Hang out with a group of geeks and gamers and it doesn't take long to hear words that aren't a part of the normal language of the typical person. Many of these strange words that are used today, despite being seemingly made up, have real world uses. Words like w00t, which was the Merriam-Webster word of 2007, are now officially in the dictionary.

Decades ago before the internet was common, if a student needed to know what a word meant or find out about its usage they had to use a printed dictionary. One of the most comprehensive of all dictionaries ever printed is the Oxford dictionary that was first published in 1884 – a complete text of the dictionary was first printed in 1928. The Oxford dictionary in its full form is nothing like the dictionaries used in grade schools around the world. The second edition of the dictionary (published in 1989) has 291,500 entries and 2.4 million quotations for sources.

The complete Oxford English Language Dictionary is a 20-volume ensemble that weighs 750 pounds and sells for $1,165. The dictionary is also offered as an online product that costs $295 per year to access and is obviously much easier to use than the massive printed version. The Washington Post reports that the online version of the dictionary now gets 2 million users per month in the U.S. alone.

The skyrocketing popularity of the online version of the Oxford Dictionary has some who work on the print version wondering if the third edition, which is being compiled right now, will be offered in a print version at all. The third edition is only about a quarter complete so far and it will likely take another ten years before it is ready to be published.

The Guardian quotes CEO Nigel Portwood of Oxford Press saying, "The print dictionary market is just disappearing. It is falling away by tens of percent a year." Portwood also replied to a question asking if the third edition would be offered in print format saying, "I don't think so."

The official statement by the publisher of the dictionary according to the Washington Post is, "At present we are experiencing increasing demand for the online product. However, a print version will certainly be considered if there is sufficient demand at the time of publication."

The online version of the Oxford dictionary was launched in 2000 and it is set to be relaunched this year to include new elements such as a historical thesaurus for cross-referencing. The print version of the dictionary has a team of 80 lexicographers that work on it.