In the paper, we study some new criteria for the oscillation of the nonlinear second-order delay difference equations of the form $$\varDelta (r\left( t \right) ({\varDelta x\left( t \right) )}^{\alpha })+q\left( t \right) x^{\beta }\left( t-m+1 \right) =0$$
Δ
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m
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, via comparison with a second-order linear difference equation or a first-order linear delay difference equation whose oscillatory behavior is discussed intensively in the literature. The presented results essentially improve existing ones.