encyclopedist

American  

[en-sahy-kluh-pee-dist] / ɛnˌsaɪ kləˈpi dɪst /

Or encyclopaedist

noun

1. a compiler of or contributor to an encyclopedia.

2. (often initial capital letter) one of the collaborators on the French Encyclopedia.

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encyclopedist British  

/ ɛnˌsaɪkləʊˈpiːdɪst /

noun

1. a person who compiles or contributes to an encyclopedia

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Other Word Forms

• encyclopedism noun

Etymology

Origin of encyclopedist

First recorded in 1645–55; encycloped(ia) + -ist

Example Sentences

Then again, that distinction raises tricky questions, like, what’s the difference between a journalist and an encyclopedist who are both chronicling a pandemic in real time?

From Slate • Mar. 19, 2020

Until the moment, in the late seventeen-forties, when he was asked to undertake the Encyclopédie, Denis Diderot was mainly a figure of the low Enlightenment, and might have seemed a quite improbable encyclopedist.

From The New Yorker • Feb. 25, 2019

The even more illustrious geometer Jean le Rond d’Alembert, who as well as being a mathematician was Diderot’s fellow encyclopedist, was the toast of the most fashionable Paris salons.

From Slate • Nov. 19, 2014

In 1992 came Professor Furbank’s “Diderot: A Critical Biography,” about the 18th-century French novelist, philosopher, dramatist and encyclopedist.

From New York Times • Jul. 11, 2014

This was a scholar, a writer, an encyclopedist of to-morrow who liked the big Scot and to be in his company.

From Foes by Johnston, Mary