List of online encyclopedias
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of notable online encyclopedias that are accessible on the Internet.
Contents |
General reference[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Appropedia | English | Collaborative systems for sustainability, poverty reduction and international development | Free |
| Baidu Baike | Chinese | Collaborative online encyclopedia hosted by the major Chinese search engine Baidu | Free |
| Banglapedia | Bengali, English | General interest | Free |
| The Canadian Encyclopedia | English, French | General interest (original content of the hard copy Canadian Encyclopedia) | Free |
| Citizendium | English | General interest, wiki | Free |
| Columbia Encyclopedia | English | General interest | Free |
| Conservapedia | English | American conservative and Christian interests | Free |
| Credo Reference | English | General interest and subject-specific encyclopedias | Subscription |
| Crnogorska Enciklopedija | Montenegrin | General interest (hopes to encourage a Montenegrin language Wikipedia) | Defunct |
| Den Store Danske Encyklopædi | Danish | General interest | Free |
| Digital Universe | English | Collection of articles on educational, cultural, and scientific topics | Free |
| Diplopedia | English | US State Department internal encyclopedic wiki, available for diplomats and overseas US agents to use | Access only through the State Department |
| Doosan Encyclopedia | Korean | General interest | Free |
| EcuRed | Spanish | General interest. Cuban | Free |
| Ekşi Sözlük | Turkish | General interest | Free |
| Encarta | English | General interest | Defunct |
| Encyclopædia Britannica | English | General interest | Limited free access and features, subscription for full access |
| Encyclopædia Britannica –1911 Edition | English | General interest | Public domain: completely free access from several online sources |
| Encyclopedia of China | Chinese | General interest | Subscription |
| Encyklopedia Internautica | Polish | General interest | Free |
| Enciclopedia Libre | Spanish | Fork of the Spanish Wikipedia, using wiki software, released under the GFDL | Free |
| Enciclopedia Italiana | Italian | General interest | Free |
| Encyclopædia Universalis | French | General interest encyclopedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica | Subscription |
| Everything2 | English | General interest, users can submit articles on the topic of essentially anything | Free |
| FAQ | English | A collection of searchable FAQs | Free |
| GNUPedia | English | General interest articles are released under a GNU license | Defunct |
| Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana | Catalan | General interest | Free |
| Grand Larousse encyclopédique | French | General interest | Free |
| Great Soviet Encyclopedia | Russian, English | General interest, often from the former official Soviet viewpoint. | Free |
| Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia | English | Targeted at the younger researcher, it contains the text of the Academic American Encyclopedia | Subscription |
| Holocaust Encyclopedia | English, Arabic, Persian, French, Spanish | Holocaust-related articles | Free |
| Hudong | Chinese | General interest. China's largest wiki | Free |
| Hutchinson Encyclopedia | English | General interest | Free |
| Infoplease | English | General interest | Free |
| Internetowa encyklopedia PWN | Polish | General interest | Free |
| Interpedia | English | General interest, the first site to propose a free encyclopedia written by users | Defunct |
| Enciklopedio Kalblanda | Esperanto | General interest. The first online Esperanto encyclopedia | Defunct |
| Kdo byl kdo | Czech | Biographies on notable Czech and Slovak people | Free |
| Keyinpedia | Chinese | General interest | Free |
| King Abdulllah Abdul Aziz Health Encyclopedia | Arabic, English | Health encyclopedia | Free |
| Knol | English | General interest | Defunct |
| Wes Kussmaul | English | General interest with emphasis on science and the arts. First commercial online encyclopedia (1981–93). | Subscription |
| Marathi Vishwakosh | Marathi | General Interest | Free |
| Marefa | Arabic | General interest | Free |
| Metapedia | Hungarian, German, English, Spanish, Swedish, Romanian, Estonian, French, Slovenian, Czech, Portuguese, Norwegian, Croatian, Danish, Greek, Dutch | Far right-wing, white nationalist and neo nazi encyclopedia | Free |
| Meyers Konversations-Lexikon 4. ed. 1888 - 1892 | German | General interest | Free |
| Nationalencyklopedin | Swedish | General interest, the most comprehensive contemporary Swedish language encyclopedia | Subscription |
| New World Encyclopedia | English | General interest | Free |
| Nupedia | English | Combined with GNUpedia | Defunct |
| Open Site | English | Categorized community-built encyclopedia, inspired by the Open Directory Project | No longer an encyclopedia |
| Private Sözlük | Turkish | Collaborative hypertext Turkish dictionary and encyclopedia site that shares a similar concept with Everything2 or H2G2 | Free |
| Probert Encyclopaedia | English | General interest | Free |
| Proleksis Encyclopedia | Croatian | General and national encyclopedia | Free with registration |
| Quid | French | General interest | Free |
| Sarvavijnanakosam | Malayalam | General interest | Free |
| Scholarpedia | English | Articles are written by scholars and peer-reviewed for accuracy | Free |
| Store norske leksikon | Norwegian (Bokmål) | General interest | Free |
| Superpedia | Bahasa Indonesia | Indonesian, based on MediaWiki | Free |
| Susning.nu | Swedish | A Swedish language wiki 2001–2009 | Defunct |
| Tamil Encyclopedia | Tamil | General Interest | Free |
| Từ điển Bách khoa toàn thư Việt Nam | Vietnamese | General interest. State-sponsored encyclopedia. | Free |
| Veropedia | English, Dutch, Spanish | Mirrors stable versions of selected English Wikipedia articles | Defunct |
| Vikidia | French, Spanish | Articles designed for children ages 8–13 | Free |
| WIEM Encyklopedia | Polish | General interest | Free |
| Wikipedia | See list here | General interest wiki | Free, copyleft |
| Winkler Prins | Dutch | General interest, three different age levels | Subscription |
| World Book Encyclopedia | English | General interest | Subscription |
| Wikinfo | English | Holds multiple articles on subjects from different points of view | Free |
Biography[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Dictionary of Biography | English | Entries on notable Australians who have died | Free |
| Dictionary of Canadian Biography | English, French | Entries on notable Canadians | Free |
| Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | English | Focuses on topics dealing with Greek and Roman mythology and people | Free |
| Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | English | Comprehensive 66-volume reference work on notable dead figures from British history in every profession from politics to art | Subscription |
| Dictionary of National Biography | English | The original 19th century version of the above. Available free in a variety of places, either as transcriptions or images of the printed volumes | Free (see left) |
| Dictionary of New Zealand Biography | English, Māori | Entries on notable New Zealanders who have died | Free |
| glbtq.com | English | Entries on notable homosexuals | Free |
| MacTutor History of Mathematics archive | English | Biographies of mathematicians | Free |
| MyWikiBiz | English | A wiki encyclopedia that allows people and enterprises to write about themselves | Free |
| Who's Who | English | General biographies, mainly of British people | Subscription |
Antiquities, arts, and literature[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities | English | Incorporates text from the 19th century encyclopedia of the same name. Focuses on topics of cultural and historical Greek and Roman significance. | Free |
| Encyclopedia Mythica | English | Contains articles on mythology, folklore, and religion | Free |
| Grove Art Online | English | Visual art; formerly the "The Dictionary of Art" but usually known as The Grove Dictionary of Art, which had 34 printed volumes, published in 1996 | Subscription |
| Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities | English | Covers subjects of classical antiquity | Free |
| The Literary Encyclopedia | English | Literature related articles | Subscription |
| SIKART | English, German, French, Italian | Biographical dictionary and database of Swiss visual art | Free |
Culture and country-specific[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aeiou Encyclopedia | German, English | Online database of Austrian culture | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Alabama | English | Articles on the state of Alabama | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Arkansas | English | A project of the Central Arkansas Library System and is the only U.S. state encyclopedia sponsored by a public library | Free |
| Dictionary of Sydney | English | Articles on the history and culture of Sydney, Australia | Free |
| Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography | English | Focuses on topic relating to Greek and Roman geography | Free |
| Encyclopædia Iranica | English, plans for a future Persian version | Topics on the influence of the Iranian peoples throughout history | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Korean Culture | Korean | Korea-related topics | Free |
| Enciclopedia României | Romanian | A MediaWiki based Romanian Language encyclopedia concerning Romania-related topics. | Free |
| Gazetteer for Scotland | English | Articles on the geography and locations of Scotland | Free |
| Jewish Encyclopedia | English | The state of Judaism and the Jews (as of 1901) | Free, Public domain |
| Jewish Virtual Library | English | Portals to essential Jewish topics | Free |
| Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan | English | Comprehensive articles on Japanese arts and culture, history and politics, etc. | Subscription |
| Looklex Encyclopaedia | English (based in Norway) | Middle East and North African topics (known as CiAS 1996-1999) | Free |
| New Georgia Encyclopedia | English | Articles on the U.S. state Georgia | Free |
| Oregon Blue Book | English | Articles pertaining to Oregon | Free |
| The Oregon Encyclopedia | English | Articles pertaining to Oregon | Free |
| Panyathai | Thai, limited English | General interest. Designed to honor the Thai king Bhumibol Adulyadej | Free |
| Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand | English, Māori | The New Zealand government site with content on the country | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Ukraine | English and Ukrainian | Ukraine related articles | Free |
| Venciclopedia | Spanish | Articles on Venezuelan topics | Free |
| Encyclopedia Virginia | English | Articles on Virginia's history and culture | Free |
| Wikanda | Spanish | Andalusian encyclopedia | Free |
Pop culture and fiction[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Don Markstein's Toonopedia | English | Focuses on articles pertaining to print and animated cartoons | Free |
| Fringepedia | English | Contains articles pertaining to the American television drama Fringe. | Free |
| H2G2 | English | Collection of sometimes humorous encyclopedia articles, based on Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. | Free |
| Heroes Wiki | English, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish | Contains articles pertaining to the American television drama Heroes. | Free |
| Lostpedia | English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese | Contains articles pertaining to the hit drama Lost | Free |
| Memory Alpha | English, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Swedish | Articles about Star Trek | Free |
| The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction | English | Authors, books, films of SF | Free |
| The Rocklopedia Fakebandica | English | Articles on fake bands from popular entertainment | Free |
| TV Tropes | English, German, Esperanto, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Al Bhed, Quenya | Articles related to the devices and conventions that a fiction writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations | Free |
| The Vault | English, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Finnish, French, Georgian, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese | Fallout (series)-related articles | Free |
| Wookieepedia | English, German, Spanish, Bulgarian, Danish, Finnish, French, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish, Chinese | Star Wars-related articles | Free |
| WoWWiki | English, German, Spanish, French, Czech, Danish, Greek, Persian, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Dutch, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Korean, Japanese, Chinese | World of Warcraft-related articles | Free |
| Wowpedia | English, Spanish, French, Czech, Russian | World of Warcraft and Warcraft Universe -related articles | Free |
Mathematics[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cut-the-knot | English | Mathematics related topics | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Mathematics | English | Encompasses articles on the topic of mathematics | Free |
| EqWorld | English, Russian | Articles on mathematical equations | Free |
| MathWorld | English | Articles on a wide variety of math related topics | Free |
| On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences | English | Encyclopedia of number sequences (what is next term after 1,2,4,9,20,48,115, ..., say?) | Free |
| PlanetMath | English | Math related topics and articles | Free/GNU |
| The QED Project | English | A project to establish a "distributed, computerized repository that rigorously represents all important, established mathematical knowledge." | Free |
Music[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allmusic | English | Music-related topics | Retail sites |
| Discogs | English | Database of audio releases | Free |
| Encyclopaedia Metallum | English | Archives of heavy metal bands | Free |
| Grove Music Online | English | Mostly on historic and classical music worldwide; in print form is The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which has 20 printed volumes, and was first published in 1980 | Subscription |
| LyricWiki | English | Encyclopedic database of song lyrics | Free |
| MOOMA | Hebrew | Articles on Israeli music and musical artists | Free |
| MusicBrainz | English | Database of audio albums | Free |
| MusicMight | English | Bio- and discographies of rock bands | Free |
| Rock in China | English | Encyclopedia on Chinese contemporary underground music (rock, punk, metal, jazz, hiphop, etc.) | Free |
Philosophy[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Encyclopedia of Marxism | multi-lingual | Topics related to the study of Marxism | Free |
| Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy | English | Philosophy related articles | Free |
| Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy | English | Philosophy articles | Subscription |
| Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | English | Philosophy subjects | Free |
Politics and history[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campaigns Wikia | English | Political issues and campaigns | Free |
| Congresspedia | English | Seeks to improve on public information through articles about US Congress specifics | Free |
| Cyclopaedia of Political Science | English | Articles pertaining to science, economics, and American authors. The 1899 edition is available online | Free |
| dKosopedia | English | A political encyclopedia written from a left/progressive/liberal/Democratic point of view | Free |
| Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential | English | Presents articles on perceived human problems | Free |
| HistoryLink | English | Articles on the history of Washington State | Free |
| JurisPedia | Arabic, English, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Dutch | An academic encyclopedia on the concepts of law | Free |
| KoreanLII | English | An academic encyclopedia on Korean law | Free |
Religion and theology[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology | English | Articles on Western Christian theology | Free, Public domain |
| Catholic Encyclopedia | English | Topics relating to Catholicism | Free, Public domain |
| Christian Cyclopedia | English | A collection of historical and theological information | Free |
| Easton's Bible Dictionary | English | Articles on Christianity and theology | Free, Public Domain |
| Encyclopaedia Biblica | English | Contains articles pertaining to "the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography, and Natural History of the Bible"[1] | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Mormonism | English | Articles by Mormon academics on history and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS Church). | Free |
| Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online | English | Topics relating to Anabaptism and Mennonites | Free |
| Jewish Encyclopedia | English | Topics relating to Judaism | Free |
| New Advent | English | Articles on Catholicism and apologetics | Free |
Science[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| APpedia | Chinese | Contains articles on the subject of general animal protection | Free |
| Encyclopedia Astronautica | English | Contains articles on the subject of space exploration and astronomy | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Earth | English | Articles on the Earth and its ecosystems | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Machine Learning | English | Articles on the discipline of Machine Learning | Subscription |
| Javapedia | English | Coverage of all topics related to the Java platform | Free |
| ScienceWorld | English | Covers astronomy, scientific biography, chemistry, and physics. Like MathWorld, it is edited by Eric Weisstein. | Free |
Biology-Life science[edit]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Animal Diversity Web | English | Student wiki-type database at the University of Michigan of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology. | Free |
| ARKive | English | Visual and audio recordings of the world's species | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Life | English, French | Seeks to categorize all 1.8 million known species on the planet | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Life Sciences | English | Biology related articles | Subscription |
| Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems | English | Articles about the natural and social sciences | Subscription |
| Erowid | English | Information about psychoactive substances | Free |
| FishBase | English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Chinese (Simplified Han), Chinese (Traditional Han), Bahasa Malay, Indonesian, Greek, Swedish, Russian, Persian, Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, Hindi, Bengali | Articles on fish species | Free |
| Flora Europaea | English | Covers different plant species | Free |
| Macroscopic Observatory | English | Covers Flora and Fauna | Free |
| Palaeos | English | Covers palaeontology | Free |
| The Plant List | English | Covers Flora | Free |
| Wikispecies | English | Seeks to create a catalogue of all living things | Free |
Medicine and surgery[edit]
At least 70 online medical wiki encyclopedias have been created.[2] Some include:
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ganfyd | English | Medical content | Free |
| Medpedia | English | Medical content | Free |
| Radiopaedia | English | Articles on medical imaging used in radiology and radiography | Free |
| WikiSurgery | English | Surgical content | Free |
See also[edit]
- List of academic databases and search engines
- List of blogs
- List of encyclopedias by branch of knowledge
- List of online databases
- List of online dictionaries
- List of wikis
- List of Danish online encyclopedic resources
References[edit]
- ^ Encyclopaedia Biblica
- ^ Heilman JM, Kemmann E, Bonert M, et al. (2011). "Wikipedia: a key tool for global public health promotion". J. Med. Internet Res. 13 (1): e14. doi:10.2196/jmir.1589. PMC 3221335. PMID 21282098.
