APA Citation: Encyclopedias, Dictionaries or Thesauruses

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Thesauruses

Individual Author

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of encyclopedia article. In Title of encyclopedia (Vol. Volume Number, pp. page numbers). Name of Publisher.

Example: Bergmann, P. G. (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Encyclopedia Britannica.

With Group Author

Example: Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Scrumptious. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January 17, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/ 

Note: When an online reference work is continuously updated and the versions are not archived, use "n.d." as the year of publication and include a retrieval date.

Wikipedia Entry

With sources like Wikipedia, that are authored by unknown/unnamed author(s) and at the same time are NOT authored by the platform/publisher, the citation begins with the article title.

Higher consciousness. (2020, February 23). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Higher_consciousness&oldid=948915813

Religious Work

The year of of original publication of a religious work may be unknown or in dispute and is not included in the reference in those cases.  However, versions of religious works such as the Bible may be republished; these republished dates are included in the reference.  For example, the online version of the King James Bible was published in 2017 and is based on the King James Bible published in 1769, so both 2017 and 1769 are included in the reference.

King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ (Original work published 1769)