The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form

The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form (The OEDILF) is an open collaborative project to compile an English dictionary whose entries take the form of limericks. The project was originally called the "Oxford English Dictionary in Limerick Form," but the name was changed after the OED legal department advised against it. The site, launched in May 2004, has attracted over 2,260 writers from around the world. The project has amassed more than 120,275 limericks. The project progresses alphabetically and is currently accepting limericks on words beginning with the letters Aa- through Hi-.

In May 2023, the estimated date of completion of The OEDILF was 3 Nov 2063. This will be a "first edition", a first pass through words in the English language. Work will move on to limericks for words that were skipped in the first pass and for words that were coined during the writing of the first edition.

The OEDILF has been featured on National Public Radio in the United States, on BBC Radio 4 in the UK, on CBC radio in Canada, and in the pages of the Washington Post, the Glasgow Herald, and various other newspapers. It was also named one of PC Magazine's Top 99 Undiscovered Websites of 2006.

A sense of contributions
The project was initiated in 2004 by Chris J. Strolin. With the assistance of contributors, by May 2023 the project had amassed more than 120,275 limericks. Strolin has set a personal goal of writing at least one limerick per day, and by May 2023 he had created 10,005 limericks. The project's most prolific writer has 11,651 limericks, 25 others have written more than 1,000, and the contributions of some 150 other "OEDILFers" range from 100 to 900 limericks each. Many have written a handful, and new authors are welcome.

How to join OEDILF
Would you like to write limericks? Joining is easy! This link will take you to the OEDILF page for joining: You'll put in a name to be published with your limericks (It doesn't have to be your full name), a password, and an email address. The page also contains OEDILF standards and guidelines, as well as information on "workshopping" limericks and on limericks themselves.

Workshopping limericks
A short discussion of how people help mold a limerick into shape. To Come!

Examples of limericks on OEDILF
These examples of limericks will give you an idea about how words are used and defined. Some are funny. Others are there just to be able to define or use a word.

Here's the very first limerick written for OEDILF, written by Chris J. Strolin for the word "a". Along with the limerick is an "author's note". Many limericks have an author's note.

The very first word here is a.

It's used with a noun to convey

A singular notion

Like "a duck" or "a potion"

Or top notch as when used in "Grade A."

This limerick, written well before the official 10 May 2004 kick-off

of The OEDILF Project, and certainly not one of our best,

was the first piece ever specifically written for The OEDILF

way back when all this was nothing more than a running joke.

More examples of limericks will be placed here.

The basic form of a limerick
A discussion of the basic form of a limerick that authors generally follow.