Related topics: wikipedia

Getting people interested in invasive species

Blacklists are one of the most common policy measures to limit biological invasions. They identify small groups of highly impactful invasive alien species: species introduced outside their native range that threaten biodiversity. ...

Wikipedia down in several countries in EU law protest

Wikipedia went down in at least three countries Wednesday in a protest at an upcoming European Parliament vote on a highly disputed law that could make online platforms legally liable for copyrighted material put on the web ...

China compiles its own Wikipedia, but public can't edit it

It'll be free. It'll be uniquely Chinese. It'll be an online encyclopedia to rival Wikipedia—but without the participation of the public. And don't expect entries on "Tiananmen Square 1989" or "Falun Gong spiritual group" ...

Poland to honor Wikipedia with monument

A university professor says that an eastern Polish town is taking up his suggestion and will put up a monument to honor the authors of Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia which allows anyone to contribute.

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Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia (also spelled encyclopaedia or encyclopædia) is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge.

Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries, which are usually accessed alphabetically by article name. Encyclopedia entries are longer and more detailed than those in most dictionaries. Generally speaking, unlike dictionary entries, which focus on linguistic information about words, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information to cover the thing or concept for which the article name stands.

Encyclopedias have existed for around 2,000 years; the oldest still in existence, Naturalis Historia, was written in ca. 77 CE by Pliny the Elder. The modern encyclopedia evolved out of dictionaries around the 17th century. Historically, some encyclopedias were contained in one volume, but some, such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica or the world´s largest Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana, became huge multi-volume works. Some modern encyclopedias are electronic and are often freely available, for example Wikipedia and Citizendium.

The word encyclopaedia comes from the Koine Greek ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία, from Greek ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία, transliterated enkyklios paideia, meaning "general education": enkyklios (ἐγκύκλιος), meaning "circular, recurrent, required regularly, general" + paideia (παιδεία), meaning "education, rearing of a child". but it was reduced to a single word due to an error by rinascimental copyists of Latin manuscripts. Together, the phrase literally translates as "complete instruction" or "complete knowledge".

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA