While there is some common ground between the encyclopedic/cultural entries for the Oxford and Longman dictionaries, there is a clear difference. Oxford lays cl aim to being encyclopedic on content whereas Longman distinctly concentrates on the language and culture of the English?speaking world. The Oxford dictionary c an therefore stand more vigorous scrutiny for cultural bias than the Longman pub lication because the latter does not hesitate about viewing the rest of the worl d from the cultural perspectives of the English?speaking world. The cultural ob jectives of the BBC dictionary are in turn more distinct still. Based on an anal ysis of over 70 million words recorded from the BBC World Service and National P ublic Radio of Washington over a period of four years, their 1,000 brief encyclo pedic entries are based on people and places that have featured in the news rece ntly. The intended user they have in mind is a regular listener to the World Ser vice who will have a reasonable standard of English and a developed skill in list ening comprehension.