Bibliography

Research

The list of sources used or consulted in a piece of writing, placed at the end so readers can locate them.

Sources

1. Merriam-Webster — bibliography merriam-webster.com accessed 22 September 2026

Merriam-Webster’s third sense is the one this entry defines: “the works or a list of the works referred to in a text or consulted by the author in its production”. Its earlier senses are wider — the history and description of writings, and a list of works on a subject whether or not they were used. That breadth is worth noticing: a bibliography can include works consulted, which is exactly what separates it from a reference list of works cited. From New Latin bibliographia, Greek for “the copying of books”; first recorded 1715.

Merriam-Webster is cited as the dictionary of record: where an entry defines a word rather than a position, a dictionary is the primary source for it. How the term is used in research writing, above, is this lexicon’s own reading.

Related terms

• Abbreviation
• Abstract
• Abstraction
• Academic Database
• Analysis
• Annotation

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).