From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Merriam-Webster, originally known as the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is a United States company that publishes reference books and especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) as in 1843, after Webster's death, George and Charles Merriam secured publishing and revision rights to the 1840 edition of the dictionary.
The G. & C. Merriam Company changed its name to Merriam-Webster Inc. with the publication of Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary in 1983. The company has been a subsidary of Encyclopędia Britannica Inc. since 1964.
As of 2003, the company's two best known dictionaries are:
- Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, the most complete non-specialist dictionary of American English
- Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, a bookshelf-sized work based on the Third International and popular for home and office use
