Iran’s Academy of the Persian Language and Literature starts defining the most unabridged Persian dictionary with over 35 million entries on Sept. 23, the head of the project announced here on Saturday.

According to Ali Ashraf Sadeqi, the plan was proposed in 1997 since the Dehkhoda Dictionary, the most comprehensive Persian dictionary ever published, dates back to at least 60 years ago and does not contain new words and expressions.

The book lacks the new methods of linguistics and lexicography, he said.

Sadeqi believes that like Oxford or other famous foreign dictionaries, the new Persian dictionary should cover all new words even scientific ones compiled by the experts.

Over $100,000 has been allocated to the project, he stated.

“We selected about 1,000 texts, including old and new books, dailies, and websites through which we chose the words,” he explained.

Sadeqi noted that foreign words which will enter the Persian language sooner or later are seen very frequently in the press.

Hence, a comprehensive dictionary should contain all of them, he added.