Collins updates

This page discusses how often changes are published to the Collins lexicon, and is part of our introduction to Collins (SOWPODS) in North America. For brevity, we will refer to the North American and International lexica as NWL and CSW respectively.

How Often is the Collins Word List Updated?

Both the NWL and CSW word lists are updated every few years. There has not been a fixed frequency of updates.

At first glance, this may seem unexpected. After all, if CSW includes lists from both the British and American dictionaries, shouldn’t it be updated twice as often? However, part of the motivation and criteria of publishing CSW is that it specifically includes the NWL. As in North America, the worldwide community wants the frequency of updates to result in a list that is reasonably up-to-date, without constant changes. Therefore, so far, the frequency of updates has been similar.

The current NWL was last updated in 2020. Recent previous editions were published in 2018, 2016, 2014, 2006, and 1998. CSW was updated in 2007, 2012, 2015, and 2019. The current CSW was updated in 2021.

Click here for a list of changes in CSW21.

Please direct comments about this page to its author, Nick Ball.