encyclopedia [M16th] An encyclopedia is literally a ‘circle of learning’. In ancient Greece a child was expected to receive a good all-round education, an enkuklios paideia in Greek. The word came to be spelled enkuklopaideia and made its way into English in the 1530s. Its first English meaning was ‘general course of instruction’, the meaning ‘large work of reference’ not appearing until 1644. The Latin-style spelling encyclopaedia is still sometimes used, partly because some encyclopedias, notably the Encyclopaedia Britannica (first published in 1768), use it in their title.