Other forms: encyclopedias
An encyclopedia is a reference work covering many subjects in articles. Look it up in an encyclopedia, an online encyclopedia, a walking encyclopedia.
The Greek behind it means education in the circle of arts and sciences, which is a fair description of the ambition. Wikipedia made the printed kind commercially unviable within a decade, and the last Britannica in print was 2010.
1nounencyclopediaA reference work covering many subjects in articles.
“Before the internet, we looked everything up in a big encyclopedia at the library.”
encyclopedia is a book.
Also accepted in games: encyclopaedia
New Latin encyclopaedia comes from a Greek phrase meaning education in the circle of learning.
New Latin
encyclopaedīa
English, today
encyclopedia
Built from
Learned borrowing from New Latin encyclopaedīa. New Latin encyclopēdīa, encyclopaedīa (“general education”), a univerbated form of grc-koi ἐγκύκλιος παιδείᾱ (“education in the circle of arts and sciences”), from Ancient Greek ἐγκύκλιος (“circular”) + παιδείᾱ (“childrearing; education”) (q.v.). Nearly all modern English usage of the word was influenced by the scope and format of the French - Encyclopédie by Diderot et al. (see quotation).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA