Produced by Oxford's U.S. Dictionaries Program, and drawing on the guidance of American scholars and advisors, The New Oxford American Dictionary offers a descriptive picture of American English. Oxford's American editors drew on a 200-million-word databank of contemporary North American English, plus the citation files of the world-renowned Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford's ongoing North American Reading Program, begun in the early 1980s, keeps lexicographers in touch with evidence of the American English language and usage - in novels and newspapers, in public records and magazines. The entries are organized around core meanings, in an attempt to eliminate confusion, especially in longer entries.