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The 12-volume '''''Micropædia''''' is one of the three parts of the [[History of the Encyclopædia Britannica|15th edition]] of ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', the other two being the one-volume ''[[Propædia]]'' and the 17-volume ''[[Macropædia]]''.  The name ''Micropædia'' is a [[neologism]] coined by [[Mortimer J. Adler]] from the [[Greek language|ancient Greek]] words for "small" and "instruction"; the best English translation is perhaps "brief lessons".

The ''Micropædia'' was introduced in 1974 with 10 volumes having 102,214 short articles, all of which were strictly fewer than 750 words.  This limit was relaxed in the [[History of the Encyclopædia Britannica|major re-organization of the 15th edition]]; many articles were condensed together, resulting in roughly 65,000 articles in 12 volumes.  In general, the 750-word limit is still respected and most articles are only 1-2 paragraphs; however, a few longer articles can be found in the 2007 ''Micropædia'', such as the [[Internet]] entry, which takes up a full page.

With rare exceptions (<3%), the ~65,000 articles of the ''Micropædia'' have no bibliographies and no named contributors. The ''Micropædia'' is intended primarily for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the 700 longer articles of the ''Macropædia'',<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Adler | first = Mortimer J. | authorlink = Mortimer J. Adler | title = "Circle of Learning" | encyclopedia = The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition | year = 2007 | publisher = [[Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.]] | location = Chicago}}</ref> which do have identified authors and bibliographies.

==See also==
*''[[Anabritannica]]''

==References==
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[[Category:Encyclopædia Britannica]]

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[[he:המהדורה החמש-עשרה של האנציקלופדיה בריטניקה]]
[[simple: Micropaedia]]
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