Encyclopedia Britannica (2024)

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Can you trust Encyclopedia Britannica as a source? ›

The Encyclopedia Britannica contains carefully edited articles on all major topics. It fits the ideal purpose of a reference work as a place to get started, or to refer back to as you read and write. The articles in Britannica are written by expert authors who are both identifiable and credible.

A.J. Jacobs was not the first to read the entire Britannica. The earliest recorded example was Fath Ali, who upon becoming the Shah of Persia in 1797, was given a gift of the 3rd edition of the Britannica.

Most professors that ask for scholarly sources are looking for articles from academic, peer-reviewed journals. Using this definition, encyclopedia articles do not qualify. For assistance finding scholarly articles from academic, peer-reviewed journals, please contact a librarian.

Authors of articles in general encyclopedias, or encyclopedias that cover all subject areas (such as the Encyclopedia Britannica), are not always listed. There are few situations in which you would list an entire encyclopedia in your references; you will need to list the individual article(s) that you consulted.

If you need background information on a topic, or need to find out who the major theorists are in a field, you can find that information in encyclopedias. Note: While encyclopedias are reviewed and edited before being published, they are not peer reviewed and should rarely be cited in scholarly writing.

Encyclopedia.com has more than 100 trusted sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses including The Columbia Encyclopedia, Oxford's World Encyclopedia, and the Encyclopedia of World Biography. with facts, definitions, biographies, synonyms, pronunciation keys, word origins, and abbreviations.

It's reported that he read the entirety of the Encyclopedia Britannica by age 9, and would continue to be engrossed in books for more than 10 hours a day throughout his childhood.

It's said that he read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica at age nine and would pore through science fiction novels for more than 10 hours a day. When asked how he learned about rockets, Musk reportedly said, “I read books.” His voracious reading habit was essential to launching his history-making career.

Long before he became the CEO of Tesla, and even before he cofounded PayPal, a young Elon Musk was reading science-fiction novels for up to 10 hours a day. He also reportedly read through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica when he was 9 years old. He still credits a love of books for his vast knowledge about rockets.

In the 21st century, the Britannica suffered first from competition with the digital multimedia encyclopaedia Microsoft Encarta, and later with the online peer-produced encyclopaedia Wikipedia. In March 2012, it announced it would no longer publish printed editions and would focus instead on the online version.

Can I use images from the Encyclopedia Britannica? ›

You may display, reproduce, print or download content, including images, on the Services only for your personal, non-commercial use.

The tale was highlighted by the Lord Mayor of London, Gilbert Inglefield, at the bicentennial of the Britannica. The Britannica has a reputation for summarizing knowledge. To further their education, some people have devoted themselves to reading the entire Britannica, taking anywhere from three to 22 years to do so.

Poor Zywiec. For years, this Polish city (population 32,000) has had the distinction of being the final entry in the print edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the last word in the 44-million-word opus.

If one were to read the entire printed edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (2002), consisting of 32 volumes, 33,000 pages, and 44 million words, it would take a reader 153 days.

It took Jacobs about a year and a half to do so. "Reading six hours a day, every day and anywhere." Jacobs read the whole set for a book he was writing.