Oxford American English Dictionaries are written for learners of English. The content is based on research with teachers in the USA and is informed by an Advisory Board of language experts - Jayme Adelson Goldstein, Cheryl Boyd Zimmerman, Keith Folse, and Alison Rice.

The dictionaries label the Oxford 3000™ keywords, the most important words to know in English (2,000 at Basic level). These words are also used for the defining vocabulary. At Basic level, only 2,000 of the Oxford 3000™ words are included. Academic Word List words are labelled, and at Basic and Intermediate level, content-area vocabulary is also marked (math, social studies, etc).