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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the national record of over 60,000 men and women who shaped the history of the British Isles and of Britons worldwide, from the ‘earliest times’ to the 21st century.   

The ODNB is the world’s largest collaborative research project in the humanities, providing concise, up-to-date biographies written by 13,000 specialists from 52 countries. In addition to its more than 60,000 biographies, the Dictionary includes more than 500 thematic essays (setting individuals in historical context), and 11,500 portrait likenesses, researched in association with the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Website:  http://www.oxforddnb.com/

• Research Aims

The ODNB was first published in 2004, in 60 print volumes and online. Since 2004 a continuation project has extended and developed the ODNB’s online edition.

Updates are published monthly. Our January update is composed of biographies of people who have died in the very recent past (all people in the ODNB are deceased). Our other monthly updates are gathered around themes of related lives and also extend the Dictionary’s coverage across earlier periods in the light of recent scholarship and publications. Updates also revise existing biographies in response to new research. Since 2004 we have added around 5000 biographies and thematic essays.

Dictionary editors also run a programme of public engagement with other national institutions (museums, galleries, the National Trust, English Heritage, and national biographies worldwide), as well as with British public libraries and university research projects in the UK and the United States. The Dictionary's popular podcast series is available on itunes and via our website.

The Oxford DNB is a research and publishing project of the Oxford History Faculty and Oxford University Press. The work of commissioning, editing, writing, updating, and promoting the Dictionary is undertaken by a small team of Oxford historians: Mark Curthoys, Alex May, and Anders Ingram.

The ODNB’s general editor (from October 2014) is Sir David Cannadine who, in his capacity as editor, is also a Visiting Professor in the Oxford History Faculty.

The ODNB have recorded over 250 life stories from the  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB) –  Boudicca  to  Bobby Moore ,  Mrs Simpson  to  Mills & Boon .

You can download an individual life or subscribe to their fortnightly biography podcast,  released on iTunes as ‘Oxford Biographies’ . Each episode lasts between 10 and 30 minutes.

Elizabeth Parsons, the Cock Lane Ghost (1749–1807), imposter

Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960), suffragette

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848-54), artists

Odo of Bayeux (d. 1097), commissioner of the Bayeux Tapestry

Jack Sheppard (1702-1724), thief and prison-breaker

Alice Liddell (1852-1934), the real-life in Alice in Wonderland

Eric Hobsbawm (1917-2012), historian and political writer

Margaret Roper (1505-1544), scholar and daughter of Thomas More

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isekai noun

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What does the noun isekai mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun isekai . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

How is the noun isekai pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun isekai come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun isekai is in the 2010s.

OED's earliest evidence for isekai is from 2018, in Publishers' Weekly .

isekai is a borrowing from Japanese.

Etymons: Japanese isekai .

Nearby entries

• i-scole, n. a1175
• ISDN, n. 1974–
• -ise, suffix¹
• -ise, suffix²
• I'se, phr. 1584–
• i-seche, v. Old English–1275
• i-seggen, v. Old English–1275
• Isegrim, n. a1300–
• i-sehtne, v. c1175
• iseidomal, adj. 1842–
• isekai, n. 2018–
• isel | izle, n. Old English–
• i-sele, adj. c1275
• i-seli, adj. Old English–1275
• i-selth, n. Old English–1250
• i-seme, v. Old English–1275
• i-semeliche, adv. c1275
• i-send, v. Old English–1400
• isene, adj. Old English–1500
• isenergic, adj. & n. 1902–
• isenthalpic, adj. 1925–

The diagram posits the existence of two worlds, our familiar one of physical matter..and the ‘other world’ (isekai..) whose composite units are not known.

Meaning & use

Isekai , a fantasy subgenre featuring stories in which ordinary people are transported to a magical world.

An isekai with an unconventional premise, ‘How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom’, might prove to be one of the better isekai shows to come out in recent years.

I am making a..fantasy RPG with Isekai protagonist.

• K/S 1978– A subgenre of fan fiction, originally published in science fiction fanzines and now esp. online, in which the Star Trek characters Kirk and Spock…
• slipstream 1989– Literary Criticism . Fiction which, while not classified as science fiction, engages to some extent with scientific or futuristic subject matter, esp. …
• isekai 2018– A Japanese genre of science or fantasy fiction featuring a protagonist who is transported to or reincarnated in a different, strange, or…

Pronunciation

• ð th ee
• ɬ rhingy ll

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence <petal> /ˈpɛtl/ but <petally> /ˈpɛtl̩i/.

• a trap, bath
• ɑː start, palm, bath
• ɔː thought, force
• ᵻ (/ɪ/-/ə/)
• ᵿ (/ʊ/-/ə/)

Other symbols

• The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
• The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
• Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.

View the pronunciation model here .

* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in <bitter>

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence <petal> /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but <petally> /ˈpɛdl̩i/.

• i fleece, happ y
• æ trap, bath
• ɑ lot, palm, cloth, thought
• ɔ cloth, thought
• ɔr north, force
• ə strut, comm a
• ər nurse, lett er
• ɛ(ə)r square
• æ̃ sal on

Simple Text Respell

Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.

b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values

• arr carry (British only)
• a(ng) gratin
• o lot (British only)
• orr sorry (British only)
• o(ng) salon

Variant forms

Entry history for isekai, n..

isekai, n. was first published in March 2024.

oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:

• further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into isekai, n. in March 2024.

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Citation details

Factsheet for isekai, n., browse entry.