Noah Webster earned fame for his 1806 A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language and his 1828 An American Dictionary of the English Language. A small handful have witty definitions and became widely quoted, but they were infrequent exceptions to Johnson's learned and serious explanations of word meanings. Johnson's Dictionary defined 42,733 words, almost all seriously. His A Dictionary of the English Language was published 15 April 1755. Prior to Bierce, the best-known writer of amusing definitions was Samuel Johnson. And maybe one of the greatest in all of world literature." History Predecessors It has been called "howlingly funny", and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig said in an interview that The Devil's Dictionary is "probably the most brilliant work of satire written in America. In the 1970s, The Devil's Dictionary was named as one of "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" by the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration. It has been widely quoted, frequently translated, and often imitated, earning a global reputation. In the decades following, however, the stature of The Devil's Dictionary grew. Initial reception of the book versions was mixed. Bierce's witty definitions were imitated and plagiarized for years before he gathered them into books, first as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 and then in a more complete version as The Devil's Dictionary in 1911.
The lexicon was written over three decades as a series of installments for magazines and newspapers. The Devil's Dictionary is a satirical dictionary written by American journalist Ambrose Bierce, consisting of common words followed by humorous and satirical definitions.
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