In 1984, at the age of 84, he started to compile a dictionary for ancient Chinese, writing thousands of characters everyday, regardless of his deteriorated vision and other health conditions. In order to minimize the cataract's hindrance, he bought many magnifiers, switching from one to the other so that he could continue reading and writing, until he was no longer able to work. In the postscript of the work, the dictionary's editorial team writes that Wang had worked on the dictionary seven to eight hours per day in the last few years of his life, completing a preface and a little more than four out of the twelve sections of the work. Wang died at the age of 86 from complications of cerebrovascular disease. Although he was not able to finish writing the dictionary, six of his students and colleagues collaborated and finished the work with his advice and instructions, and named it "The Wang Li Character Dictionary of Ancient Chinese", in his memory with the permission of his widow Xia Weixia ().