''The World Book Dictionary'' is a two-volume English dictionary published as a supplement to the ''

World Book Encyclopedia The ''World Book Encyclopedia'' is an American encyclopedia. The encyclopedia is designed to cover major areas of knowledge uniformly, but it shows particular strength in scientific, technical, historical and medical subjects. ''World Book'' wa ...

''. It was originally published in 1963 under the editorship of

Clarence Barnhart Clarence Lewis Barnhart (1900–1993) was an American lexicographer best known for editing the ''Thorndike-Barnhart'' series of graded dictionaries, published by Scott Foresman & Co. which were based on word lists and concepts of definition d ...

, who wrote definitions for the Thorndike-Barnhart graded dictionary series for children, based on the educational works of

Edward Thorndike Edward Lee Thorndike (August 31, 1874 – August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to the theory ...

whom Clarence Barnhart had known and worked with decades before. In some editions it was called the ''World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary''. The writing and editing of special articles was carried out by the staff of the ''World Book Encyclopedia''. Encyclopedia staff also reviewed the work for consistency with the encyclopedia and appropriateness of its users. Like the encyclopedia, it is designed to be user friendly to young people, yet comprehensive enough to be useful to adults. The definitions are designed with consideration for the age at which a person usually encounters the word. Quotations or sample sentences are offered with many words. Most proper names are excluded, leaving their treatment to the encyclopedia. The word list is based on a formula for calculating frequency of use. Originally covering about 180,000 words, it has expanded to over 225,000 words with over 3,000 illustrations, making it considerably larger than most dictionaries, though not of "unabridged" scope. Its vocabulary has largely been drawn from the ''

Century Dictionary ''The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia'' is one of the largest encyclopedic dictionaries of the English language. In its day it was compared favorably with the ''Oxford English Dictionary,'' and frequently consulted for more factual informati ...

'', the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...

'', and Barnhart's own extensive quotation file begun in the 1940s. From 1963 the ''World Book Dictionary'' was updated annually and received a major revision in 1976. With the decline of traditional lexicography and the death of Clarence Barnhart in 1993, the work appears to have fallen almost into obscurity having been overshadowed by the ''World Book Encyclopedia'', which also includes the dictionaries as part of the set. As a standalone work, the ''World Book Dictionary'' has faded from use and public recognition. The ''World Book Dictionary'' was last edited and updated by Robert and Cynthia Barnhart in 1996. Robert Barnhart died in 2007, and Cynthia Barnhart went on to produce the ''Facts on File Student's Dictionary of American English'' (2008). David Barnhart continues to edit the ''Barnhart Dictionary Companion'' and the ''Barnhart New-Words Concordance''.

References

English dictionaries {{dictionary-stub