Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Oxford Reference Online Premium  

http://0-www.oxfordreference.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu

Provides online, full text access to over 100 subject dictionaries, foreign language dictionaries, and reference books published by Oxford University Press. Here is a title list of the books included in this database.

Gale Virtual Reference Library   

http://0-find.galegroup.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/gvrl/dispAdvSearch.do?prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=wash43584

Gale Virtual Reference Library provides online, full text access to 33 subject encyclopedias and 4 specialized dictionaries plus definitions from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Britannica Online  

http://0-www.search.eb.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/

Online version of Encyclopaedia Britannica, containing more than 72,000 articles and 75,000 definitions & word histories from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

LAU Ref Stacks AE5 .E363

Oxford English Dictionary  

http://0-dictionary.oed.com.library.lausys.georgetown.edu/entrance.dtl

The most complete historical record of the English language: the largest dictionary of the English language, containing 615,000 word forms with 139,900 pronunciations, 219,000 etymologies, and 2,436,600 quotations.

Wikipedia  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

A collaborative online encyclopedia experiment that can give a decent initial overview of many topics, often with bibliography. Jury is out on its overall quality, but it has many good entries and wide coverage

Help using this Resource

Merriam Webster Dictionary Online  

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

A decent 'free' online dictionary - may not be as comprehensive as others but a good starting place

Dictionaries in George  

http://catalog.library.georgetown.edu/search/X?SEARCH=d:(dictionaries)&searchscope=4&SORT=D&l=eng

Print dictionaries in the library using a specialized George search on 'dictionaries' as a subject heading, but limited to English language. To limit further, add additional search term in keyword, title, or subject.

Encyclopedias in George  

http://catalog.library.georgetown.edu/search/X?SEARCH=d:(encyclopedias)&searchscope=4&SORT=D&l=eng

Print encyclopedias in the library using a specialized George search on 'encyclopedias' as a subject heading, but limited to English language. To limit further, add additional search term in keyword, title, or subject.