Definition of "encyclopedist" [en•cy•clo•pe•dist]

• A person who writes for or compiles an encyclopedia. (noun)
• One of the writers of the French Encyclopédie (1751-1772), including its editors, Diderot and d'Alembert. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Hrabanus Maurus, the great encyclopedist of the ninth century, mentions one night of an eclipse, when “such a great shouting arose among the people that its irreligious sound penetrated to the heavens.”"
• "The encyclopedist Findling said trumpeting colonial might was a primary motivation to host early world's fairs."
• "Then he paused a second to add that, of course, Goethe, like the encyclopedist Diderot, was a novelist on the side."