Meaning & use
encyclopedia
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A book or set of books, or an online site, that gives organized information on many subjects.
Grammar: Countable; often preceded by an adjective such as online: an online encyclopedia.
Patterns
- an encyclopedia of something
- look something up in an encyclopedia
I looked up the volcano in the encyclopedia.
The school library has a ten-volume encyclopedia.
The online encyclopedia is updated every day.
nouncountable
A reference work that covers many topics within one subject.
Grammar: Often used with of: an encyclopedia of music.
Patterns
- an encyclopedia of something
She bought an encyclopedia of birds.
The encyclopedia of jazz lists thousands of musicians.
He wrote an encyclopedia of medieval food.
nouncountablefigurativehumorous
A person who seems to know an enormous amount about a subject, in the phrase walking encyclopedia.
Grammar: Figurative and usually humorous; appears in walking encyclopedia.
Patterns
- a walking encyclopedia
My grandfather is a walking encyclopedia of local history.
She is an encyclopedia of film trivia.
He became the team's encyclopedia on baseball statistics.
Word forms
| plural | encyclopedias |
|---|
Common combinations
- online encyclopedia
- An online encyclopedia can be edited by many users.
- walking encyclopedia
- Our teacher is a walking encyclopedia.
- entry in an encyclopedia
- The entry in the encyclopedia was brief.
- consult an encyclopedia
- Students consulted an encyclopedia for facts.
- encyclopedia article
- The encyclopedia article covered the war in detail.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reference book
- A reference book is any book for looking up facts, not necessarily covering many subjects.
- dictionary
- A dictionary explains words, while an encyclopedia explains subjects and facts.
- compendium
- Compendium is formal and suggests a brief collection of detailed information.
- almanac
- An almanac is a yearly publication of facts and statistics, narrower than an encyclopedia.
Word family
- encyclopedic adjective
- covering a huge range of information
- encyclopedist noun
- someone who writes an encyclopedia
- encyclopaedia noun
- British spelling of encyclopedia
Commonly confused: encyclopedia or dictionary?
encyclopedia vs dictionary
A dictionary gives meanings of words, whereas an encyclopedia gives information about people, places and things.
Practice
You would use an encyclopedia mainly to...
Choose one answer.
An encyclopedia gives organized facts about many subjects. Spelling is for a dictionary, and the other tasks need different sources.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “encyclopedia”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.