How to use encyclopedia in a sentence
29 example sentences · noun
Encyclopedia means a comprehensive reference work (often spanning several printed volumes) with articles (usually arranged in alphabetical order, or sometimes arranged by category) on a range of subjects, sometimes general, sometimes limited to a particular field. Example: “I only use the library for the encyclopedia, as we’ve got most other books here.”
Examples of encyclopedia by meaning
nounA comprehensive reference work (often spanning several printed volumes) with articles (usually arranged in alphabetical...
- I only use the library for the encyclopedia, as we’ve got most other books here.
- My old encyclopedia has been gathering dust on the shelf for the past decade.
- Pliny the Elder’s Natural History is a go-to source for understanding what ancient Romans believed about the world and the model for every encyclopedia since.2025 March 5, Livia Gershon, “The Numinous World of Pliny the Elder”, in JSTOR Daily, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2025
nounSimilarly comprehensive works in other formats.
- Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
- The ancient Mesopotamians never got to write an encyclopedia on stone.
- To gain market share, Microsoft gave away its CD-ROM encyclopedia with many new computers, a strategy similar to those it has used in other areas.2009 April 15, Reid Goldsborough, “Internet Encyclopedias in Flux”, in InformationToday, archived from the original on 14 Aug 2024
nounThe circle of arts and sciences (see Etymology); a comprehensive summary of knowledge, or of a branch thereof.
- His life's work is a four-volume encyclopedia of aviation topics.
- I have no idea how to build this model railroad, so I'm gonna look it up on Trainpedia, the encyclopedia for all things model train.
- All of the Indo-European languages treated in this encyclopedia are included in the alphabetic list of families and other large groupings in the last section of this article.2006, B. J. Blake, “Classification of Languages”, in Keith Brown, Sarah Ogilvie, editors, Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World...
More sentences with encyclopedia
- Wikipedia is an interactive encyclopedia which allows anybody to edit and improve articles.From the entry edit
- Encyclopedias, how-to manuals and biographies are all considered nonfiction and so are kept in the nonfiction section.From the entry nonfiction
- I wanted to take out the encyclopedia, but the librarian said it was a reference book.From the entry reference book
- Or, if it meets none, how would it make the encyclopedia better to revdel them?From the entry revdel
- Their encyclopedia is good, but yours is even better.From the entry yours
- This encyclopedia includes a topical index.From the entry index
- “Source File”, in PC Magazine Encyclopedia, (Can we date this quote?): “the text files of this encyclopedia, which are continuously edited, become the source files for deployment each cycle”From the entry source file
- Apart from writing encyclopedia pages, The Cunctator loved to discuss Wikipedia and its policies.2009, Andrew Dalby, The World and Wikipedia: How We Are Editing Reality, Draycott, Somerset: Siduri Books, →ISBN, page 121. From the entry inclusionism
- It is only incidental that things put on the encyclopedia are true.2006 August 1, Rose Melinis, “Wikipedia: Cyberbullying”, in soc.culture.filipino (Usenet), archived from the original on 26 Oct 2025. From the entry Wackipedia
- There are also fake entries in dictionaries and encyclopedias, known as nihilartikels, which serve the same purpose.[2005 December 18, Tom Anderson, “Putney Green”, in uk.transport.london (Usenet). From the entry nihilartikel
- MicroWiki is, or at least is supposed to be a micronational encyclopedia in the style of Wikipedia.2004 August, “Main Page”, in MicroWiki.tk, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2004. From the entry MicroWiki
- I read my entire children's encyclopedia, drilling from aardvark to zymurgy.1996, Chang-Rae Lee, Native Speaker, Penguin, →ISBN. From the entry from aardvark to zymurgy
- Howard, who works from home, has witnessed (among other things) what she calls a “renaissance” in encyclopedias used as laptop stands.2020 October 16, Morwenna Ferrier, “Cluttercore: the pandemic trend for celebrating stuff, mess and comfort”, in The Guardian. From the entry cluttercore
- Wikipedia has a well-known policy (to experienced editors, at least) stating what kinds of information belong in the encyclopedia.2008, John Broughton, “What Wikipedia is Not”, in Wikipedia Reader’s Guide (The Missing Manual), Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media…. From the entry wiktionary
- For centuries, an encyclopedia was synonymous with a fixed, archival idea about the retrievability of information from the past.2007 July 1, Jonathan Dee, “All the News That’s Fit to Print Out”, in New York Times. From the entry retrievability
- A strict dichotomy between dictionaries and encyclopedias is arguably untenable.2003, R. R. K. Hartmann, Lexicography. From the entry encyclopedicity
- The (xeno)encyclopedia of the (science fiction) reader In L'empire du pseudo, Richard Saint-Gelais applies Umberto Eco's textual cooperation theory to the science fiction genre.2015, Maylis Rospide, Sandrine Sorlin, The Ethics and Poetics of Alterity: New Perspectives on Genre Literature. From the entry xenoencyclopedia
- Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is alleging that the online encyclopedia has a left-leaning bias and “a lot of problems,” and recently released a nine-point plan to fix it.2025 October 3, Ray Bogan, “Wikipedia co-founder says site has liberal bias — here’s his plan to fix that”, in Straight Arrow News…. From the entry larry
- Until recently, the encyclopedia volumes were still modeled around a traditional structure that spread information across three volume types: the micropedia, the macropedia, and the propedia.2013, John J. Regazzi, Infonomics and the Business of Free, IGI Global, →ISBN, pages 50–51. From the entry micropedia
- "Look, just because this junky train has been grimthorped doesn't mean that I have to sit and listen to you two psychopaths read through the encyclopedia of death," Natalia scolded.2010, Derek Benz, Jon Samuel Lewis, Grey Griffins: The Brimstone Key (Grey Griffins; 4), Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN. From the entry grimthorpe
Meaning of encyclopedia
- noun A comprehensive reference work (often spanning several printed volumes) with articles (usually arranged in alphabetical order, or sometimes arranged by category) on a range of subjects, sometimes general, sometimes limited to a particular field.
- noun Similarly comprehensive works in other formats.
- noun The circle of arts and sciences (see Etymology); a comprehensive summary of knowledge, or of a branch thereof.
Questions about encyclopedia in a sentence
- How do you use encyclopedia in a sentence?
- Encyclopedia is used as a noun. For example: “I only use the library for the encyclopedia, as we’ve got most other books here.”
- What is a short sentence with encyclopedia?
- “This encyclopedia includes a topical index.”
- What does encyclopedia mean?
- Encyclopedia means a comprehensive reference work (often spanning several printed volumes) with articles (usually arranged in alphabetical order, or sometimes arranged by category) on a range of subjects, sometimes general, sometimes limited to a particular field.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: encyclopedia (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use encyclopedia in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/encyclopedia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
