Before a word or sense

	= obsolete
	= not naturalized, alien (not used in New Edition entries)
¶	= catachrestic and erroneous uses (not used in New Edition entries)

After a label ‘Obs.’ or ‘rare’

^0	indicates a word or sense for which no contextual examples from printed sources were available to the editors
^1	indicates a word or sense for which only one contextual example from a printed source was available to the editors

In a listing of variant spellings

Second Edition entries:

1	= before 1100
2	= 12th century (1100-1200)
3	= 13th century (1200-1300), etc.
5-7	= 15th to 17th century, etc.
9-	= 19th century to present, etc.
20	= 20th century

New Edition entries:

eOE	= early Old English
OE	= Old English
lOE	= late Old English
eME	= early Middle English
ME	= Middle English
lME	= late Middle English
14	= 1400-99
15	= 1500-99, etc.
16-18	= 1600-1899, etc.
18-	= 1800-present, etc.
-17	= before 1700 (labelling Older Scottish forms)

In an etymology

*	indicates a word or form not actually found, but of which the existence is inferred
:	= normal development of (not used in New Edition entries)
<	= from (in New Edition entries)
>	= developed into or borrowed as (in New Edition entries)

Before a date

a	= ante
c	= circa
?	indicates an uncertain date

In a quotation

..	(within cited text) indicates an omitted part of a quotation
[ ]	surrounds an editorial insertion
~	indicates a hyphen introduced in the printing of the First Edition of the OED, which may not have been present in the cited text

Around an entire quotation

[ ]	indicates a quotation is relevant to the development of a sense but not directly illustrative of it

Around an entire entry

[ ]	indicates a ‘spurious’ entry