The Oxford English Dictionary will no longer be published on paper.

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary - the most comprehensive work in the world in linguistics - will not be printed due to the influence of the Internet on book sales.

^{The second edition of the Oxford Dictionary was published in 1989
Photo: GETTY}

Sales of the third edition of the huge volume have fallen due to the growing popularity of online alternatives.

A team of 80 lexicographers is working on the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary - known as OED3 - the last 21 years.
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The publisher of Oxford University, the dictionary owner, says that due to the influence of the Internet, OED3 is likely to appear only in electronic form.

The latest version of the Oxford Dictionary exists online for more than ten years and has 2 million hits per month from subscribers who pay £ 240 each.

" The print dictionary market is simply disappearing, it is falling by tens of percent a year ," Nigel Portwood, executive director of the publishing house at Oxford University, told the Sunday Times newspaper. When asked whether the third edition will be printed, he said: “ I don’t think so .”

Almost one third of a million entries were included in the second version of the Oxford Dictionary, published in 1989 in 20 volumes.

The next full edition is still estimated at more than ten years from completion; only 28 percent is over by now.

Oxford University Press says they will continue to print a one-volume version of the Oxford Dictionary, which contains more modern entries, such as wuvuzela.

According to Portwood, with the increasing popularity of e-books and devices such as the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle, printed dictionaries still have about 30 years to live.

Simon Winchester, author of The Meaning of Everything: The History of the Oxford English Dictionary, says the transition to online formats was “prophetic.”

He says: “ 6 months ago I was sure that there would always be printed books. Now, after getting the iPad, I’m completely convinced otherwise.

The printed book will disappear very soon. I have two complete editions of the Oxford Dictionary, but I never use them - I use the online version five or six times a day. Same with many of my directories — and soon with most.

Books disappear; reading expands as a pastime pastime; these inescapable reality . "

The first dictionary in a recognizable format was Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, published in 1755. It was a standard for 150 years until the beginning of the work of the Oxford University Press on its project in 1879.

The first Oxford Dictionary began to be published in parts since 1884, its publication was completed in 1928.

Despite its worldwide reputation, the Oxford Dictionary has never been profitable. Ongoing research costs amount to several million pounds per year. “ This is a kind of long-term research project that will never cover its costs, but this is what we decided to do ,” Portwood says.

A press secretary of the publisher said that the possibility of printing the third version cannot be completely ruled out if there is sufficient demand for it, but the completion of work on it is expected in more than a decade.