If the pen is mightier than the sword then words are probably more lethal than bullets, and that makes Oxford Dictionaries the most powerful military force in the world. This metaphor helps explain two things: why I’m not a very successful writer, and why a group of authors are so concerned that a variety of words relating to nature were culled from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. - Halil

the job of a dictionary is to document words and usage, not dictate them. The Oxford English Dictionary is a historical record, analyzing contemporary writing and parsing the results according to strict guidelines to provide its users with an accurate depiction of how language is used. - Halil

Attacking a dictionary for removing these words is like punching your thermometer when it’s too cold, or shouting at journalists because you don’t like the news from Syria. They’re simply reflecting reality, and if that troubles you then maybe you should be out confronting these issues in the real world rather than in the pages of a book. It isn’t the job of the OUP to get kids to play outside: that’s called parenting, and maybe that’s where campaigners should be focusing their attention. - Halil

Wow. Looking at the list of culled words, I'm a little surprised. There are still plenty of words left in that junior dictionary that are used far less than words like fern, acorn, adder, or dandelion. But then, maybe we need to take a hard look at what we're raising our kids with that these kinds of words fall to the wayside while tech words take their place. - Hookuh Tinypants

I'm surprised to see acorn and dandelion dropped given their ubiquity. - John (bird whisperer)

Using Google's ngram viewer to state one's case seems inaccurate at best. Google Books has a fairly low percentage of total published works scanned. Besides which, published works leave a whole lot of spoken and class work language unrepresented. I am certain my six and twelve year old nieces have used the words acorn, beech, dandelion, fern, heron, ivy, mistletoe, otter, pasture and willow, and probably a couple more, and not rarely. - Michael W. May

Whoa. This is all kinds of messed up. Our kids use those words plenty. - Big Joe Silenced

Wait, wait, wait. They took me out of the dictionary? WTF. But seriously, at least half of those are common words. I don't understand this at all. - Heather