a. [f. as prec. + -IC.] Of, pertaining to, or resembling an encyclopædia (see ENCYCLOPÆDIA 1); that aims at embracing all branches of learning; universal in knowledge, very full of information, comprehensive.
1824. Blackw. Mag., XVI. 26. Attempts at bringing knowledge into encyclopedic forms.
1838–9. Hallam, Hist. Lit., II. II. viii. 335. So comprehensive a notion of zoology displays a mind accustomed to encyclopedic systems.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VI. liv. 470. Another feature of Lucan’s Pharsalia is its affectation of encyclopædic knowledge.
1872. Minto, Eng. Lit., I. ii. 92. That encyclopædic statistician [Macaulay’s father].
1876. Green, Short Hist., i. § 4 (1882), 37. The encyclopædic character of his researches left him in heart a simple Englishman.
