Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language first appeared in 1828.
Webster designed the dictionary to document and strengthen American English after the United States became independent. He included distinctive American terms, spellings, and pronunciations, helping establish a national linguistic identity separate from British usage. The dictionary was the product of decades of work in lexicography, language study, and research.
The first edition was unusually large for its time, containing about 70,000 entries. It was also financially disappointing: only about 2,500 copies sold initially. Webster revised and expanded the work in 1841, but the 1828 edition remains the landmark first publication.
A common mix-up is confusing this date with Noah Webster's earlier dictionaries and spelling books. His influential Blue-Backed Speller appeared decades earlier, while the dictionary later became the foundation of the Merriam-Webster publishing tradition.