It’s the first-ever Southern African school dictionary and thesaurus in one, created to help local learners understand and use more words, with more confidence!
South Africa (19 March 2026) – There is so much power in recognising the world you know in
what you’re learning.
When a child opens a book and finds their own world staring back at them, the road to understanding becomes walkable. Familiar words, places, and ways of speaking helps them feel less like an outsider in their own education, and more like what they’re learning was made for them all along.
In South African schools, we’re still working on making those foundational resources more relevant, relatable and inclusive. The new Oxford School Dictionary and Vocabulary Builder is the next step in that direction.
The brand-new resource is a first for South Africa. It brings a dictionary and thesaurus together in one book. This means that learners can look up familiar words like ‘takkies’ or ‘robot’, and then build from there by discovering the broader vocabulary that helps them read, write and express themselves.
The Oxford University Press in South Africa worked with teachers to develop the dictionary.
“Teachers told us they need resources that support comprehension and vocabulary growth at the same time,” says Dariol Wicomb, Dictionaries Publisher at OUPSA. “The Oxford School Dictionary and Vocabulary Builder was developed in response to this. By combining dictionary definitions with thesaurus-style vocabulary support, the book helps learners understand words and use them more confidently in writing and across subjects.”
When learning feels foreign and unfamiliar, it becomes harder to understand, and that can follow young minds through every subject. When language is reframed in a local context – in this case, through the use of a dictionary that covers the terminology learners are familiar with, it’s more likely to encourage further engagement.
Basically, it takes the language a learner knows and uses it as a stepping stone toward the academic English they’ll need throughout their schooling, and their life.
“Local content does not replace academic English,” adds Wicomb. “It rather supports the pathway to it by helping learners bridge the gap between everyday language and formal academic vocabulary.”
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The Oxford School Dictionary and Vocabulary Builder was created for learners in grade 4 to 9. It’s available at bookstores and educational retailers nationwide, and online for R199.95.
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