Encyclopedia

Type of reference work

For other uses, see Encyclopedia (disambiguation).

A laptop shows a Wikipedia page on "Encyclopedia," beside stacked volumes and an open page of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

An encyclopedia[a] is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline.[1][2] Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by article name[3] or by thematic categories, or else are hyperlinked and searchable.[4] Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionaries.[3][5] Generally speaking, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information concerning the subject named in the article's title;[5] this is unlike dictionary entries, which focus on linguistic information about words, such as their etymology, meaning, pronunciation, use, and grammatical forms.[5][6][7][8][9]

Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years[10] and have evolved considerably during that time as regards language (written in a major international or a vernacular language), size (few or many volumes), intent (presentation of a global or a limited range of knowledge), cultural perspective (authoritative, ideological, didactic, utilitarian), authorship (qualifications, style), readership (education level, background, interests, capabilities), and the technologies available for their production and distribution (hand-written manuscripts, small or large print runs, Internet). As a valued source of reliable information compiled by experts, printed versions found a prominent place in libraries, schools and other educational institutions.[11]

In the 21st century, the appearance of digital and open-source versions such as Wikipedia (together with the wiki website format) has vastly expanded the accessibility, authorship, readership, and variety of encyclopedia entries.[12]

## Etymology

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A 15th-century manuscript of Institutio Oratoria. The Greek root of the word encyclopedia is highlighted.

The word encyclopedia comes from the Koine Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία,[13] transliterated enkúklios paideía 'general education', from enkúklios (ἐγκύκλιος) 'circular, recurrent, required regularly, general'[5][14] and paideía (παιδεία) 'education, rearing of a child'; together, the phrase literally translates as 'complete instruction, complete knowledge'.[15] However, the two separate words were reduced to a single word due to a scribal error[16] by copyists of a Latin manuscript edition of Quintillian in 1470.[17] The copyists took this phrase to be a single Greek word, enkuklopaideía, with the same meaning, and this spurious Greek word became the Neo-Latin word encyclopaedia, which was in turn borrowed into English. Because of this compounded word, readers since the fifteenth century have often, and incorrectly, thought that the Roman authors Quintillian and Pliny described an ancient genre.[18] Following Noah Webster's spelling reform,[19] the spelling of the word varies between encyclopedia in American English, encyclopaedia in British English (although the spelling encyclopedia is increasingly gaining acceptance), and encyclopædia in certain specialized cases.[20]

## Characteristics

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The modern encyclopedia evolved from the dictionary in the 18th century; this lineage can be seen in the alphabetical order of print encyclopedias.[21] Historically, both encyclopedias and dictionaries have been compiled by well-educated authors, but they are significantly different in structure. A dictionary is a linguistic work that primarily focuses on an alphabetical listing of words and their definitions. Synonymous words and those related by the subject matter are to be found scattered around the dictionary, giving no obvious place for in-depth treatment. Thus, a dictionary typically provides limited information, analysis or background for the word defined.[22][23] While it may offer a definition, it may leave the reader lacking in understanding the meaning, significance or limitations of a term, and how the term relates to a broader field of knowledge.[24]

To address those needs, an encyclopedia article is typically not limited to simple definitions, and is not limited to defining an individual word, but provides a more extensive meaning for a subject or discipline. The Merriam-Webster definition of encyclopedia states that it is "a work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge usually in articles arranged alphabetically often by subject".[25] In addition to defining and listing synonymous terms for the topic, the article can treat the topic's more extensive meaning in more depth and convey the most relevant accumulated knowledge on that subject. An encyclopedia article also often includes many maps and illustrations, as well as bibliography and statistics.[5]

In addition, sometimes books or reading lists are compiled from a compendium of articles (either wholly or partially taken) from a specific encyclopedia.[26]

### Four major elements

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Four major elements define an encyclopedia: its subject matter, its scope, its method of organization, and its method of production:

1. Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in every field[27] (the English-language Encyclopædia Britannica and German Brockhaus are well-known examples).[2] General encyclopedias may contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and gazetteers.[27] There are also encyclopedias that cover a wide variety of topics from a particular cultural, ethnic, or national perspective, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia or Encyclopaedia Judaica.[24]
2. Works of encyclopedic scope aim to convey the important accumulated knowledge for their subject domain, such as an encyclopedia of medicine, philosophy or law. Works vary in the breadth of material and the depth of discussion, depending on the target audience.
3. Some systematic methods of organization are essential to making an encyclopedia usable for reference. There have historically been two main methods of organizing printed encyclopedias: the alphabetical method (consisting of several separate articles, organized in alphabetical order) and organization by hierarchical categories.[4] The former method is today the more common, especially for general works. The fluidity of electronic media, however, allows new possibilities for multiple methods of organization of the same content. Further, electronic media offer new capabilities for search, indexing and cross reference. The epigraph from Horace on the title page of the 18th century Encyclopédie suggests the importance of the structure of an encyclopedia: "What grace may be added to commonplace matters by the power of order and connection."[28]
4. As modern multimedia and the information age have evolved, new methods have emerged for the collection, verification, summation, and presentation of information of all kinds.[29] Projects such as Interpedia, Everything2, Microsoft Encarta, h2g2, and Wikipedia are examples of new forms of the encyclopedia as information retrieval becomes simpler. The method of production for an encyclopedia historically has been supported in both for-profit and non-profit contexts; such was the case of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia mentioned above which was entirely state-sponsored,[30] while the Britannica was supported as a for-profit institution.

### Encyclopedic dictionaries

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Some works entitled "dictionaries" are similar to encyclopedias, especially those concerned with a particular field (such as the Dictionary of the Middle Ages, the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, and Black's Law Dictionary). The Macquarie Dictionary, Australia's national dictionary, became an encyclopedic dictionary after its first edition in recognition of the use of proper nouns in common communication, and the words derived from such proper nouns.

### Differences between encyclopedias and dictionaries

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There are some broad differences between encyclopedias and dictionaries. Most noticeably, encyclopedia articles are longer, fuller and more thorough than entries in most general-purpose dictionaries.[3][31] There are differences in content as well. Generally speaking, dictionaries provide linguistic information about words themselves, while encyclopedias focus more on the things for which those words stand.[6][7][8][9] Thus, while dictionary entries are inextricably fixed to the word described, encyclopedia articles can be given a different entry name. As such, dictionary entries are not fully translatable into other languages, but encyclopedia articles can be.[6]

In practice, however, the distinction is not concrete, as there is no clear-cut difference between factual, "encyclopedic" information and linguistic information such as appear in dictionaries.[8][31][32] Thus encyclopedias may contain material that is also found in dictionaries, and vice versa.[32] In particular, dictionary entries often contain factual information about the thing named by the word.[31][32]

## Pre-modern encyclopedias

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Main article: History of encyclopedias

Pliny the Elder's Natural History is one of the oldest extant encyclopedias.

The earliest encyclopedic work to have survived to modern times is the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, a Roman statesman living in the 1st century AD,[5][33][34][35] a work indebted to Varro (1st century BCE).[36] He compiled a work of 37 chapters covering natural history, architecture, medicine, geography, geology, and all aspects of the world around him.[35] This work became very popular in antiquity, was one of the first classical manuscripts to be printed in 1470, and has remained popular ever since as a source of information on the Roman world, and especially Roman art, Roman technology and Roman engineering.

The Spanish scholar Isidore of Seville was the first Christian writer to try to compile a summa of universal knowledge, the Etymologiae (c. 600–625), also known by classicists as the Origines (abbreviated Orig.). This encyclopedia—the first such Christian epitome—formed a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 books[37] based on hundreds of classical sources, including the Naturalis Historia. Of the Etymologiae in its time it was said quaecunque fere sciri debentur, "practically everything that it is necessary to know".[38][34] Among the areas covered were: grammar, rhetoric, mathematics, geometry, music, astronomy, medicine, law, the Catholic Church and heretical sects, pagan philosophers, languages, cities, animals and birds, the physical world, geography, public buildings, roads, metals, rocks, agriculture, ships, clothes, food, and tools.

Another Christian encyclopedia was the Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum of Cassiodorus (543–560) dedicated to the Christian divinity and the seven liberal arts.[34][5] The encyclopedia of Suda, a massive 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia, had 30,000 entries (broadly alphabetically arranged), many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from medieval Christian compilers.[34]

The Yongle Encyclopedia is the largest paper encyclopedia of world history

From India, the Siribhoovalaya (Kannada: ಸಿರಿಭೂವಲಯ), variously dated to c. 800 AD, the 15th century,[39] or an even more recent time, is a work of Kannada literature written by Kumudendu Muni, a Jain monk.[40] It is unique because rather than employing alphabets, it is composed entirely in Kannada numerals. Many philosophies which existed in the Jain classics are eloquently and skillfully interpreted in the work.

The 2nd century BC reference work Shiben has been described as a Chinese encyclopedia of genealogies, while the Huanglan, completed in the 220s, was an early leishu encyclopedia. The Yiwen Leiju, completed in 624, was a landmark literature encyclopedia of the early Tang dynasty. The enormous encyclopedic works of the Four Great Books of Song, compiled by the 11th century during the early Song dynasty (960–1279), was a massive literary undertaking for the time. The last encyclopedia of the four, the Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau, amounted to 9.4 million Chinese characters in 1,000 written volumes. The Yongle Encyclopedia (completed 1408) comprised 11,095 volumes, making it the largest paper encyclopedia in world history.[41][42]

There were many great encyclopedists throughout Chinese history, including the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095) with his Dream Pool Essays of 1088; the statesman, inventor, and agronomist Wang Zhen (active 1290–1333) with his Nong Shu of 1313; and Song Yingxing (1587–1666) with his Tiangong Kaiwu. Song Yingxing was termed the "Diderot of China" by British historian Joseph Needham.[43]

## Printed encyclopedias

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Britannica 15th edition printed encyclopedias, 2002

Before the advent of the printing press, encyclopedic works were all hand-copied and thus rarely available, beyond wealthy patrons or monastic men of learning: they were expensive, and usually written for those extending knowledge rather than those using it. The introduction of printing from Asia allowed a wider diffusion of encyclopedias and every scholar could have his or her copy. Nuremberg Chronicle from 1493 is one of the best-documented early printed books—an incunabulum—and one of the first to successfully integrate illustrations and text. Both Latin and German editions were printed by Anton Koberger in Nuremberg.[44] The De expetendis et fugiendis rebus by Giorgio Valla was posthumously printed in 1501 by Aldo Manuzio in Venice. This work followed the traditional scheme of liberal arts. However, Valla added the translation of ancient Greek works on mathematics (firstly by Archimedes), newly discovered and translated. The Margarita Philosophica by Gregor Reisch, printed in 1503, was a complete encyclopedia explaining the seven liberal arts.

Financial, commercial, legal, and intellectual factors changed the size of encyclopedias. Middle classes had more time to read and encyclopedias helped them to learn more. Publishers wanted to increase their output so some countries like Germany started selling books missing alphabetical sections, to publish faster. Also, publishers could not afford all the resources by themselves, so multiple publishers would come together with their resources to create better encyclopedias. Later, rivalry grew, causing copyright to occur due to weak underdeveloped laws. John Harris is often credited with introducing the now-familiar alphabetic format in 1704 with his English Lexicon Technicum: Or, A Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts Themselves – to give its full title. Organized alphabetically, its content does indeed contain an explanation not merely of the terms used in the arts and sciences, but of the arts and sciences themselves. Sir Isaac Newton contributed his only published work on chemistry to the second volume of 1710.

### Encyclopédie

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> Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race in the future years to come.

Diderot[45]

These paragraphs are an excerpt from Encyclopédie.[edit]

The Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers (French for 'Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Crafts'), better known as the Encyclopédie (French: [ɑ̃siklɔpedi]), was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, an index, and translations. It had many contributors, known among contemporaries as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis Diderot and, until 1759, co-edited by Jean le Rond d'Alembert.[46]

The Encyclopédie is most famous for representing the thought of the Enlightenment. According to Diderot in the article "Encyclopédie", the Encyclopédie's aim was "to change the way people think" and to allow people to inform themselves.[47] Diderot hoped the Encyclopédie would disseminate a vast amount of knowledge to the present and future generations.[48] Thus, it is an example of democratization of knowledge, though the high price of the first edition especially (980 livres) prevented it from being bought by much of the middle class.[49]

The Encyclopédie was also the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many named contributors, and it was the first general encyclopedia to describe the mechanical arts in much detail. In the first edition, seventeen folio volumes of text were accompanied by eleven volumes of engravings. Later editions were published in smaller formats and with fewer engravings in order to reach a wider audience within Europe.[50]

### Encyclopædia Britannica

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These paragraphs are an excerpt from Encyclopædia Britannica.[edit]

The Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for 'British Encyclopaedia') is a general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published since 1768, and after several ownership changes is currently owned by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages, was the last printed edition.[51] Since 2016, it has been published exclusively as an online encyclopaedia at the website Britannica.com.

Printed for 244 years, the Britannica was the longest-running in-print encyclopaedia in the English language. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland, in weekly installments that came together to form in three volumes. At first, the encyclopaedia grew quickly in size. The second edition extended to 10 volumes, and by its fourth edition (1801–1810), the Britannica had expanded to 20 volumes. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, its size has remained roughly steady, with about 40 million words.[52]

The Britannicas rising stature as a scholarly work helped recruit eminent contributors, and the 9th (1875–1889) and 11th editions (1911) are landmark encyclopaedias for scholarship and literary style. Starting with the 11th edition and following its acquisition by an American firm, the Britannica shortened and simplified articles to broaden its appeal to the North American market. Though published in the United States since 1901, the Britannica has for the most part maintained British English spelling.

In 1932, the Britannica adopted a policy of "continuous revision," in which the encyclopaedia is continually reprinted, with every article updated on a schedule.[53] The publishers of Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia had already pioneered such a policy.[54]

The 15th edition (1974–2010) has a three-part structure: a 12-volume Micropædia of short articles (generally fewer than 750 words), a 17-volume Macropædia of long articles (two to 310 pages), and a single Propædia volume to give a hierarchical outline of knowledge. The Micropædia was meant for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the Macropædia; readers are advised to study the Propædia outline to understand a subject's context and to find more detailed articles.

In the 21st century, the Britannica suffered first from competition with the digital multimedia encyclopaedia Microsoft Encarta,[55] and later with the online peer-produced encyclopaedia Wikipedia.[56][57][58]

In March 2012, it announced it would no longer publish printed editions and would focus instead on the online version.[57][59]

### Brockhaus Enzyklopädie

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These paragraphs are an excerpt from Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.[edit]

The Brockhaus Enzyklopädie (German for Brockhaus Encyclopedia) is a German-language encyclopedia which until 2009 was published by the F. A. Brockhaus printing house.

The first edition originated in the Conversations-Lexikon published by Renatus Gotthelf Löbel and Franke in Leipzig 1796–1808. Renamed Der Große Brockhaus in 1928 and Brockhaus Enzyklopädie from 1966, the current[update] 21st thirty-volume edition contains about 300,000 entries on about 24,000 pages, with about 40,000 maps, graphics and tables. It is the largest German-language printed encyclopedia in the 21st century.

In February 2008, F. A. Brockhaus announced the changeover to an online encyclopedia and the discontinuation of the printed editions. The rights to the Brockhaus trademark were purchased by Arvato services, a subsidiary of the Bertelsmann media group. After more than 200 years, the distribution of the Brockhaus encyclopedia ceased completely in 2014.

### Encyclopedias in the United States

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In the United States, the 1950s and 1960s saw the introduction of several large popular encyclopedias, often sold on installment plans. The best known of these were World Book and Funk and Wagnalls. As many as 90% were sold door to door.[33] Jack Lynch says in his book You Could Look It Up that encyclopedia salespeople were so common that they became the butt of jokes. He describes their sales pitch saying, "They were selling not books but a lifestyle, a future, a promise of social mobility." A 1961 World Book ad said, "You are holding your family's future in your hands right now," while showing a feminine hand holding an order form.[60] As of the 1990s, two of the most prominent encyclopedias published in the United States were Collier's Encyclopedia and Encyclopedia Americana.[61]

## Digital encyclopedias

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### Physical media

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By the late 20th century, encyclopedias were being published on CD-ROMs for use with personal computers. This was the usual way computer users accessed encyclopedic knowledge from the 1980s and 1990s. Later, DVD discs replaced CD-ROMs, and by the mid-2000s, internet encyclopedias were dominant and replaced disc-based software encyclopedias.[5]

CD-ROM encyclopedias were usually a macOS or Microsoft Windows (3.0, 3.1 or 95/98) application on a CD-ROM disc. The user would execute the encyclopedia's software program to see a menu that allowed them to start browsing the encyclopedia's articles, and most encyclopedias also supported a way to search the contents of the encyclopedia. The article text was usually hyperlinked and also included photographs, audio clips (for example in articles about historical speeches or musical instruments), and video clips. In the CD-ROM age, the video clips usually had a low resolution, often 160x120 or 320x240 pixels. Such encyclopedias which made use of photos, audio and video were also called multimedia encyclopedias.

Microsoft's Encarta, launched in 1993, was a landmark example as it had no printed equivalent. It featured around 25,000 articles, supplemented with 7,000 high-quality images, 9 hours of audio files, and 30 videos. After sixteen years, Microsoft discontinued the Encarta line of products in 2009 with the rise of the Internet.[62] Other examples of CD-ROM encyclopedia are Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia and Britannica.

Digital encyclopedias enable "Encyclopedia Services" (such as Wikimedia Enterprise) to facilitate programmatic access to the content.[63]

### Online

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This section is an excerpt from Online encyclopedia.[edit]

Wikipedia is an example of an online encyclopedia, the content of which is created by volunteer contributors An online encyclopedia, also called an Internet encyclopedia, is a digital encyclopedia accessible through the Internet. Some examples include pre-World Wide Web services that offered the Academic American Encyclopedia beginning in 1980,[64] Encyclopedia.com since 1998, Encarta from 2000 to 2009, Wikipedia since 2001, and Encyclopædia Britannica since 2016.

#### Free encyclopedias

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"Free encyclopedia" redirects here. For the website that uses the term as its motto, see Wikipedia.

List of other free encyclopedias, from Enciclopedia Libre.

The concept of a free encyclopedia began with the Interpedia proposal on Usenet in 1993, which outlined an Internet-based online encyclopedia to which anyone could submit content that would be freely accessible. Early projects in this vein included Everything2 and Open Site. In 1999, Richard Stallman proposed the GNUPedia, an online encyclopedia which, similar to the GNU operating system, would be a "generic" resource. The concept was very similar to Interpedia, but more in line with Stallman's GNU philosophy.

It was not until Nupedia and later Wikipedia that a stable free encyclopedia project could be established on the Internet.

The English Wikipedia, which was started in 2001, became the world's largest encyclopedia in 2004 at the 300,000 article stage.[65] By late 2005, Wikipedia had produced over two million articles in more than 80 languages with content licensed under the copyleft GNU Free Documentation License. As of August 2009,[update] Wikipedia had over 3 million articles in English and well over 10 million combined articles in over 250 languages. Today, Wikipedia has 7,040,391 articles in English, over 60 million combined articles in over 300 languages, and over 250 million combined pages including project and discussion pages.[66]

Since 2002, other free encyclopedias appeared, including Hudong (2005–) and Baidu Baike (2006–) in Chinese, and Google's Knol (2008–2012) in English. Some MediaWiki-based encyclopedias have appeared, usually under a license compatible with Wikipedia, including Enciclopedia Libre (2002–2021) in Spanish and Conservapedia (2006–), Scholarpedia (2006–), and Citizendium (2007–) in English, the latter of which had become inactive by 2014.[67]

## See also

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* Literature portal
* Education portal

* Bibliography of encyclopedias
* Biographical dictionary
* Encyclopedic knowledge
* Encyclopedism
* Fictitious entry
* History of science and technology
* Lexicography
* Library science
* Lists of encyclopedias
* Thesaurus
* Speculum literature

## Notes

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1. ^ Also spelled encyclopaedia in British English; from Ancient Greek: ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία, romanized: enkyklios paideia

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Encyclopedia". Archived from the original on August 3, 2007. Glossary of Library Terms. Riverside City College, Digital Library/Learning Resource Center. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007.
2. ^ a b "What are Reference Resources?". Eastern Illinois University. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
3. ^ a b c Hartmann, R. R. K.; James, Gregory (1998). Dictionary of Lexicography. Routledge. p. 48\. ISBN 978-0-415-14143-7. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
4. ^ a b "Encyclopedia". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on September 29, 2022. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Bocco, Diana (August 30, 2022). "What is an Encyclopedia?". Language Humanities. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
6. ^ a b c Béjoint, Henri (2000). Modern Lexicography Archived December 30, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, pp. 30–31. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-829951-6
7. ^ a b "Encyclopaedia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on December 16, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2010. "An English lexicographer, H.W. Fowler, wrote in the preface to the first edition (1911) of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English language that a dictionary is concerned with the uses of words and phrases and with giving information about the things for which they stand only so far as current use of the words depends upon knowledge of those things. The emphasis in an encyclopedia is much more on the nature of the things for which the words and phrases stand."
8. ^ a b c Hartmann, R. R. K.; James, Gregory (1998). Dictionary of Lexicography. Routledge. p. 49\. ISBN 978-0-415-14143-7. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2010. "In contrast with linguistic information, encyclopedia material is more concerned with the description of objective realities than the words or phrases that refer to them. In practice, however, there is no hard and fast boundary between factual and lexical knowledge."
9. ^ a b Cowie, Anthony Paul (2009). The Oxford History of English Lexicography, Volume I. Oxford University Press. p. 22\. ISBN 978-0-415-14143-7. Archived from the original on April 15, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2010. "An 'encyclopedia' (encyclopaedia) usually gives more information than a dictionary; it explains not only the words but also the things and concepts referred to by the words."
10. ^ "A Short History of the Greatest Encyclopedias of Past and Present". www.publishinghistory.com. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
11. ^ "250 Years of the Encyclopaedia Britannica – And Chicago's Role in Its Success". WTTW Chicago. December 6, 2018. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
12. ^ Hunter, Dan; Lobato, Ramon; Richardson, Megan; Thomas, Julian (2013). Amateur Media: Social, Cultural and Legal Perspectives. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-78265-4.
13. ^ Ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία Archived February 9, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, 1.10.1, at Perseus Project
14. ^ ἐγκύκλιος Archived March 8, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, at Perseus Project
15. ^ παιδεία Archived March 8, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, at Perseus Project
16. ^ According to some accounts, such as the American Heritage Dictionary Archived August 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, copyists of Latin manuscripts took this phrase to be a single Greek word, ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία enkuklopaideía.
17. ^ Franklin-Brown, Mary (2012). Reading the world: encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age. Chicago London: The University of Chicago Press. p. 8\. ISBN 9780226260709.
18. ^ König, Jason (2013). Encyclopaedism from antiquity to the Renaissance. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 1\. ISBN 978-1-107-03823-3.
19. ^ Cook & Ryan 2016, p. 418.
20. ^ Cook & Ryan 2016, p. 121.
21. ^ As explained by Richard Yeo, Encyclopaedic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture (Cambridge: University Press, 2001 ISBN 978-0-521-15292-1
22. ^ "Dictionary vs. Encyclopedia - What's the Difference?". This vs. That. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
23. ^ curious, Patrick FROMAGET I. am very; web, I. love to learn about all types of subjects Thanks to my experience on the; site :), I. share my discoveries with you on this. "Differences Between Encyclopedia and Dictionary – AllDifferences". Retrieved June 5, 2025.
24. ^ a b "Encyclopedias". Oregon School Library Information System. Archived from the original on April 25, 2025. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
25. ^ "Definition of ENCYCLOPEDIA". www.merriam-webster.com. May 31, 2025. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
26. ^ "Definition of COMPENDIUM". www.merriam-webster.com. June 1, 2025. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
27. ^ a b Wilkins, Paige. "Guides: Types of Sources: Encyclopedias". libguides.wpi.edu. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
28. ^ Allan, David. "Some Methods and Problems in the History of Reading: Georgian England and the Scottish Enlightenme". Journal of Historical Society - via ResearchGate.
29. ^ Miza, Jessica (February 4, 2025). "Clarifying the Role of Encyclopedias in Research". www.atlas.org. Retrieved June 5, 2025.
30. ^ Great Soviet encyclopedia. Internet Archive. New York, Macmillan. 1973.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: others (link)
31. ^ a b c Hartmann, R. R. K.; James, Gregory (1998). Dictionary of Lexicography. Routledge. pp. 48–49\. ISBN 978-0-415-14143-7. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2010. "Usually these two aspects overlap – encyclopedic information being difficult to distinguish from linguistic information – and dictionaries attempt to capture both in the explanation of a meaning ..."
32. ^ a b c Béjoint, Henri (2000). Modern Lexicography. Oxford University Press. p. 31\. ISBN 978-0-19-829951-6. "The two types, as we have seen, are not easily differentiated; encyclopedias contain information that is also to be found in dictionaries, and vice versa."
33. ^ a b Grossman, Ron (December 7, 2017). "Long before Google, there was the encyclopedia". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
34. ^ a b c d "History of Encyclopaedias". Britannica. Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
35. ^ a b Nobel, Justin (December 9, 2015). "Encyclopedias Are Time Capsules". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on December 5, 2022. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
36. ^ Sordet, Yann (2021). Histoire du livre et de l'édition (in French). Paris: Albin Michel. p. 36\. ISBN 978-2-226-45767-7.
37. ^ MacFarlane 1980:4; MacFarlane translates Etymologiae viii.
38. ^ Braulio, Elogium of Isidore appended to Isidore's De viris illustribus, heavily indebted itself to Jerome.
39. ^ Sheth, Dr. Chayya. "SIRIBHOOVALAYA" (PDF). Sarcouncil Journal of Arts and Literature. 2 (3): 1–5 - via sarcouncil.com.
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### Cited works

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* "encyclopedia". Online Etymology Dictionary. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
* "Encyclopaedia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on December 16, 2010. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
* Béjoint, Henri (2000). Modern Lexicography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-829951-6.
* C. Codoner, S. Louis, M. Paulmier-Foucart, D. Hüe, M. Salvat, A. Llinares, L'Encyclopédisme. Actes du Colloque de Caen, A. Becq (dir.), Paris, 1991.
* Bergenholtz, H.; Nielsen, S.; Tarp, S., eds. (2009). Lexicography at a Crossroads: Dictionaries and Encyclopedias Today, Lexicographical Tools Tomorrow. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-3-03911-799-4.
* Blom, Phillip (2004). Enlightening the World: Encyclopédie, the Book that Changed the Course of History. New York; Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6895-1. OCLC 57669780.
* Collison, Robert Lewis (1966). Encyclopaedias: Their History Throughout the Ages (2nd ed.). New York, London: Hafner. OCLC 220101699.
* Cook, Vivian; Ryan, Des, eds. (July 15, 2016). The Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System (1 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315670003. ISBN 978-1-317-36581-5.
* Cowie, Anthony Paul (2009). The Oxford History of English Lexicography, Volume I. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-415-14143-7. Archived from the original on April 15, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
* Darnton, Robert (1979). The business of enlightenment: a publishing history of the Encyclopédie, 1775–1800. Cambridge: Belknap Press. ISBN 978-0-674-08785-9.
* Ditmanson, Peter (September 17, 2018). "The Ming dynasty (pre-1521)". In Xiong, Victor Cunrui; Hammond, Kenneth (eds.). Routledge Handbook of Imperial Chinese History. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-53822-6.
* Fu, Chonglan; Cao, Wenming (July 25, 2019). Introduction to the Urban History of China. Springer. ISBN 978-981-13-8207-9.
* Hartmann, R. R. K.; James, Gregory (1998). Dictionary of Lexicography. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-14143-7. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2010.
* Kafker, Frank A., ed. (1981). Notable encyclopedias of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: nine predecessors of the Encyclopédie. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. ISBN 978-0-7294-0256-9. OCLC 10645788.
* Kafker, Frank A., ed. (1994). Notable encyclopedias of the late eighteenth century: eleven successors of the Encyclopédie. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation. ISBN 978-0-7294-0467-9. OCLC 30787125.
* Needham, Joseph (1986). "Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic". Science and Civilization in China. Vol. 5 – Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd. ISBN 978-0-521-30358-3. OCLC 59245877.
* Rosenzweig, Roy (June 2006). "Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past". Journal of American History. 93 (1): 117–46\. doi:10.2307/4486062. ISSN 1945-2314. JSTOR 4486062. Archived from the original on April 25, 2010.
* Ioannides, Marinos (2006). The e-volution of information communication technology in cultural heritage: where hi-tech touches the past: risks and challenges for the 21st century. Budapest: Archaeolingua. ISBN 963-8046-73-2. OCLC 218599120.
* Walsh, S. Padraig (1968). Anglo-American general encyclopedias: a historical bibliography, 1703–1967. New York: Bowker. p. 270\. OCLC 577541.
* Yeo, Richard R. (2001). Encyclopaedic visions: scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65191-2. OCLC 45828872. Archived from the original on April 16, 2014. Retrieved April 15, 2014.

## External links

[edit]

Look up encyclopedia, encyclopaedia, or encyclopedic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Encyclopedias.

Wikisource has original works on the topic: Encyclopedias

* Encyclopaedia and Hypertext
* Internet Accuracy Project – Biographical errors in encyclopedias and almanacs
* "Encyclopedia" – Diderot's article on the Encyclopedia from the original Encyclopédie.
* De expetendis et fugiendis rebus – First Renaissance encyclopedia
* Errors and inconsistencies in several printed reference books and encyclopedias; Archived July 18, 2001, at the Wayback Machine
* "Digital encyclopedias put the world at your fingertips" - CNET article
* Encyclopedias online University of Wisconsin - Stout listing by category
* Chambers' Cyclopaedia, 1728, with the 1753 supplement
* Encyclopædia Americana, 1851, Francis Lieber ed. (Boston: Mussey & Co.) at the University of Michigan Making of America site
* Encyclopædia Britannica, articles and illustrations from 9th ed., 1875–89, and 10th ed., 1902–03.

Authority control databases

International|

* FAST

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* Germany
* United States
* 2
* France
* 2
* BnF data
* 2
* Japan
* Czech Republic
* Spain
* Latvia
* Israel
* 2

Other|

* Historical Dictionary of Switzerland
* Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine
* İslâm Ansiklopedisi

*[c.]: circa