bibliographic

bibliographic — adjective

  • bibliographicpositive
  • more bibliographiccomparative
  • most bibliographicsuperlative

1. connected with a list of books, articles, or other sources used in research, or

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

connected with a list of books, articles, or other sources used in research, or with the work of recording details about such publications.

Example

Putri added full bibliographic details for every source she cited in her thesis.

common collocation: bibliographic details

The library uses a single bibliographic database to track every book, journal, and map it owns.

attributive: bibliographic database

Common collocations
  • bibliographic details
  • bibliographic record
  • bibliographic data
  • bibliographic database
  • bibliographic note
  • bibliographic citation
  • bibliographic reference
Synonyms
  • bibliographical

    alternative form with the same meaning; both spellings are accepted in academic writing

  • citational

    narrower; refers specifically to citations rather than full source records

Grammar Patterns

bibliographic + noun (data, record, entry, information)

Usage Note

Almost always used before a noun (bibliographic data, record, citation, reference, database). Rarely stands alone as a predicate.

Common Mistakes

The information is bibliographic.
The information is from a bibliographic database.
the word almost always describes a noun directly, not a state.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four words point to source-listing in academic work, but they sit at different distances from the headword. 'Bibliographic' and 'bibliographical' are essentially interchangeable; 'bibliographic' is shorter and is the form most modern style guides and library catalogues prefer (a bibliographic record, a bibliographic database). 'Citational' is narrower and newer: it covers the act of citing one source from another, so 'citational practices' is fine, but 'citational database' would feel odd. 'Referential' is much broader and usually means 'pointing to something else' in a general logical or linguistic sense, not specifically to published sources. So a librarian cleaning up a catalogue does 'bibliographic' work; a scholar tracking how often Einstein is cited studies 'citational' patterns; a philosopher analysing how a word picks out an object discusses 'referential' meaning.

bibliographic ↗bibliographical ↗citationalreferential

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • bibliographic details
  • bibliographic record
  • bibliographic database
  • bibliographic citation

Etymology

GreekFrenchEnglish

Built from 'bibliography' plus the adjective ending '-ic'. 'Bibliography' itself comes from Greek roots: 'biblion' meaning 'book' and 'graphia' meaning 'writing' or 'description'. So the literal sense is 'relating to the writing-down of books'. The adjective entered English in the early 1800s alongside the rise of formal library cataloguing.