Speakers
Description
Canada is long overdue for a new English dictionary. In this presentation, we describe progress to date on the Canadian English Dictionary (CED), a new general dictionary of Canadian English being edited by the recently incorporated Society for Canadian English, with the support of Editors Canada, the University of British Columbia’s Canadian Word Centre, and Queen’s University’s Strathy Language Unit. A brief examination of the last generation of Canadian English dictionaries (Gage Canadian Dictionary [1996], ITP Nelson Dictionary [1997], Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd edition [2004]) reveals the need for an up-to-date resource. Oxford’s second (and last) edition, published in 2004, remains the most recent resource for Canadian dictionary users, indicating that over twenty years of language change remains undocumented.
Currently, Canadian English speakers must turn either to American or British English dictionaries for up-to-date lexicographical information. We need look no further than a recent spelling controversy that flared up in the media to remind ourselves that Canada’s variety of English is distinct, and that it matters to the population: our prime minister’s use of British -ise spellings in government documents has been met with criticism by Editors Canada, who remind readers that Canadians use -ize spellings (see Yousif 2025; ‘Linguistic experts’ 2025) and that Canadian English spelling conforms neither to American English nor British English (e.g. Canadian tire centre vs. British tyre centre vs. American tire center). Such cases reveal the pressing need for a current resource that lays out and cements our own variety of spellings, pronunciations, usages, and unique lexical items, as distinct from the British and American varieties. Additionally, during this time of geopolitical uncertainty, where Canada’s identity and even sovereignty feel under threat, Canadians want and need a resource to call their own.
In 2022, Editors Canada recruited John Chew as editor-in-chief of the project. The core team quickly expanded, bringing in linguists, editors, lexicographers, fundraisers, and social media professionals, then set about documenting what would be involved in creating our new dictionary, its style guides, its procedures, its business model, its governance, and its public engagement. We chose as a starting point and proof-of-concept, fascicle Q. In Canadian English, Q is a significant letter because it demonstrates well our need for an up-to-date, inclusive dictionary: the definientia for queen bee, quantum computing, and quarantine, for example, have gone through major transformations since 2004 and need addressing; neologisms (e.g., quiet quitting, quadrex) need documenting; now offensive terms need labelling (e.g., quadroon, quarter-blood Indian); Canadian legal and military terms that carry some history from either American and British systems, and yet correspond fully with neither (e.g., Question Period, question of law, and quartermaster), need distinguishing; and the important work of decolonizing Indigenous language spellings and definientia (e.g., Q'omoχws, Queen Charlotte Island caribou) is urgent as Canada pursues reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
With these goals in mind, we discuss our establishment of lexicographical principles using several entries of interest from within the Q fascicle. We reveal how our editors construct all the aspects of an entry, with attention paid to issues of definition, spelling, pronunciation, etymology, labels, and presentation. We provide an overview of methodology, including the compilation of the word list, editorial procedures, drafting of editorial guides, and corpus construction.
We also discuss our social media and outreach efforts, including the recent establishment of a Canadian Word of the Year, with which we hope to bring attention to Canadian English lexica amongst other major British and American dictionaries and their respective Word of the Year traditions. The very first Canadian Word of the Year, maplewash (the deceptive practice of making things seem more Canadian than they actually are) gained popularity in 2025 as Canadians embraced local products in the face of US tariffs. Its selection as Word of Year in a public poll indicates Canadians’ desires to establish our own ideological and linguistic identity on the global stage.
The initial fascicle Q, consisting of 500+ entries, is now available for online review, and work is continuing alphabetically, currently in fascicle R. If our ongoing funding efforts are successful, we plan to offer a free app by 2028, with premium and institutional subscriptions to ensure the sustainability of the CED. We look forward to introducing our project to international lexicographical experts and we welcome informed feedback on our methodologies and draft entries.