List of online encyclopedias
This is a list of notable online encyclopedias that are accessible on the Internet.
General reference
| Site | Language | Description | Access | Number of Pages/Article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archimedes-lab.org | English | Edutainment | Free | |
| Baidu Baike | Chinese | Collaborative online encyclopedia hosted by the major Chinese search engine Baidu | Free | 4,000,000 |
| Banglapedia | Bangla, 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 | |
| Compton's Encyclopedia | English | General interest | Free | |
| Conservapedia | English | Semi-open wiki written from politically right-wing and Biblical literalist perspectives | Free | |
| Credo Reference | English | General interest and subject-specific encyclopedias | Subscription | |
| Crnogorska Enciklopedija | Montenegrin | General interest (hopes to encourage a Montenegrin language Wikipedia) | Free | |
| Den Store Danske Encyklopædi | Danish | General interest | Free | |
| Deu Sözlük | Turkish | 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 | |
| Enciclopedia.cat | Catalan | General interest | Free | |
| 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 | |
| enciclopediaromaniei.ro | Romanian | Collaborative encyclopedia about Romania | 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 | 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 | |
| Kalb Encyclopedia | Esperanto | General interest. The first online Esperanto encyclopedia | Free | |
| Kdo byl kdo | Czech | Biographies on notable Czech and Slovak people | Free | |
| Keyinpedia | Chinese | General interest | Free | |
| Knol | English | General interest | Free | |
| Kussmaul Encyclopedia | English | General interest with emphasis on science and the arts. First commercial online encyclopedia (1981–93). | Subscription | |
| Marefa | Arabic | General interest | 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 | Free | |
| Open Site | English | Categorized community-built encyclopedia, inspired by the Open Directory Project | Free | |
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| 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 encyclopedie | 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
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian Dictionary of Biography | English | Entries on notable Australians who have died | Free |
| Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology | English | Focuses on topics dealing with Greek and Roman mythology and people | Free |
| Dictionary of National Biography | English | Comprehensive 66-volume reference work on notable figures from British history in every profession from politics to art | Free |
| 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 |
Classical antiquities, arts, and literature
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audio-Drama.com | English | Encyclopedia of audio drama productions and resources, including modern productions and old time radio shows | Free |
| 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 |
| 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
| 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 |
| China.org.cn wiki | English | Online encyclopedia of anything pertaining to China. State-sponsored. | 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 |
| 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 (about) | 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 |
| TAGIPEDIA | Arabic, English | Articles on Arab heritage and content | Free with registration |
| Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand | English, Māori | The New Zealand government site with content on the country | Free |
| Encyclopedia of Ukraine | English | Ukraine related articles | Free |
| Encyclopedia Virginia | English | Articles on Virginia's history and culture | Free |
Pop culture and fiction
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battlestar Wiki | English, Simple English, German, Spanish, Turkish, Malay, French, Chinese | Battlestar Galactica-related articles | Free |
| Bulbapedia | English | Pokémon-related articles | Free |
| Don Markstein's Toonopedia | English | Focuses on articles pertaining to print and animated cartoons | Free |
| Gruntipedia | English | Contains parody articles from halopedia | Free |
| H2G2 | English | Collection of sometimes humorous encyclopedia articles, based on Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. | Free |
| Halopedia | English | Halo-related articles | Free |
| Heroes Wiki | English, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish | Contains articles pertaining to the American television drama Heroes. | Free |
| Lambiek (Comiclopedia) | English, Dutch, French | Articles on comic strips and bio's of comic artists | 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 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 |
| 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 |
Mathematics
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cut-the-knot | English | Mathematics related topics | Free |
| Encyclopaedia of Mathematics | English | Encompasses articles on the topic of mathematics | Free |
| EqWorld | English, Russian, German, French, Italian, Spanish | 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
| 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 |
| 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 |
Philosophy
| 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
| 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 |
Religion and theology
| 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
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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
| 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, Bangla | 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
A list of 69 online medical wiki encyclopedias has been created by David Rothman.[2]
| Site | Language | Description | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ganfyd | English | Medical content | Free |
| Medcyclopaedia | English | Articles on medical imaging used in radiology and radiography | 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
- 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