It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933).

• 根据这个描述，英语中有超过60万个的单词，当然这些不单单包括了现在通用的词汇，还包括了已经荒废的旧用法和最新的科技用语。