An American Dictionary of the English Language published

Literary/ Cultural Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

Noah Webster began work on his dictionary in 1807, intending to contribute to national independence. The two-volume book took him twenty-one years to prepare and its title confessed to the continuing dominance of “English”. Webster included some 12,000 new American words and 40,000 definitions but his work was criticised for its unconventional spellings and usages, precisely what he had sought to record.

59 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "An American Dictionary of the English Language published". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 December 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=35, accessed 23 November 2024.]

35 An American Dictionary of the English Language published 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.