Funk & Wagnalls was an American publisher known for its reference works, including A Standard Dictionary of the English Language (1st ed.

The publication of The Literary Digest in 1890 marked a shift to publishing of general reference dictionaries and encyclopedias.

In 1913, the New Standard Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language was published under the supervision of Isaac K. Funk (Editor-in-Chief).

If one did not go shopping on a weekly basis, or delivery was spotty, there was a good chance that a volume might be missed to complete the set.

Also sold in grocery stores, one volume at a time, was the Family Library Of Great Music, a 22-album series of classical recordings.

[5] Dun and Bradstreet retained Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, but other reference works were relinquished to other publishers.

[1][6] In 1991, the company was sold to K-III Holdings, Inc, and then in 1993 Funk & Wagnalls Corporation acquired the World Almanac.

[8] In 1998, as part of the Information division of Primedia Inc. (the renamed K-III), the encyclopedia content appeared on the Web site "funkandwagnalls.com".

Ripplewood Holdings bought Primedia's education division in 1999, which became part of Reader's Digest Association in 2007.

[citation needed] On The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, sidekick Ed McMahon would begin each "Carnac the Magnificent" sketch by explaining that the envelopes he would hand to Johnny Carson (in character as "Carnac") had been: "...hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall's porch since noon today!"

", as the other boys are discussing a past memory of aliens abducting Cartman, which was a reference to the show's pilot episode.