Published in 1843 by Oxford University Press, the LSJ was a dictionary of broad scope and aimed to provide a historico-linguistic account of the Greek language.

Although he had originally planned to improve the existing dictionary, Chadwick and the project's advisory committee soon realised the LSJ was too antiquated in its design and that they would have to start afresh.

A team led by the Cambridge Hellenist James Diggle began to read most Greek literature from the Homeric epics until the second century AD.

The dictionary does not exhibit its predecessor's tendency to euphemism: whereas the LSJ translated the verb (χέζω) as 'ease oneself', the Cambridge Greek Lexicon gives 'to defecate' as the primary meaning.

[4] In a review for The Spectator, the classicist Peter Jones described the lexicon as "a triumphant intellectual and educational achievement", praising its "clarity and precision".