encyclopedia

noun

en·​cy·​clo·​pe·​dia in-ˌsī-klə-ˈpē-dē-ə 

: 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

Examples of encyclopedia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And, according to Amos, the full encyclopedia of Black beauty from the 18th century ‘till modern day, will be seen on the red carpet. —India Espy-Jones, Essence, 2 May 2025

The archaeological riches in the Titanic’s debris field are an unopened encyclopedia. —Sean Kingsley, HollywoodReporter, 11 Apr. 2025

Several information experts said that Mr. Trump’s executive orders have authoritarian overtones, reminiscent of when Russia cloned Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, and stripped it of unflattering material. —Tiffany Hsu, New York Times, 5 Apr. 2025

Wikipedia is paying the price for the AI boom: The online encyclopedia is grappling with rising costs from bots scraping its articles to train AI models, which is straining the site’s bandwidth. —Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 2 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin encyclopaedia course of general education, from Greek enkyklios + paideia education, child rearing, from paid-, pais child — more at few

First Known Use

1644, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for encyclopedia

• cyclopaedia
• cyclopedia
• hypermedia
• intermedia
• multimedia
• comedia
• commedia
• encyclopaedia

Kids Definition

encyclopedia

noun

en·​cy·​clo·​pe·​dia

variants also encyclopaedia

in-ˌsī-klə-ˈpēd-ē-ə

: a work that contains information on all subjects or one that covers a certain subject thoroughly usually with articles arranged alphabetically

Etymology

from Latin encyclopedia "course of general education," from Greek enkyklios "general, all-around," literally, "circular" and Greek paideia "education, child rearing"