APA Citation and Paper Formatting Guide (APA 7th Edition): Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, & Wikipedia (Reference Works)

Authors/Editors

If an encyclopedia or dictionary entry has no author or editor, begin the citation with the title of the specific entry, followed by the year of publication in round brackets.

Dates

An online dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia may be continuously updated and, therefore, not include a publication date. If that’s the case, use “n.d.” for the date and include the retrieval date in the citation, immediately before the URL/DOI by writing "Retrieved [Month Day, Year], from"

Titles

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title of the entry and the title of the encyclopedia or dictionary.

Capitalize the first letter of proper names in titles, such as names of places or people. Example: Canada

Publication Information for Online Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Some electronic content is assigned a unique number called a Digital Object Identifier (D O I). If a D O I is provided for an encyclopedia or dictionary, include it after the name of the encyclopedia or dictionary of the entry and edition as "doi:doi number"

If you accessed the encyclopedia or dictionary through a website, provide the url instead.

In-Text Citation - No Author

If a dictionary or encyclopedia entry has no author, the in-text citation should include the title of the entry. The title of the entry should be in quotation marks, with each word starting with a capital letter. The title of the entry will be followed by a comma and the year of publication. If you are quoting directly from the entry, you will also add the number of the page where the quote appears.

Example:

• Paraphrasing: ("Cat Care," 2011)
• Quoting: ("Cat Care," 2011, p. 38)

In-Text Citation - Page Numbers

Page numbers may not be available for an online dictionary or encyclopedia entry. Here are some options if you have no page numbers and you are quoting directly:

If paragraph numbers are given, use that number where you'd normally put the page number with the word "para." in front of it. Example: (Smith, 2012, para. 3). This example refers to the third paragraph in the entry

If you have no paragraph numbers, but the entry has section headings, you can use those. Encyclopedia entries often have section headings. Enter the section heading name, followed by the word "section" and then the number of the paragraph within that section. Example: (Smith, 2012, Climate section, para. 2). This example refers to the second paragraph under the Climate section of the entry.

If you have no paragraph numbers and no headings, as may be the case for many dictionary entries, skip the page/paragraph/section information and give the author's last name and date only. Example: (Smith, 2012)

Note: All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of entry. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if given. Last Name (Ed.), Title of encyclopedia or dictionary (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher. URL or DOI

Note: If an encyclopedia or dictionary entry has no author or editor (individual, group, institution/organization, or otherwise), begin the citation with the title of the specific entry, followed by the year of publication in round brackets.

Institution or organization name. (Year of Publication). Title of entry. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if given. Last Name (Ed.), Title of encyclopedia or dictionary (edition if given and is not first edition). URL.

Note: If an encyclopedia or dictionary entry has no author or editor (individual, group, institution/organization, or otherwise), begin the citation with the title of the specific entry, followed by the year of publication in round brackets. 

Title of article. (Year, Month Day). In Wikipedia. URL of archived version of page

Note: Wikipedia articles often update frequently. For this reason, the date refers to the date that the cited version of the page was published. Note also that the manual recommends linking to the archived version of the page, rather than the current version of the page on the site, since the latter can change over time. Access the archived version by clicking "View History," then clicking the date/timestamp of the version you'd like to cite.

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year of Publication). Title of entry. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if given. Last Name (Ed.), Title of encyclopedia or dictionary (Edition, pp. first page of entry-last page of entry). Publisher Name often shortened.

Institution or organization name. (Year of Publication). Title of entry. In Editor's First Initial. Second Initial if given. Last Name (Ed.), Title of encyclopedia or dictionary (edition if any, pp. first page of entry-last page of entry or p. page number for one page entry). Publisher Name often shortened.