The first edition was published in 1975, and it has since then re-printed dozens of times, and also published in electronic form. According to publisher's data, it had sold over 5 million copies by 1986, and over 40 million by 2005 (counting all derivative works and special editions). The 4th edition published in 2009 is written in the new orthography (o Novo Acordo da Língua Portuguesa de 7 de maio de 2008), ISBN978-85-385-2824-1 (with CD).
In 2004 a new publisher (Positivo) acquired the rights to distribute the dictionary with the title Novo Dicionário Aurélio da Língua Portuguesa, with 435,000 entries.