Encyclopædia Britannica
general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia, first published in Scotland in 1768 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Encyclopædia Britannica (Latin for "British Encyclopædia"), previously published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a popular encyclopædia which since 2011 is published as an online encyclopædia. It is written in British English. It was originally only printed on paper, but late in the 20th century it expanded to have digital, or computer versions as well. Since 2010, it's out of print in paper versions. The encyclopædia is split into many books. The articles in the books are arranged in alphabetical order. There have been versions of it that are for children as well. It is the largest printed encyclopædia in English, and the second largest encyclopædia. The largest is Wikipedia.
Author | As of 2008[update], 4,411 named contributors |
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Illustrator | Several; initial engravings by Andrew Bell |
Country |
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Language | British English |
Subject | General |
Genre | Reference, encyclopædia |
Published |
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Publisher | Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. |
Publication date | 1768–2010 (printed version) |
Media type | 32 volumes, hardbound (15th edition, 2010); after 2012 unavailable in print |
Pages | 32,640 (15th edition, 2010) |
ISBN | 978-1-59339-292-5 |
031 | |
LC Class | AE5 .E363 2007 |
Text | Encyclopædia Britannica at Wikisource |
Website | britannica.com |
The encyclopædia was once very small, the first edition in 1768 only had 3 books. Slowly it became bigger. The last edition, the 15th, started in 1974, has 29 books, plus two indexes. It includes an extra book called Propædia, to classify knowledge. The 29 books and made up of a Macropædia and a Micropædia. The Macropædia is a larger one, with more detailed articles that can be as long as 300 pages, made up of 17 books, while the Micropædia is the smaller one with many much shorter articles that are usually less than 750 words. The Micropædia is used for fast-checking, but for more detailed information, people have to use the Macropædia. Each book is very big, more than 1,000 pages per book. Every year, an update book was published. The last yearbook was for 2018, published in 2017.
In March 2012, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. announced it would no longer publish printed editions, and would focus instead on the online version, Encyclopædia Britannica Online.[1]
The articles in the Britannica are for educated adults, not for children, and written by about 100 full-time editors and over 4,000 expert contributors. The Britannica is the oldest English-language encyclopædia now. It was first published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland and grew very popular, with its third edition in 1801 comprising of 21 books.
The size of the Britannica is almost the same since the 1930s, with about 40 million words on half a million topics. The encyclopædia was once owned by British people. In the 20th century it was American-owned, but it is still written in British English. Over time, the encyclopædia has had difficulties trying to earn money, which almost every encyclopædia is facing.