encyclopedia

Definitions

From Greek enkyklios paideia — 'education (paideia) in the full circle' (en 'in' + kyklos 'circle'). The original idea was the complete, all-round learning every well-rounded citizen should have, covering the whole circle of subjects rather than one narrow corner. English squeezed the phrase into one word, and it came to name a book that holds the entire circle of knowledge.

Why It Means This

The circle inside encyclopedia is easy to miss. The Greeks spoke of enkyklios paideia, 'the circle of learning' — the full round of subjects a free citizen should master, not specialized in one corner but educated all the way around. Renaissance scholars revived the phrase for books that aimed to cover that whole circle of knowledge. So an encyclopedia isn't named for being long or alphabetical — it's named for trying to close the circle, leaving no part of knowledge out.

Common Collocations

• 1.online encyclopedia在线百科全书
• 2.a walking encyclopedia活百科全书（学识渊博的人）
• 3.an encyclopedia entry百科全书条目

Example Sentences

• 1.

  She looked up the unfamiliar term in an online encyclopedia.

• 2.

  The old set of encyclopedias filled an entire bookshelf in his study.

• 3.

  He has an encyclopedia of football facts stored in his head.