Le Petit Larousse Illustré, commonly known simply as Le Petit Larousse, is a French-language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 reference book (the Spanish-version "El Pequeño Larousse Ilustrado" and Italian-version "Il Piccolo Rizzoli Larousse" have also been published) first appearing in 1905 and later published in a 100th anniversary edition in 2005. The book has two main sections: a dictionary

Dictionary

A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...

 featuring common words and an encyclopedia

Encyclopedia

An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....

 of proper nouns (compare encyclopedic dictionary

Encyclopedic dictionary

An encyclopedic dictionary typically includes a large number of short listings, arranged alphabetically, and discussing a wide range of topics. Encyclopedic dictionaries can be general, containing articles on topics in many different fields; or they can specialize in a particular field...

).

The motto of Pierre Larousse

Pierre Larousse

Pierre Athanase Larousse was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15 volume Grand Dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle.-Early life:Pierre Larousse was born in Toucy, where...

, the namesake of Les Editions Larousse, and perpetuated in Larousse's publications is "Je sème à tout vent" ("I sow to all winds"). This motto inspires the cover art of Le Petit Larousse which typically features a female figure blowing dandelion seeds.

Upon its 100th anniversary, a history of Le Petit Larousse was published called La dent-de-lion, la semeuse et le Petit Larousse written by Jean Pruvost. Le Petit Larousse 2007 (published in 2006) includes 150,000 definitions and 5,000 illustrations. The following editions are available:

• Compact
• Coffret Noël
• Grand Format
• Grand Format Coffret Noël
• Collection Multimedia
• CD-ROM Edition Prestige