encyclopaedia
part of speech
noun (an encyclopaedia, encyclopaedias); US spelling encyclopedia
meaning for a pupil
1) A book or set of books, or a website, giving information on many subjects, or on many parts of one subject, usually arranged in alphabetical order. tree →
2) (informal) A person who knows a huge amount: «a walking encyclopaedia». tree →
sense in the lessons
In school research, pupils use encyclopaedias (printed or online) to find facts for projects. Online encyclopaedias like Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, so pupils learn to check facts in more than one source. Phrases: «look it up in an encyclopaedia», «walking encyclopaedia», «online encyclopaedia», «children's encyclopaedia».
examples
- '"The invention of Signs to represent numbers is doubtless much older than any form ol writing" (Chambers Encyclopaedia, 1893, Vol. (Mordell, The Origin of Letters and Numerals according to Sefer Yetzirah (1914)) tree →
- I looked up volcanoes in the encyclopaedia. tree →
- The library has a children's encyclopaedia about animals. tree →
- My brother is a walking encyclopaedia about dinosaurs. tree →
- Online encyclopaedias are quick, but check your facts. tree →
- The encyclopaedia had twenty heavy volumes. tree →
- An encyclopaedia of space is on my birthday list. tree →
note
UK, Ireland, Australia and NZ often spell «encyclopaedia»; US and Canada «encyclopedia». Both are correct. Starts with a vowel sound: «an encyclopaedia». Pronounced «en-sye-klo-PEE-dee-a». Adjective: «encyclopaedic» (knowing a lot).
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «encyclopaedia» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.