What does "cyclopaedia" mean?

The circle or compass of the arts and sciences (originally, of the seven so-called liberal arts and sciences); circle of human knowledge.

What is a synonym for "cyclopaedia"?

Common synonyms include: cyclopedia, encyclopaedia, encyclopedia, encyclopedia.

Pronounced //saɪk.ləʊˈpiːd.i.ə//.

//saɪk.ləʊˈpiːd.i.ə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
The circle or compass of the arts and sciences (originally, of the seven so-called liberal arts and sciences); circle of human knowledge. archaic
2
a reference work (often in several volumes) containing articles on various topics (often arranged in alphabetical order) dealing with the entire range of human knowledge or with some particular specialty wordnet
3
An encyclopedia. archaic

From Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”) + παιδεία (paideía, “child-rearing, education”). See cycle, and compare encyclopedia.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.