save it to your OED account, or you can email it to yourself to easily access it later on.
  • You can also cite your entries in MLA and Chicago by clicking the "Cite" link at the top of the page. Just be sure to double check it!