Editing Oxford English Dictionary (section)

=== Compact editions ===
[[File:Compact Oxford English Dictionary.jpg|thumb|Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, with included magnifying glass]]
[[File:Compact Oxford English Dictionary 2.jpg|thumb|A view inside the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, showing the four pages per page format]]
In 1971, the 13-volume ''OED1'' (1933) was reprinted as a two-volume ''Compact Edition'', by photographically reducing each page to one-half its linear dimensions; each compact edition page held four ''OED1'' pages in a [[N-up|four-up]] ("4-up") format. The two-volume letters were ''A'' and ''P''; the first supplement was at the second volume's end. The ''Compact Edition'' included, in a small slip-case drawer, a  [[Bausch & Lomb]] magnifying glass to help in reading reduced type. Many copies were inexpensively distributed through [[Book sales club|book clubs]]. In 1987, the second supplement was published as a third volume to the ''Compact Edition''.

The 20-volume ''OED2'' (1989) was republished in 1991 as a compact edition ({{ISBN|978-0-19-861258-2}}). The format was re-sized to one-third of original linear dimensions, a nine-up ("9-up") format requiring a stronger magnifying glass (included), but allowing publication of a single-volume dictionary. This version include definitions of 500,000 words, in  290,000 main entries, with 137,000 pronunciations, 249,300 etymologies, 577,000 cross-references, and 2,412,000 illustrative quotations. It is accompanied ''A User's Guide to the "Oxford English Dictionary"'' by Donna Lee Berg.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Compact Oxford English Dictionary |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1991 |isbn=978-0-19-861258-2}}</ref> After this version was published, however, book club offers commonly continued to sell the two-volume 1971 ''Compact Edition''.<ref name=Considine />

<gallery widths="220px" heights="200px">
File:Compact OED.jpg|The ''Compact Oxford English Dictionary'' (second edition, 1991)
File:Compact OED entry.jpg|Part of an entry in the 1991 compact edition, with a centimetre scale showing the very small type sizes used
</gallery>