The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia was one of the largest and most highly regarded dictionaries of the English language. The first edition was published from 1889 to 1891 by the Century Company of New York, in six, eight, or ten volume versions (originally issued in 24 fascicles) in 7,046 pages with some 10,000 wood-engraved illustrations. It was edited by Sanskrit scholar and linguist William Dwight Whitney, with Benjamin Eli Smith's assistance. It was largely based on the smaller Imperial Dictionary, which in turn had been based on the 1841 edition of Noah Webster's 'American Dictionary. Jump to: navigation, search 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1891 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... William Dwight Whitney (1827-1894) was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer who edited The Century Dictionary. ... Jump to: navigation, search Benjamin Eli Smith (1857-1913) was managing editor of the first edition of the Century Dictionary, and editor-in-chief of the revised edition after the death of editor William Dwight Whitney in 1894. ... The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language - A Complete Encyclopedic Lexicon, Literary, Scientific, and Technological, edited by John Ogilvie (1797-1867), was an expansion of the 1841 edition of Noah Websters American Dictionary. ... 1841 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758–April 15, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook author, Bible translator, spelling reformer, writer, and editor. ... 1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is a common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, deriving its name from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ...

After Whitney's death in 1894, supplementary volumes were published under Smith's supervision, including, The Century Cyclopedia of Names (1894) and The Century Atlas (1897). A two-volume Supplement of new vocabulary, published in 1909, completed the dictionary. A reformatted edition, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, was published in 1911 in twelve quarto volumes: ten of vocabulary, plus the volume of names and the atlas. This set went through several printings, the last in 1914. The same year, the ten vocabulary volumes were published as one giant volume, about 8500 pages in a very thin paper. The now much coveted India paper edition also appeared around this time, usually in 5 double volumes (rarely, in 10 single volumes) plus one additional for the Cyclopedia. 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1897 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1911 was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...

The completed dictionary contained over 500,000 entries, more than Webster's New International or Funk and Wagnalls New Standard, the largest other dictionaries of the period. Each form of a word was treated separately, and liberal numbers of quotations and additional information were included to support the definitions. In its etymologies, Greek words were not transliterated. Jump to: navigation, search Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ... Jump to: navigation, search Look up word on Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Transliteration in a narrow sense is a mapping from one system of writing into another. ...

Although the dictionary was never again revised or expanded, an abridged edition with new words, The New Century Dictionary (edited by H.G. Emery and K.G. Brewster; revision editor, Catherine B. Avery,) was published by Appleton-Century-Crofts of New York in 1927, and reprinted in various forms for several decades. The three volume "New Century Cyclopedia of Names," an expansion of the 1894 volume, was published in 1954, edited by Clarence Barnhart. Jump to: navigation, search 1927 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Clarence Lewis Barnhart (1900-1993) was an American lexicographer best known for writing the Thorndike-Barnhart series of graded dictionaries, which were based on word lists developed by psychological theorist Edward Thorndike. ...

The Century Dictionary was admired for the quality of its entries, the craftsmanship in its design, typography, and binding, and its excellent illustrations. It has been used as an information source for the makers of many later dictionaries, including editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, who cited it over 2,000 times in the first edition. In 1913, Stewart Archer Steger from the University of Virginia published his Ph.D. dissertation "American Dictionaries" and devoted a 14-page Chapter VI on Century Dictionary. He concluded the chapter with these words: "Altogether, The Century Dictionary far surpasses anything in American lexicography". Typographic work Typography (from the Greek words typos = form and grapho = write) is the art and technique of selecting and arranging type styles, point sizes, line lengths, line leading, character spacing, and word spacing for typeset applications. ... Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of separate sheets of paper or other material. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a comprehensive dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). ...

External links

The complete Century Dictionary can be found online at:

• http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/

This version can be searched by the word or viewed by the page in its original form, with zoom-in option.