Oxford advance learners dictionary, previously entitled oxford advanced learner's dictionary of current english, was first published under the name of idiomatic and syntactic dictionary in japan in 1942, 72 years ago. The original idea of this dictionary was brought about by albert sydney hornby, a teacher of english studies at a small college in japan and he was given the chance to work on it by harold e. Palmer, head of the institute for research into english teaching in tokyo at that time. The dictionary then reached humphrey s. Milford, the then publisher of university of oxford and later, the managing director of oxford university press, who helped the book rise to the worldwide success that provided as the base for its present dominant position in the field of dictionaries. The book that was originally meant for non-english speakers, explained spelling, grammar, phonetics and usage more extensively than any other native english dictionary. Thereby, helping both english and non-en