encyclopedia

File:"Encyclopedia" in 15th c. manuscript of Institutio Oratoria.png. The Greek root of the word encyclopedia is highlighted.]]

The word encyclopedia comes from the Koine Greek {{lang|grc|ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία}},[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0060%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D10%3Asection%3D1 Ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209012127/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2007.01.0060:book%3D1:chapter%3D10:section%3D1 |date=February 9, 2021}}, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, 1.10.1, at Perseus Project transliterated {{transliteration|grc|enkúklios paideía}} {{gloss|general education}}, from {{transliteration|grc|enkúklios}} ({{lang|grc|ἐγκύκλιος}}) {{gloss|circular, recurrent, required regularly, general}}[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De%29gku%2Fklios ἐγκύκλιος] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308213346/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3De)gku%2Fklios |date=March 8, 2021}}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, at Perseus Project and {{transliteration|grc|paideía}} ({{lang|grc|παιδεία}}) {{gloss|education, rearing of a child}}; together, the phrase literally translates as {{gloss|complete instruction, complete knowledge}}.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpaidei%2Fa παιδεία] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308034728/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpaidei%2Fa |date=March 8, 2021}}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, at Perseus Project However, the two separate words were reduced to a single word due to a scribal errorAccording to some accounts, such as the [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/encyclopedia American Heritage Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819022705/http://www.thefreedictionary.com/encyclopedia |date=August 19, 2017}}, copyists of Latin manuscripts took this phrase to be a single Greek word, {{lang|grc|ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία}} {{transliteration|grc|enkuklopaideía}}. by copyists of a Latin manuscript edition of Quintillian in 1470.{{cite book |last=Franklin-Brown |first=Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oG8ttUuJrgUC&pg=PA8 |title=Reading the world: encyclopedic writing in the scholastic age |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2012 |isbn=9780226260709 |location=Chicago London |page=8}} The copyists took this phrase to be a single Greek word, {{Lang|grc-latn|enkuklopaideía}}, with the same meaning, and this spurious Greek word became the Neo-Latin word {{Lang|la|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.{{cite book |last=König |first=Jason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mfPXAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Encyclopaedism from antiquity to the Renaissance |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-107-03823-3 |location=New York |page=1}} Following Noah Webster's spelling reform,{{Sfn|Cook|Ryan|2016|p=418}} 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.{{Sfn|Cook|Ryan|2016|p=121}}

{{original research|section|date=April 2022}}

The modern encyclopedia evolved from the dictionary in the 18th century; this lineage can be seen in the alphabetical order of print encyclopedias.As explained by Richard Yeo, Encyclopaedic Visions: Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture (Cambridge: University Press, 2001 {{ISBN|978-0-521-15292-1}} Historically, both encyclopedias and dictionaries have been compiled by well-educated, well-informed content experts, 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.{{Cite web |title=Dictionary vs. Encyclopedia - What's the Difference? |url=https://thisvsthat.io/dictionary-vs-encyclopedia |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=This vs. That |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=curious |first=Patrick FROMAGET I. am very |last2=web |first2=I. love to learn about all types of subjects Thanks to my experience on the |last3=site :) |first3=I. share my discoveries with you on this |title=Differences Between Encyclopedia and Dictionary – AllDifferences |url=https://alldifferences.com/encyclopedia-vs-dictionary/ |access-date=2025-06-05 |language=en-US}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Encyclopedias |url=https://secondary.oslis.org/learn-to-research/plan/plan-possible-sources/encyclopedias |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250425092017/https://secondary.oslis.org/learn-to-research/plan/plan-possible-sources/encyclopedias |archive-date=2025-04-25 |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=Oregon School Library Information System |language=en}}

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. According to Mariam-Webster definition on encyclopedia, "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".{{Cite web |date=2025-05-31 |title=Definition of ENCYCLOPEDIA |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/encyclopedia |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}} 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.

In addition, sometimes books or reading lists are compiled from a compendium of articles (either wholly or partially taken) from a specific encyclopedia.{{Cite web |date=2025-06-01 |title=Definition of COMPENDIUM |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compendium |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}

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{{Cite web |last=Wilkins |first=Paige |title=Guides: Types of Sources: Encyclopedias |url=https://libguides.wpi.edu/c.php?g=355432&p=2396449 |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=libguides.wpi.edu |language=en}} (the English-language Encyclopædia Britannica and German Brockhaus are well-known examples). General encyclopedias may contain guides on how to do a variety of things, as well as embedded dictionaries and gazetteers. 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.
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. 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."{{Cite journal |last=Allan |first=David |title=Some Methods and Problems in the History of Reading: Georgian England and the Scottish Enlightenme |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249409991_Some_Methods_and_Problems_in_the_History_of_Reading_Georgian_England_and_the_Scottish_Enlightenment |journal=Journal of Historical Society |via=ResearchGate}}
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.{{Cite web |last=Miza |first=Jessica |date=2025-02-04 |title=Clarifying the Role of Encyclopedias in Research |url=https://www.atlas.org/blog/research-sources/clarifying-the-role-of-encyclopedias-in-research |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=www.atlas.org |language=en}} 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{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/greatsovietencyc0017unse |title=Great Soviet encyclopedia |date=1973 |publisher=New York, Macmillan |others=Internet Archive}}, while the Britannica was supported as a for-profit institution.

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.

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. 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. 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.

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.{{cite book |last1=Hartmann |first1=R. R. K. |last2=James |first2=Gregory |year=1998 |title=Dictionary of Lexicography |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-14143-7 |pages=48–49 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=49NZ12icE-QC&q=%22encyclopedic%20dictionary%22%2Bencyclopedia&pg=PA49 |access-date=July 27, 2010 |quote=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{{nbsp}}... |archive-date=January 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114034551/https://books.google.com/books?id=49NZ12icE-QC&q=%22encyclopedic%20dictionary%22%2Bencyclopedia&pg=PA49 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last=Béjoint |first=Henri |year=2000 |title=Modern Lexicography |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-829951-6 |page=31 |quote=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.}} Thus encyclopedias may contain material that is also found in dictionaries, and vice versa. In particular, dictionary entries often contain factual information about the thing named by the word.

{{Main|History of encyclopedias}}

File:Plinio il vecchio, naturalis historia, 1446, manoscritto S. XI.1, 02.JPG'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,{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/encyclopaedia/History-of-encyclopaedias |title=History of Encyclopaedias |website=Britannica |access-date=December 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221006151548/https://www.britannica.com/topic/encyclopaedia/History-of-encyclopaedias |archive-date=October 6, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/encyclopedias-are-time-capsules/419619/ |title=Encyclopedias Are Time Capsules |last=Nobel |first=Justin |date=December 9, 2015 |website=The Atlantic |access-date=December 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205195631/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/encyclopedias-are-time-capsules/419619/ |archive-date=December 5, 2022}} a work indebted to Varro (1st century BCE).{{cite book|title=Histoire du livre et de l'édition |last=Sordet |first=Yann |publisher=Albin Michel |location=Paris |year=2021 |isbn=978-2-226-45767-7 |lang=fr |page=36}} He compiled a work of 37 chapters covering natural history, architecture, medicine, geography, geology, and all aspects of the world around him. 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 ({{Circa|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 booksMacFarlane 1980:4; MacFarlane translates Etymologiae viii. based on hundreds of classical sources, including the {{Lang|la|Naturalis Historia}}. Of the Etymologiae in its time it was said quaecunque fere sciri debentur, "practically everything that it is necessary to know".Braulio, Elogium of Isidore appended to Isidore's De viris illustribus, heavily indebted itself to Jerome. 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. 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.

File:Yongle Encyclopedia.jpg is the largest paper encyclopedia of world history]]

From India, the Siribhoovalaya (Kannada: ಸಿರಿಭೂವಲಯ), variously dated to c. 800 AD, the 15th century{{Cite journal |last=Sheth |first=Dr. Chayya |title=SIRIBHOOVALAYA |url=https://sarcouncil.com/download-article/SJAL-40-2023-1-5.pdf |journal=Sarcouncil Journal of Arts and Literature |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=1-5 |via=sarcouncil.com}}, or an even more recent time, is a work of Kannada literature written by Kumudendu Muni, a Jain monk.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-07 |title=The Ancient Science of Kannada |url=https://projectshivoham.com/2024/10/07/the-ancient-science-of-kannada/ |access-date=2025-06-05 |website=Project Shivoham |language=en}} 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.{{Sfn|Fu|Cao|2019|p=297}}{{Sfn|Ditmanson|2018|p=255}}

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.Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 102.

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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.Cambridge Digital Library, University of Cambridge, http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00000-A-00007-00002-00888/1 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121206053438/http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00000-A-00007-00002-00888/1|date=2012-12-06}}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.

{{Quote box|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.|DiderotDenis Diderot; Jean le Rond d'Alembert. [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;idno=did2222.0000.004;rgn=main;view=text Encyclopédie]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429032124/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;idno=did2222.0000.004;rgn=main;view=text |date=April 29, 2011}}. University of Michigan Library: Scholarly Publishing Office and DLXS. Retrieved on: November 17, 2007.|width=40%}}{{excerpt|Encyclopédie|only=paragraphs|templates=-See Wiktionary}}

{{excerpt|Encyclopædia Britannica|only=paragraphs}}

{{excerpt|Brockhaus Enzyklopädie|only=paragraphs}}

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flash-encyclopedia-world-book-britannica-1210-20171205-story.html |title=Long before Google, there was the encyclopedia |last=Grossman |first=Ron |date=December 7, 2017 |website=Chicago Tribune |access-date=December 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221022091053/https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flash-encyclopedia-world-book-britannica-1210-20171205-story.html |archive-date=October 22, 2022}} 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.{{cite web |last=Onion |first=Rebecca |date=June 3, 2016 |title=How Two Artists Turn Old Encyclopedias Into Beautiful, Melancholy Art |website=Slate |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/06/how-two-artists-turn-old-encyclopedias-into-beautiful-melancholy-art.html |access-date=September 23, 2019 |archive-date=September 23, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190923122858/https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/06/how-two-artists-turn-old-encyclopedias-into-beautiful-melancholy-art.html |url-status=live}} As of the 1990s, two of the most prominent encyclopedias published in the United States were Collier's Encyclopedia and Encyclopedia Americana.{{cite book |last=Kister |first=K. F. |url=https://archive.org/details/kistersbestencyc00kist |title=Kister's Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias |date=1994 |publisher=Oryx Press |isbn=0-89774-744-5 |edition=2nd |location=Phoenix, Arizona |pages=23 |author-link=Kenneth Kister}}

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.

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. Articles were supplemented with video and audio files as well as numerous high-quality images. After sixteen years, Microsoft discontinued the Encarta line of products in 2009.{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/guide_page_FAQ/FAQ.html |title=Important Notice: MSN Encarta to be Discontinued |publisher=MSN Encarta |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027213618/http://encarta.msn.com/guide_page_FAQ/FAQ.html |archivedate=October 27, 2009 |url-status=dead}} 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.{{cite web |title=Encyclopedia Service Are About To Become A Huge Market |url=https://www.stillwatercurrent.com/encyclopedia-service-are-about-to-become-a-huge-market-investopedia-techpedia-wikipedia-baidu-baike/ |website=www.stillwatercurrent.com |access-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-date=September 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927161417/https://www.stillwatercurrent.com/encyclopedia-service-are-about-to-become-a-huge-market-investopedia-techpedia-wikipedia-baidu-baike/ |url-status=live}}

{{Excerpt|Online encyclopedia}}

{{Redirect|Free encyclopedia|the website that uses the term as its motto|Wikipedia}}

File:Otros enciclopedias libres from EL.png

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.[http://linuxreviews.org/news/2004/07/07_3000k/ "Wikipedia Passes 300,000 Articles making it the worlds largest encyclopedia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927210350/http://linuxreviews.org/news/2004/07/07_3000k/ |date=September 27, 2007}}, Linux Reviews, 2004 Julich y 7. 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|post=,}} Wikipedia had over 3 million articles in English and well over 10 million combined articles in over 250 languages. Today, Wikipedia has {{NUMBEROFARTICLES}} articles in English, over 60 million combined articles in over 300 languages, and over 250 million combined pages including project and discussion pages.{{Cite web |title=List of Wikipedias - Meta |url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias |access-date=August 20, 2023 |website=meta.wikimedia.org |language=en}}

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.{{Cite book |last=Herring |first=Mark Youngblood |title=Are libraries obsolete? an argument for relevance in the digital age |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-0-7864-7356-4 |location=Jefferson, N.C}}

{{portal|Literature|Education}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

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

{{div col end}}

{{Noteslist}}

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite web |title=encyclopedia |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |url=https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=encyclopedia |access-date=May 13, 2020 |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308154841/https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=encyclopedia |url-status=live }}
• {{cite encyclopedia |title=Encyclopaedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186603/encyclopaedia |access-date=July 27, 2010 |archive-date=December 16, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101216021641/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/186603/encyclopaedia |url-status=live }}
• {{cite book |last=Béjoint |first=Henri |year=2000 |title=Modern Lexicography |publisher=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.
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• {{cite book |last=Blom |first=Phillip |year=2004 |title=Enlightening the World: Encyclopédie, the Book that Changed the Course of History |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York; Basingstoke |isbn=978-1-4039-6895-1 |oclc=57669780}}
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• {{cite book |last=Darnton |first=Robert |year=1979 |title=The business of enlightenment: a publishing history of the Encyclopédie, 1775–1800 |publisher=Belknap Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-674-08785-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/Business_201507 }}
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• {{cite book |last=Yeo |first=Richard R. |year=2001 |title=Encyclopaedic visions: scientific dictionaries and enlightenment culture |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, New York |isbn=978-0-521-65191-2 |oclc=45828872 |url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/history-ideas-and-intellectual-history/encyclopaedic-visions-scientific-dictionaries-and-enlightenment-culture?format=HB |access-date=April 15, 2014 |archive-date=April 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416064030/http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/history-ideas-and-intellectual-history/encyclopaedic-visions-scientific-dictionaries-and-enlightenment-culture?format=HB |url-status=live }}

{{refend}}

{{Wiktionary|encyclopedia|encyclopaedia|encyclopedic}}

{{Commons category|Encyclopedias}}

{{Wikisource portal|Encyclopedias}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060114061155/http://www.educ.fc.ul.pt/hyper/eng/index.html Encyclopaedia and Hypertext]
• [http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-errors-books.html Internet Accuracy Project] – Biographical errors in encyclopedias and almanacs
• [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=did;cc=did;idno=did2222.0000.004;rgn=main;view=text "Encyclopedia"] – Diderot's article on the Encyclopedia from the original Encyclopédie.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080615051823/http://www.dm.unipi.it/~tucci/index.html De expetendis et fugiendis rebus] – First Renaissance encyclopedia
• [http://kennedy.byu.edu/staff/peterson/multivol/multibooks.html Errors and inconsistencies in several printed reference books and encyclopedias]; {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010718235527/http://kennedy.byu.edu/staff/peterson/Multivol/Multibooks.html |date=July 18, 2001 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131109213126/http://reviews.cnet.com/1990-3118_7-6378998-1.html "Digital encyclopedias put the world at your fingertips"]{{snd}} CNET article
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080112134535/http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/reference/encycl.htm Encyclopedias online] University of Wisconsin{{snd}} Stout listing by category
• [https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/ACyclopaedia Chambers' Cyclopaedia], 1728, with the 1753 supplement
• [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa&cc=moa&key=title&page=browse&value=encyclop%C3%A6dia+americana&Submit=Quick+Browse Encyclopædia Americana], 1851, Francis Lieber ed. (Boston: Mussey & Co.) at the University of Michigan Making of America site
• [http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/ Encyclopædia Britannica], articles and illustrations from 9th ed., 1875–89, and 10th ed., 1902–03.

{{Authority control}}

Category:Works about history