HTTP Status Codes

The Oxford Dictionaries API attempts to return appropriate HTTP Status Codes for every request.

Code	Text	Description
200	OK	Success!
400	Bad Request	The request was invalid or cannot be otherwise served. An accompanying error message will explain further. For example, when the filters provided are unknown, the source and target languages in the translation endpoint are the same.
401	Unauthorized	The request failed due to invalid credentials. Please verify that the app_id and app_key are correct, and check that you are using the correct URL.
403	Forbidden	Your authentication failed because you are a Sandbox customer who attempted to access a word that doesn’t begin with ‘A' or its equivalent. For instance, querying the Words endpoint with “computer” will trigger this error for Sandbox users, while “apple” will work since it begins with 'A’. See also: Trial the API. To access all words, please upgrade to a paid plan. If you're on a paid plan and received this error, it means you tried to access an endpoint or language dataset outside your current subscription. Contact us to upgrade your subscription for access to these features or visit the Plans page.
404	Not Found	No information available or the requested URL was not found on the server. For example, when the headword could not be found, a region or domain identifier does not exist, or the headword does not contain any attribute that match the filters in the request. It may also be the case that the URL is misspelled or incomplete.
414	Request URI Too Long	Request failed because application plan limit has been reached.
429	Usage Limit Exceeded	Your word_id exceeds the maximum 128 characters. Reduce the string that is passed to the API by calling only individual words. For example, while trialing the OD API via the Sandbox, this would occur after attempting more than 500 calls.
500	Internal Server Error	Something is broken. Please contact us so the Oxford Dictionaries API team can investigate.
502	Bad Gateway	Oxford Dictionaries API is down or being upgraded.
503	Service Unavailable	The Oxford Dictionaries API servers are up, but overloaded with requests. Please try again later.
504	Gateway timeout	The Oxford Dictionaries API servers are up, but the request couldn’t be serviced due to some failure within our stack. Please try again later.