Page "Encyclopædia Britannica" Paragraph 2

The 15th edition has a three-part structure: a 10-volume Micropædia of short articles ( generally fewer than 750 words ), a 19-volume Macropædia of long articles ( two to 310 pages ) and a single Propædia volume to give a hierarchical outline of knowledge.

The Micropædia is meant for quick fact-checking and as a guide to the Macropædia ; readers are advised to study the Propædia outline to understand a subject's context and to find more detailed articles.

The size of the Britannica has remained roughly constant over 70 years, with about 40 million words on half a million topics.

Although publication has been based in the United States since 1901, the Britannica has largely maintained British spelling.