Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Encyclopedia |
EncyclopediaNoun1. A reference work (often in several volumes) containing articles on various topics (often arranged in alphabetical order) dealing with the entire range of human knowledge or with some particular specialty. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "encyclopedia" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of seeing or searching through encyclopedias, portends that you will secure literary ability to the losing of prosperity and comfort. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Language | Work synthesizing knowledge on all subjects or a single subject arranged alphabetically or systematically. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) is known as the "scholar's edition" and represents in many ways the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica is now in the public domain.Many articles were written by the best-known scholars of the age, such as Edmund Gosse, Algernon Charles Swinburne, John Muir, Prince Peter Kropotkin, and William Michael Rossetti, as well as many other names now less known. Many of these articles are still of value and interest to modern readers and scholars.
The Eleventh Edition was a notable reorganization and rewriting of the Encyclopædia Britannica, which was first published in three volumes in 1768. The Eleventh Edition formed the basis for every edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica up until 1974, when the completely new Fifteenth Edition, based on modern information presentation, was published.
Sir Kenneth Clark, in Another Part of the Wood, wrote of the Eleventh Edition:
The 1911 edition is no longer restricted by copyright, and it is available in several more modern forms. The Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia volume 1 is actually 1911 EB volume 1, renamed to address Britannica's trademark concerns. However, Project Gutenberg currently only holds an electronic version of Volume 1.
- One leaps from one subject to another, fascinated as much by the play of mind and the idiosyncrasies of their authors as by the facts and dates. It must be the last encyclopedia in the tradition of Diderot which assumes that information can be made memorable only when it is slightly coloured by prejudice. When T.S. Eliot wrote "Soul curled up on the window seat reading the Encyclopædia Britannica" he was certainly thinking of the eleventh edition.
Distributed Proofreaders is currently working on producing a complete electronic edition of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which will be donated to Project Gutenberg when finished.
Reference
- All There is to Know (1994), edited by Alexander Coleman and Charles Simmons. Subtitled: "Readings from the Illustrious Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica". ISBN 0-671-76747-X
External links
Versions can be found at:
The publishers of both versions above claim copyright on their versions (although the underlying text is public domain). Project Gutenberg has a pending task of doing a new scan from a printed set of the 1911 Encyclopaedia.
- 1911encyclopedia.org World Wide Web edition. There are many scanning errors and no illustrations in this edition.
- ClassicEB.com for a CD-ROM version. This edition has all the illustrations, including thousands of steel engravings and line drawings. These pages also present a great deal of information about the Eleventh and other editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
See Wikipedia:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica for information on using the Eleventh Edition as a source for new articles for the Wikipedia. See also Wikipedia talk:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica for more information.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica."
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
simple:EncyclopediaAn encyclopedia (alternatively encyclopædia) is a written compendium of human knowledge.
The term comes from the Greek words εγκύκλιος παιδεία, enkyklios paideia ("in a circle of instruction"). From εγκύκλιος, circuit shaped from κύκλος circuit and παιδεία, meaning instruction. See the Note on spelling below.
Encyclopedias can be general, containing articles on topics in all fields (the Encyclopædia Britannica is a well-known example), or they can specialize in a particular field (such as an encyclopedia of medicine or philosophy). There are also encyclopedias that cover a wide variety of topics from a particular cultural or national perspective, such as the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedic works have been produced throughout much of human history, but the term encyclopedia was not used to refer to such works until the 16th century.
Early encyclopedic works
Many writers of antiquity (such as Aristotle) attempted to write comprehensively about all human knowledge. However, John Harris is often credited with establishing the now-familiar encyclopedia format in 1704 with his Lexicon technicum. The venerable Encyclopædia Britannica had a modest beginning: from 1768 to 1771 three volumes were published. Perhaps the most famous early encyclopedia was the French Encyclopédie, edited by Jean Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert and Denis Diderot and completed in 1772 (28 volumes, 71,818 articles, 2,885 illustrations).
The encyclopedia's hierarchical structure and evolving nature is particularly adaptable to a disk-based or on-line computer format, and all major printed encyclopedias had moved to this method of delivery by the end of the 20th century. Disk-based (typically CD-ROM format) publications have the advantage of being cheaply produced and extremely portable. Additionally, they can include media which is impossible in the printed format, such as animations, audio and video. Hyperlinking between conceptually related items is also a significant benefit. On-line encyclopedias offer the additional advantage of being (potentially) dynamic: new information can be presented almost immediately, rather than waiting for the next release of a static format (as with a disk or paper based publication).
Information in a printed encyclopedia necessarily needs some form of hierarchical structure, and traditionally the method employed is to present the information ordered alphabetically by the article title. However with the advent of dynamic electronic formats the need to impose a pre-determined structure is unnecessary. Nonetheless, most electronic encyclopedias still offer a range of organisational strategies for the articles, such as by subject area or alphabetically.
This article is part of the Wikipedia, which is in itself an encyclopedia.
Note on spelling
None of the spellings, encyclopedia, encyclopaedia, or encyclopædia is formally a misspelling. Historically, however, the latter two represent a very old spelling mistake. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the spelling with the ae or æ is "pseudo-Greek" and "an erroneous form (said to be a false reading) occurring in MSS. of Quintilian, Pliny, and Galen". The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the æ is not found in the original Greek enkyklios paideia for "encyclical education", described as "the circle of arts and sciences considered by the Greeks as essential to a liberal education".
The Oxford English Dictionary asserts that the spelling with æ "has been preserved from becoming obsolete by the fact that many of the works so called have Latin titles, as Encyclopædia Britannica". That particular encyclopedia includes the ligature form æ in its official name.
At least half the citations in the Oxford English Dictionary are for the so-called "incorrect" spelling. Neither the Oxford English Dictionary nor Webster's Third New International Dictionary states a preference, although the British Oxford English Dictionary puts the æ form first, and the American Webster's puts it second.
See list of encyclopedias for links to specific encyclopedias.
See also: History of Science and Technology, Encyclopedist, Library and Information Science, Literature, Lexicography, dictionary, Reference work, Pauly-Wissowa
Notable encyclopedists before 1700
- Suidas
- Vincent of Beauvais
- Bartholomeus de Glanvilla (Bartholomew of England)
- John Henry Alsted
- Louis Moréri
- John Jacob Hoffman
- Pierre Bayle For online editions see http://www.lett.unipmn.it/~mori/bayle/antho.html
- Vicenzo Coronelli
- Theodor Zwinger (1533-1588)
- Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82)
- Pliny the Elder
- St Isidore of Seville
- Hrabanus Maurus
- Yongle Encyclopedia
External links
- An enormous list of links to dictionaries and encyclopedias (last updated Nov. 1999)
- CNET's encyclopedia meta-search (includes Wikipedia)
- Encyclopedia Meta Search (search nearly 20 online encyclopedias at once, includes Wikipedia)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Encyclopedia."
Synonyms: EncyclopediaSynonyms: cyclopaedia (n), cyclopedia (n), encyclopaedia (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Book | Encyclopedia; encompilation. |
Knowledge | System of knowledge, body of knowledge; science, philosophy, pansophy; acroama; theory, aetiology, etiology; circle of the sciences; pandect, doctrine, body of doctrine; cyclopedia, encyclopedia; school; (system of opinions). |
School | School book, horn book, text book; grammar, primer, abecedary, rudiments, manual, vade mecum; encyclopedia, cyclopedia; Lindley Murray, dictionary, lexicon. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Encyclopedia |
| English words defined with "encyclopedia": book of knowledge ♦ consultation ♦ Denis Diderot, Diderot ♦ Encyclopedical ♦ reference ♦ The Encyclopedists. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "encyclopedia": Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy ♦ frobnitz ♦ RESEARCH WORKER, ENCYCLOPEDIA. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Encyclopedia of the Blessed (1968) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies |
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Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
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| "Old book 1" by Gábor Suhajda Commentary: "Parts of a very old encyclopedia, printed in 1895." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Philippines | U.S. firms such as Tupperware, Avon, SaraLee, High Desert, Forever Living, Encyclopedia Britannica, Herbalife, Amway and Sunrider, have established distributorship networks in the country. (references) |
Italy | Copies of the 90-page publication Guide to INCOTERMS are obtainable from ICC Publishing, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, (212) 206-1150. Exporters can also obtain information from the Dun & Bradstreet Exporters' Encyclopedia. (references) | |
Trade | Italy | For additional information or assistance on export documentation, readers should consult publications such as the Exporter's Encyclopedia, published by Dun's Marketing Services or contact a local U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Administration Export Assistance Center. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Encyclopedia" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 77.32% of the time. "Encyclopedia" is used about 97 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 77.32% | 75 | 38,535 |
| Noun (proper) | 22.68% | 22 | 74,468 |
| Total | 100.00% | 97 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "encyclopedia": encyclopedia-aka, encyclopedia-type. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "encyclopedia"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | enciklopedi (cyclopaedia, cyclopedia, encyclopaedia, thesaurus), fjalor enciklopedik (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Arabic | موسوعة (encyclopaedia), معلمة (encyclopaedia, mistress, schoolmistress), دائرة المعارف (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Asturian | enciclopedia. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | енциклопедия (encyclopaedia, thesaurus). (various references) | |
Cebuano | ensayklopedya. (various references) | |
Chinese | 百科全書 , 百科全书 (Encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Czech | encyklopedie (encyclopaedia, reference book), nauèný slovník (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Danish | encyklopaedi, leksikon (lexicon). (various references) | |
Dutch | encyclopedie (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Esperanto | enciklopedio (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Faeroese | alfrøðibók (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Farsi | دایره المعارف , دایره العلوم , دانش جنگ . (various references) | |
Finnish | tietosanakirja. (various references) | |
French | encyclopédie (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Frisian | ensyklopedy (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
German | Lexikon (dictionary, encyclopaedia, lexicon), Konversationslexikon (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Greek | εγκυκλοπαιδεία (cyclopaedia), εγκυκλοπαίδεια. (various references) | |
Hungarian | enciklopédia (cyclopaedia, encyclopaedia), lexikon (cyclopaedia, dictionary, encyclopaedia, thesaurus). (various references) | |
Inuktitut | sunatuinait tukingit. (various references) | |
Italian | enciclopedia (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 百科辞典 , 百科事典 , 百科全書 , 事典 (cyclopedia), 大鑑 , 大全 (complete works), エルピー盤 (aerogram, angel, elbow, Electone, Electra complex, electric, electric guitar, electricity, electroluminescence, electron, electronic, electronic banking, electronic cooking, electronic cottage, electronic file, electronic mail, electronic money, electronic music, electronic office, electronic sound, electronics, elegance, elegant, elegy, element, elementary, elevation, elevator, elf, elm, elocution, elven, encapsulation, enclosure, encode, encoder, encoding, encounter, engage, engagement, engagement ring, engine, engine brake, engineer, engineering, engineering plastics, enjoy, erect, erection, erogenous zone, Eroica, Eros, erotic, erotic and grotesque, erotic and grotesque nonsense, erotic production, erotica, eroticism, erotism, erotomania, Herman, Hermes, ignition key, long-playing record, LP). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たいぜん (ambition, calm, complete works, meeting, opposite shore, self-possessed, the Buddha's great vow, your face), たいかん (bodily sensation, broad overview, cold-resistant, general survey, retirement from office, serious illness, travails), ひゃっかぜんしょ, ひゃっかじてん, エンサイクロペディア , じてん (character dictionary, cyclopedia, dictionary, occasion, point in time, rotation, runner-up, spin, turning). (various references) | |
Korean | 백과사전. (various references) | |
Macedonian | enciklopedija. (various references) | |
Norwegian | konversasjonsleksikon. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | encyclopediaay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | enciclopédia (encyclopaedia, encyclopedic, encyclopedical, thesaurus). (various references) | |
Provencal | enciclopèdia. (various references) | |
Romanian | enciclopedie (cyclopedia, encyclopaedia, hold all). (various references) | |
Russian | энциклопедия (cyclopaedia, cyclopedia, encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | enciklopedija (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Spanish | enciclopedia (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Swedish | encyklopedi (encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Turkish | ansiklopedi (cyclopaedia, cyclopedia, encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Turkmen | ensiklopediяa (r). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | енциклопедія (cyclopaedia, cyclopedia, encyclopaedia, thesaurus). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | bộ sách bách khoa sách giáo khoa về kiến thức chung (cyclopaedia, encyclopaedia). (various references) | |
Welsh | gwyddoniadur. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | enkyklios paideia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "encyclopedia": encyclopedias. (additional references) | |
| |
"Encyclopedia" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ecyclopedia, enciclopedia, Enciklopedija, enclclopedia, enclycopedia, encnyclopedia, encyclapedia, encycleopedia, encyclepedia, encyclipedia, encycloepedia, encyclopdia, encyclopeadia, encyclopedai, encyclopedea, encyclopedeia, encyclopediao, encyclopedie, encyclopelia, encyclopeodia, encyclopidia, encyclopiedia, encyclopoedia, encyclpedia, encycopedia, encylcopedia, Encylopaedia, encylopedia, ensyclopedia. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "encyclopedia" (pronounced unsī'klupē"dēu or unsī'klōpē"dēu) |
| 12 | u n s ī' k l u p ē" d ē u | encyclopaedia. |
| 4 | -ē" d ē u | media, multimedia. |
| 3 | -d ē u | Arcadia, bradycardia, cardia, chlamydia, odea, plasmodia, Scandia, stadia. |
| 5 | -p ē" d ē u | encyclopaedia. |
| 4 | -ē" d ē u | media, multimedia. |
| 3 | -d ē u | Arcadia, bradycardia, cardia, chlamydia, odea, plasmodia, Scandia, stadia. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-c-d-e-e-i-l-n-o-p-y" | |
-2 letters: cyclodiene, cyclopedia. | |
-3 letters: concealed, cyclopean, pedocalic. | |
-4 letters: alopecic, calcined, calycine, canceled, canopied, codpiece, delicacy, ecocidal, epicycle, licenced, lycopene, oedipean, palinode, panicled, penciled, polyenic. | |
-5 letters: acyloin, aliened, apnoeic, cacodyl, cadence, cadency, calcine, calipee, capelin, celadon, cenacle, cineole, cleaned, cocaine, codeina, codeine, coeliac, conceal, concede, condyle, conical, cyanide, cycloid, cyclone, cynical, decency, decline, delaine, deplane, ecocide. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-c-d-e-e-i-l-n-o-p-y" | |
+1 letter: encyclopaedia, encyclopaedic, encyclopedias. | |
+2 letters: encyclopaedias. | |
+4 letters: encyclopedically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
