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{{short description|Misplaced Pages policy}}
''Part of ].''
{{redirect|Misplaced Pages:Dictionary|the official dictionary sister site to Misplaced Pages|Wiktionary|a glossary of Misplaced Pages terms|Misplaced Pages:Glossary}}
{{redirect|WP:NOTSLANG|the essay on the tone of articles|Misplaced Pages:Writing better articles#WPSLANG}}
{{Redirect|WP:WINAD|the policy "Misplaced Pages is not a democracy"|Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not#Misplaced Pages is not a democracy|the policy "Misplaced Pages is not a directory"|Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not#Misplaced Pages is not a directory}}
{{pp-protected|small=yes}}
{{policy|WP:DICDEF|WP:NOTDICT|WP:WINAD|WP:DICT}}
{{nutshell|On Misplaced Pages, things are grouped into articles based on what they are, not what they are called by. In dictionaries, it's the other way around.}}


{{content policy list}}
'''Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary''', and an entry that consists of just a definition does not belong: But, ''an article can and should always begin with a ] ] or a clear description of the topic.'' If you're interested in working on a wiki dictionary, check out the ] project!
] is to create an ], not a ]. (The two shelves contain a copy of the 2002 edition of the '']''.)]]
'''Misplaced Pages is not a ], phrasebook, or a slang, jargon, or usage guide.''' Instead, the goal of this project is to create an ]. Our sister project ] has the goal of creating a dictionary. It is the "] companion to Misplaced Pages", and the two often link to each other. Wiktionary welcomes all editors who wish to write a dictionary.


Both dictionary entries at Wiktionary and encyclopedia articles at Misplaced Pages may start out as ], but they are works in progress, to be expanded. Misplaced Pages articles should begin with a ], but they should provide other types of information about that topic as well. The full articles that Misplaced Pages's stubs grow into are very different from dictionary entries.
It's natural, when you see Misplaced Pages for the first time, to mistake it for a dictionary. Many of the entries, at present, are brief. So some people start an article, listing several senses of a term, and then stop working on that article, as though they were interested only in giving the meanings of various terms. This can result in a ] article, or worse, a stub with no potential for growth and expansion.


Each article in an encyclopedia is about a person, a people, a concept, a place, an event, a thing, etc., whereas a dictionary entry is primarily about a word, an idiom, or a term and its meaning(s), usage and history. In some cases, a word or phrase itself ], such as ] or '']''. Such articles rarely contain more than one {{em|distinct}} definition or usage of the article's title.
This is ''not'' a habit to be encouraged.


One perennial source of confusion is that a stub encyclopedia article looks very much like a dictionary entry, and stubs are often poorly written; another is that some {{em|paper}} dictionaries, such as "pocket" dictionaries, lead users to the mistaken belief that dictionary entries are short, and that ''short article'' and ''dictionary entry'' are therefore equivalent.
== Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary ==


==Overview: encyclopedia vs dictionary==
Nearly everyone here agrees that in general, ] articles are to be encouraged. There are some differences of opinion as to whether just definitions are acceptable. If you want to make ''everybody'' happy, add a little encyclopedic information of some sort. Don't just give the meanings of the word. If you do just give the meaning of the word, nobody should be mad at you. Instead, they should simply take the entry to be a "stub" article, which will be expanded later. That's probably OK, in most cases.
In this section we compare Misplaced Pages and Wiktionary (as a concrete example of a dictionary), but the principle is that Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary, not simply that it is not Wiktionary.


===Major differences===
Moreover, there are plenty of senses of terms that ''aren't'' of interest ''in an encyclopedia.'' They would be, ''in a dictionary,'' but Misplaced Pages isn't a dictionary. So it makes no sense to describe those other, mere dictionary senses of terms in Misplaced Pages articles (unless, somehow it is important to describe those senses in order to clarify the ''main'' topic of the article).
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
! scope="col" style="width:20%" | Criteria
! scope="col" style="width:40%" | Misplaced Pages
! scope="col" style="width:40%" | Wiktionary
|-
! scope="row" | Article contents
| {{em|about <u>referents</u>}}: a person, a people, an idea, a concept, a place, an event, or a thing that the title of the article can {{em|denote}}. The article ] is primarily about the animal: its physiology, its use as food, its scientific classification, and so forth.
| {{em|about <u>references</u>}}: the words, symbols, and language used to denote those {{em|referents}}—which includes the {{em|linguistic aspects}} of names used as article titles. The entry ] is about the word "octopus": its part of speech, its pluralizations, its usage, its etymology, its translations into other languages, and so forth.
|-
! scope="row" | Articles whose titles are different words for the same thing (]s)
| are {{em|] that should be ]}}. For example: ] and ].
| warrant different entries (for example, ] and ]).
|-
! scope="row" | Articles whose titles are different spellings of the same word or lexeme
| are {{em|] that should be ]}}. For example: ] and ].
| warrant different entries (such as ] and ]).
|-
! scope="row" | The same title for different things (]s)
| {{em|are found in different articles}}. For example: a ] vehicle, ], and ]. The articles may all be found in a disambiguation page such as ].
| are to be found in one entry (such as ]).
|}


One test is that an encyclopedia article's name can usually easily take many different equivalent forms, whereas a dictionary as a ''linguistic work is about the words in the title'', and cannot usually be easily translated.<ref>{{cite book| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DJ8gwtomUpMC&pg=PA30 |title= Modern Lexicography: An Introduction |first= Henri| last= Béjoint | edition= Reprint| publisher= Oxford University Press| year= 2000| isbn=9780198299516 | page= 30}}</ref>
Now that that's out of the way, note that while Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary, our companion project ] ''is''.


===Minor differences===
== Misplaced Pages is not a usage guide ==
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%"
! scope="col" style="width:20%" | Criteria
! scope="col" style="width:40%" | Misplaced Pages
! scope="col" style="width:40%" | Wiktionary
|-
! scope="row" | Inflections
| Per the ], single-word article titles are usually ]s or verbal nouns (]s or ]s), such as ] and ]. Per the ], article titles are singular. Other inflections, if they exist at all, are ].
| Every inflection of a word is an entry in its own right, potentially with its own illustrative quotations. For examples: ], ], ], and ] are all separate entries. The ]es for the inflections are also entries: ], ] etc.
|-
! scope="row" | Adjectives
| Per ] adjectives are usually redirected to nouns or are disambiguation pages or simply do not exist.
| Every adjective is a word/entry in its own right.
|-
! scope="row" | Language used
| ].
| ].
|-
! scope="row" | Proper nouns
| An article with a ] as its title is usually a ], which links to all of the places or things commonly known by that name. For examples: ], ], ]. The article will use {{tl|wiktionary}} to link to the Wiktionary entries on the proper noun and any common nouns that have the same spelling.


An article about a ] or a ] is an ] that contains a list of people with this name as well as encyclopedic content about the meaning, etymology and history of the name.
Misplaced Pages is not in the business of saying how idioms, etc., are used. (But, of course, it's often very, very important in the context of an encyclopedia article to say just how a word is used. E.g., the article on ] has a long discussion about this.)
| An entry with the title of a ] gives the etymology, meanings, translations, pronunciation, and so forth of that proper noun. For examples: ], ]


The entry will use &#123;&#123;]&#125;&#125; or ] to link to the Misplaced Pages articles.
Articles that have been heavily cut to avoid becoming usage guides include ] and ]. Articles with information on how a word is used include ], ], and ], ].


Wiktionary is also case sensitive, so entries for (English) proper nouns are separate from entries for (English) common nouns. For example: ], ]
== Misplaced Pages is not a slang or idiom guide ==
|}


===Not size===
By a simple extension of the latter, Misplaced Pages is not a hacker/computer usage or other slang and idiom guide. We aren't teaching people how to talk like a hacker or a Cockney chimney-sweep; we're writing an encyclopedia. (See ] for a historical example.) (But see ]; also, articles, even extremely in-depth articles, on ] are very welcome, and insofar as guides to some particularly essential piece of hacker slang is necessary to understand those articles, of course articles on that slang would be great to have.)
Dictionary entries and encyclopedia articles do not differ simply on grounds of {{em|length}}. An entry in a comprehensive dictionary (or a topical ]) would probably contain illustrative quotations for each listed meaning; etymologies; translations; inflections; links to related and derived terms; links to synonyms, antonyms, and homophones; a pronunciation guide in various dialects, including links to sound files; and usage notes; it could be very long indeed. Short dictionary articles are artifacts of paper dictionaries being space-limited, and some dictionaries being intentionally concise. Not all dictionaries are limited by the size of the paper; ] either.


==Dictionary definition trap==
== Misplaced Pages is not a biographical dictionary ==
===Good definitions===
Both dictionaries and encyclopedias contain definitions. Encyclopedia articles should begin with a good definition and description of {{em|one}} topic (or a few largely or completely synonymous or otherwise highly related topics<ref>Note: they must not be largely or completely related only by the titular term</ref>), but the article should provide other types of information about that topic as well. An encyclopedic definition is more concerned with encyclopedic knowledge (facts) than linguistic concerns.<ref></ref> ''See also ].''


A good definition is not ], a ] or a near synonym, overly broad or narrow, ambiguous, figurative, or obscure. When a descriptive title is self-explanatory, such as ], a definition may not be needed. {{crossref|See also ].}}
This is especially true in the case of biographical entries. There are special reference works known as genealogical or, more often, biographical, dictionaries. These tend to focus primarily on the immediate family connections (parents, spouses, children and their spouses) of the article subject. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, and as such focuses more on the actions and contributions of an article subject. This means that many genealogical details may be omitted in exchange for a better-flowing, more rounded article.


{{quote|A definition aims to describe or delimit the meaning of some term (a word or a phrase) by giving a statement of essential properties or distinguishing characteristics of the concept, entity, or kind of entity, denoted by that term.|]}}
Biography articles should only be given for people with some sort of achievement. A good measure of achievement is whether someone has been featured in several external sources. Minor characters may of course be mentioned within other articles (e.g. Ronald Gay in ]). While on the one hand we are all certainly delighted that Misplaced Pages is growing in ''breadth,'' some (but not all) of us view breadth ''at the expense'' of the very notion of what we are working on--an encyclopedia--as a bad idea.


===Misplaced Pages is not a usage guide===
See also ], ], ], and ]
Misplaced Pages is not in the business of saying how words, idioms, phrases etc. "should" be used (but it may be important in the context of an encyclopedia article to discuss how a word {{em|is}} used).


Articles that have been heavily cut to avoid becoming usage guides include ] and ]. Articles with information on how a word is used include ], ], and ]. By a simple extension of the latter, Misplaced Pages is not a slang and idiom guide. We aren't teaching people how to talk like a hacker or a Cockney chimney-sweep; we're writing an encyclopedia. See ] for a historical example. Some articles are ] on the jargon of an industry or field; such articles must be informative, not guiding in nature, because ].
== External links ==
* on ]


Note that Wiktionary is also primarily a record of how words are (or were) used rather than how they "should" be used, but it does aim to note when usage is slang, informal, archaic, non-standard, derogatory, offensive, etc. and how that status has changed over time.
]

]
] ===Misplaced Pages is not a genealogical dictionary===
There are reference works known as genealogical dictionaries.<ref>Ancestry Magazine, Nov-Dec 1999, </ref> These tend to focus primarily on the immediate family connections (parents, spouses, children and their spouses) of the article subject. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, and as such focuses more on the actions and contributions of an article subject. This means that many genealogical details may be omitted, for a better-flowing, more rounded article.
]

]
Biography articles should only be created for people with some sort of ] notability. A good measure of ] is whether someone has been featured in multiple, independent, ]. Minor figures may be mentioned within other articles (for example, Ronald Gay in ]).
]

]
{{crossref|See also ].}}

<span id="NEO"></span>
===<span class="anchor" id="Misplaced Pages does not document the usage of neologisms"></span> Neologisms===
<!--Previous section name provided for old redirects -->
{{see also|Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (words to watch)#Neologisms and new compounds}}
{{policy shortcut|WP:NEO|WP:NOTNEO}}
Articles on ]s that have little or no usage in reliable sources are commonly deleted, as these articles are often created in an attempt to use Misplaced Pages to increase usage of the term. Care should be taken when translating text into English that a term common in the host language does not create an uncommon neologism in English. As ]'s ] differ from Misplaced Pages's, that project may cover neologisms that Misplaced Pages cannot accept. Editors may wish to contribute an entry for the neologism to Wiktionary instead.

Some neologisms can be in frequent use, and it may be possible to pull together many facts about a particular term and show evidence of its usage on the Internet or in larger society. To support an article about a particular term or concept, we must cite what reliable ] say {{em|about}} the term or concept, not just sources that {{em|use}} the term {{crossref|(see ])}}. An editor's personal observations and research (e.g. finding blogs, books, and articles that use the term rather than are about the term) are insufficient to support articles on neologisms because this may require ] of primary source material to advance a position, which is explicitly prohibited by the ].

While Misplaced Pages is a tertiary source, Wiktionary is a secondary source, so welcomes OR of this sort. Neologisms must at least have three independent uses for inclusion there, and additional requirements can be found on their ] page.

Neologisms that are in wide use but for which there are no treatments in secondary sources are not yet ready for use and coverage in Misplaced Pages. The term does not need to be in Misplaced Pages in order to be a "true" term, and when secondary sources become available, it will be appropriate to create an article on the topic, or use the term within other articles.

In a few cases, there will be notable topics which are well-documented in ], but for which no accepted short-hand term exists. It can be tempting to employ a neologism in such a case. Instead, it is preferable to ] in plain English if possible, even if this makes for a somewhat long or awkward title.{{Example needed|date=April 2021}}

===<span class="anchor" id="WORDISSUBJECT"></span> When a word or phrase may be an encyclopedic subject===
{{policy shortcut|WP:WORDISSUBJECT}}
In some cases, a word or phrase may be an encyclopedic subject. In these cases, the word or phrase in and of itself passes Misplaced Pages's ] criteria as the subject of ] coverage by ]. As with any subject, articles on words must contain encyclopedic information. That is, such articles must go beyond what would be found in a dictionary entry (definition, pronunciation, etymology, use information, etc.), and include information on the social or historical significance of the term.

While published dictionaries may be useful sources for lexical information on a term, the presence of a term in a dictionary does not by itself establish notability. Examples of Misplaced Pages articles on words and phrases include ], ], '']'', '']'', and most articles about individual ], ], and ].

In other cases, a word or phrase is often used as a "lens" or concept through which another topic or closely related set of topics are grouped, seen or renamed. In such cases, coverage about a word, phrase or concept should treat it as such. The main coverage of the topics that were modified, grouped or renamed by the "lens" is typically elsewhere in Misplaced Pages. ], ], ] and ] illustrate this.

==<span class="anchor" id="REFERS"></span><span class="anchor" id="REFERSTO"></span><span class="anchor" id="ISANAMEFOR"></span><span class="anchor" id="is a word for"></span> Handling problems==
{{shortcut|WP:ISAWORDFOR|WP:ISATERMFOR}}
===Fixing the introductory sentence: removing "refers to"===
{{see also|Misplaced Pages:Writing better articles#Use of "refers to"|Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Lead section#First sentence}}

A {{em|good}} encyclopedia article should begin with a relatively short but discrete explanation of the subject of the article (the person, place, concept, event, or 'thing' of the title).
Sometimes, articles (particularly stubs) have poorly written dictionary-style introductory sentences, such as "'''Dog''' is a term for an animal with the binomial name ''Canis lupus''" or "'''Dog''' is a word that refers to a domesticated canine".

Most Misplaced Pages articles are {{em|not}} dictionary entries, and opening sentences like the above ought to be cleaned up in accordance with our ]. Editors should ] replace these cumbersome phrasings ("is a term for", "is a word that means", "refers to") with the more direct "is" construction, for example: "A '''dog''' is an animal of the species ''Canis lupus''" or "A '''dog''' is a domesticated canine". (See: ])

Sometimes a Misplaced Pages article will also be {{em|]}}: its title will be an adjective or an adverb, or an inflection of a verb that isn't a noun. Such articles are dictionary articles only if they discuss the word or phrase '']'', rather than what the word or phrase denotes. If such articles should explain what the word or phrase denotes, then they should be ] or ] to a title that adheres to our ]. For example: the adjective "supermassive" doesn't by itself denote a subject. "]", on the other hand, is a subject.

===Misplaced dictionary entries===
Sometimes an article really is a mis-placed stub dictionary entry, that discusses the etymology, translations, usage, inflections, multiple {{em|distinct}} meanings, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, spelling, pronunciation, and so forth of ].

If Wiktionary doesn't already have an entry for the word or idiom (which is unlikely), one can be created. Previously it could be copied to Wiktionary using the ] system by marking the article with the {{tl|Copy to Wiktionary}} template, but that template ].

After copying, the final disposition of the article here is up to Misplaced Pages. If the article cannot be ], ], or ] into a stub encyclopedia article about a subject, denoted by its title, then it should be ].

=== Pointers to Wiktionary ===
{{Wiktionary|dictionary}}
{{shortcut|WP:POINTWIKT}}
A template can be used to point to a Wiktionary entry from a Misplaced Pages article which has encyclopedic content; for example, the code {{Tlx|Wiktionary|dictionary}} produces a pointer to the Wiktionary definition of ] as illustrated here. For Misplaced Pages articles which could only ever be dictionary definitions and keep being re-created and re-deleted, or which could potentially be proper articles but are dictionary-like stubs at the moment, it is possible to effectively "]" them with a ] to Wiktionary using code such as {{Tlx|Wiktionary redirect|dictionary}}. The general guidelines for what is acceptable as a soft redirect to Wiktionary are enumerated in that template's documentation.

==See also==
* ] (essay; essentially, ''Misplaced Pages is not a translation dictionary'')
* ] (essay)
* ] (essay)
* ] (essay)
* ]
* ]
* ] – many phrase-related articles can be found in Misplaced Pages
* ] – many of these short articles may be suitable for inclusion in Wiktionary

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* ]
* There is one exception to this rule - the ] is both an encyclopedia and a dictionary.

{{Misplaced Pages principles}}
{{Misplaced Pages policies and guidelines}}

Latest revision as of 14:50, 26 November 2024

Misplaced Pages policy "Misplaced Pages:Dictionary" redirects here. For the official dictionary sister site to Misplaced Pages, see Wiktionary. For a glossary of Misplaced Pages terms, see Misplaced Pages:Glossary. "WP:NOTSLANG" redirects here. For the essay on the tone of articles, see Misplaced Pages:Writing better articles § WPSLANG. "WP:WINAD" redirects here. For the policy "Misplaced Pages is not a democracy", see Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not § Misplaced Pages is not a democracy. For the policy "Misplaced Pages is not a directory", see Misplaced Pages:What Misplaced Pages is not § Misplaced Pages is not a directory.

This page documents an English Misplaced Pages policy.It describes a widely accepted standard that editors should normally follow, though exceptions may apply. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.Shortcuts
This page in a nutshell: On Misplaced Pages, things are grouped into articles based on what they are, not what they are called by. In dictionaries, it's the other way around.
Content policies
The goal of Misplaced Pages is to create an encyclopedia, not a dictionary. (The two shelves contain a copy of the 2002 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.)

Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary, phrasebook, or a slang, jargon, or usage guide. Instead, the goal of this project is to create an encyclopedia. Our sister project Wiktionary has the goal of creating a dictionary. It is the "lexical companion to Misplaced Pages", and the two often link to each other. Wiktionary welcomes all editors who wish to write a dictionary.

Both dictionary entries at Wiktionary and encyclopedia articles at Misplaced Pages may start out as stubs, but they are works in progress, to be expanded. Misplaced Pages articles should begin with a good definition, but they should provide other types of information about that topic as well. The full articles that Misplaced Pages's stubs grow into are very different from dictionary entries.

Each article in an encyclopedia is about a person, a people, a concept, a place, an event, a thing, etc., whereas a dictionary entry is primarily about a word, an idiom, or a term and its meaning(s), usage and history. In some cases, a word or phrase itself may be an encyclopedic subject, such as Macedonia (terminology) or truthiness. Such articles rarely contain more than one distinct definition or usage of the article's title.

One perennial source of confusion is that a stub encyclopedia article looks very much like a dictionary entry, and stubs are often poorly written; another is that some paper dictionaries, such as "pocket" dictionaries, lead users to the mistaken belief that dictionary entries are short, and that short article and dictionary entry are therefore equivalent.

Overview: encyclopedia vs dictionary

In this section we compare Misplaced Pages and Wiktionary (as a concrete example of a dictionary), but the principle is that Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary, not simply that it is not Wiktionary.

Major differences

Criteria Misplaced Pages Wiktionary
Article contents about referents: a person, a people, an idea, a concept, a place, an event, or a thing that the title of the article can denote. The article octopus is primarily about the animal: its physiology, its use as food, its scientific classification, and so forth. about references: the words, symbols, and language used to denote those referents—which includes the linguistic aspects of names used as article titles. The entry octopus is about the word "octopus": its part of speech, its pluralizations, its usage, its etymology, its translations into other languages, and so forth.
Articles whose titles are different words for the same thing (synonyms) are duplicate articles that should be merged. For example: petrol and gasoline. warrant different entries (for example, petrol and gasoline).
Articles whose titles are different spellings of the same word or lexeme are duplicate articles that should be merged. For example: colour and color. warrant different entries (such as colour and color).
The same title for different things (homographs) are found in different articles. For example: a rocket vehicle, salad rocket, and rocket engine. The articles may all be found in a disambiguation page such as Rocket (disambiguation). are to be found in one entry (such as rocket).

One test is that an encyclopedia article's name can usually easily take many different equivalent forms, whereas a dictionary as a linguistic work is about the words in the title, and cannot usually be easily translated.

Minor differences

Criteria Misplaced Pages Wiktionary
Inflections Per the Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (verbs), single-word article titles are usually nouns or verbal nouns (participles or gerunds), such as greengrocer and camping. Per the Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (plurals), article titles are singular. Other inflections, if they exist at all, are redirects. Every inflection of a word is an entry in its own right, potentially with its own illustrative quotations. For examples: walk, walks, walked, and walking are all separate entries. The suffixes for the inflections are also entries: -ed, -ing etc.
Adjectives Per Misplaced Pages:Article titles § Use nouns adjectives are usually redirected to nouns or are disambiguation pages or simply do not exist. Every adjective is a word/entry in its own right.
Language used Article titles are in the English language, with some exceptions. All words from all languages are accepted.
Proper nouns An article with a proper noun as its title is usually a disambiguation article, which links to all of the places or things commonly known by that name. For examples: Hastings (disambiguation), Benedict, Bush. The article will use {{wiktionary}} to link to the Wiktionary entries on the proper noun and any common nouns that have the same spelling.

An article about a given name or a surname is an anthroponymy article that contains a list of people with this name as well as encyclopedic content about the meaning, etymology and history of the name.

An entry with the title of a proper noun gives the etymology, meanings, translations, pronunciation, and so forth of that proper noun. For examples: Hastings, Benedict

The entry will use {{Misplaced Pages}} or interwiki links to link to the Misplaced Pages articles.

Wiktionary is also case sensitive, so entries for (English) proper nouns are separate from entries for (English) common nouns. For example: Bush, bush

Not size

Dictionary entries and encyclopedia articles do not differ simply on grounds of length. An entry in a comprehensive dictionary (or a topical encyclopedic dictionary) would probably contain illustrative quotations for each listed meaning; etymologies; translations; inflections; links to related and derived terms; links to synonyms, antonyms, and homophones; a pronunciation guide in various dialects, including links to sound files; and usage notes; it could be very long indeed. Short dictionary articles are artifacts of paper dictionaries being space-limited, and some dictionaries being intentionally concise. Not all dictionaries are limited by the size of the paper; Wiktionary is not paper either.

Dictionary definition trap

Good definitions

Both dictionaries and encyclopedias contain definitions. Encyclopedia articles should begin with a good definition and description of one topic (or a few largely or completely synonymous or otherwise highly related topics), but the article should provide other types of information about that topic as well. An encyclopedic definition is more concerned with encyclopedic knowledge (facts) than linguistic concerns. See also WP:REFERS.

A good definition is not circular, a synonym or a near synonym, overly broad or narrow, ambiguous, figurative, or obscure. When a descriptive title is self-explanatory, such as history of Malta, a definition may not be needed. See also fallacies of definition.

A definition aims to describe or delimit the meaning of some term (a word or a phrase) by giving a statement of essential properties or distinguishing characteristics of the concept, entity, or kind of entity, denoted by that term.

— Definition

Misplaced Pages is not a usage guide

Misplaced Pages is not in the business of saying how words, idioms, phrases etc. "should" be used (but it may be important in the context of an encyclopedia article to discuss how a word is used).

Articles that have been heavily cut to avoid becoming usage guides include gender-neutral pronoun and non-sexist language. Articles with information on how a word is used include singular they, homophobia, and sexism. By a simple extension of the latter, Misplaced Pages is not a slang and idiom guide. We aren't teaching people how to talk like a hacker or a Cockney chimney-sweep; we're writing an encyclopedia. See meta:Knocking her dead one on the nose each and every double trey for a historical example. Some articles are encyclopedic glossaries on the jargon of an industry or field; such articles must be informative, not guiding in nature, because Misplaced Pages is not a manual, guidebook, or textbook.

Note that Wiktionary is also primarily a record of how words are (or were) used rather than how they "should" be used, but it does aim to note when usage is slang, informal, archaic, non-standard, derogatory, offensive, etc. and how that status has changed over time.

Misplaced Pages is not a genealogical dictionary

There are reference works known as genealogical dictionaries. These tend to focus primarily on the immediate family connections (parents, spouses, children and their spouses) of the article subject. Misplaced Pages is an encyclopedia, and as such focuses more on the actions and contributions of an article subject. This means that many genealogical details may be omitted, for a better-flowing, more rounded article.

Biography articles should only be created for people with some sort of verifiable notability. A good measure of notability is whether someone has been featured in multiple, independent, reliable sources. Minor figures may be mentioned within other articles (for example, Ronald Gay in Violence against LGBT people).

See also Misplaced Pages:Notability (people).

Neologisms

See also: Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (words to watch) § Neologisms and new compounds Shortcuts

Articles on neologisms that have little or no usage in reliable sources are commonly deleted, as these articles are often created in an attempt to use Misplaced Pages to increase usage of the term. Care should be taken when translating text into English that a term common in the host language does not create an uncommon neologism in English. As Wiktionary's inclusion criteria differ from Misplaced Pages's, that project may cover neologisms that Misplaced Pages cannot accept. Editors may wish to contribute an entry for the neologism to Wiktionary instead.

Some neologisms can be in frequent use, and it may be possible to pull together many facts about a particular term and show evidence of its usage on the Internet or in larger society. To support an article about a particular term or concept, we must cite what reliable secondary sources say about the term or concept, not just sources that use the term (see use–mention distinction). An editor's personal observations and research (e.g. finding blogs, books, and articles that use the term rather than are about the term) are insufficient to support articles on neologisms because this may require analysis and synthesis of primary source material to advance a position, which is explicitly prohibited by the original research policy.

While Misplaced Pages is a tertiary source, Wiktionary is a secondary source, so welcomes OR of this sort. Neologisms must at least have three independent uses for inclusion there, and additional requirements can be found on their Criteria for inclusion page.

Neologisms that are in wide use but for which there are no treatments in secondary sources are not yet ready for use and coverage in Misplaced Pages. The term does not need to be in Misplaced Pages in order to be a "true" term, and when secondary sources become available, it will be appropriate to create an article on the topic, or use the term within other articles.

In a few cases, there will be notable topics which are well-documented in reliable sources, but for which no accepted short-hand term exists. It can be tempting to employ a neologism in such a case. Instead, it is preferable to use a title that is a descriptive phrase in plain English if possible, even if this makes for a somewhat long or awkward title.

When a word or phrase may be an encyclopedic subject

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In some cases, a word or phrase may be an encyclopedic subject. In these cases, the word or phrase in and of itself passes Misplaced Pages's notability criteria as the subject of verifiable coverage by reliable sources. As with any subject, articles on words must contain encyclopedic information. That is, such articles must go beyond what would be found in a dictionary entry (definition, pronunciation, etymology, use information, etc.), and include information on the social or historical significance of the term.

While published dictionaries may be useful sources for lexical information on a term, the presence of a term in a dictionary does not by itself establish notability. Examples of Misplaced Pages articles on words and phrases include Macedonia (terminology), Orange (word), Thou, No worries, and most articles about individual racial slurs, profanity, and obscene gestures.

In other cases, a word or phrase is often used as a "lens" or concept through which another topic or closely related set of topics are grouped, seen or renamed. In such cases, coverage about a word, phrase or concept should treat it as such. The main coverage of the topics that were modified, grouped or renamed by the "lens" is typically elsewhere in Misplaced Pages. World music, Political correctness, Gay agenda and Truthiness illustrate this.

Handling problems

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Fixing the introductory sentence: removing "refers to"

See also: Misplaced Pages:Writing better articles § Use of "refers to", and Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style/Lead section § First sentence

A good encyclopedia article should begin with a relatively short but discrete explanation of the subject of the article (the person, place, concept, event, or 'thing' of the title). Sometimes, articles (particularly stubs) have poorly written dictionary-style introductory sentences, such as "Dog is a term for an animal with the binomial name Canis lupus" or "Dog is a word that refers to a domesticated canine".

Most Misplaced Pages articles are not dictionary entries, and opening sentences like the above ought to be cleaned up in accordance with our Guide to writing better articles. Editors should boldly replace these cumbersome phrasings ("is a term for", "is a word that means", "refers to") with the more direct "is" construction, for example: "A dog is an animal of the species Canis lupus" or "A dog is a domesticated canine". (See: Writing better articles: Avoid using "refers to")

Sometimes a Misplaced Pages article will also be poorly titled: its title will be an adjective or an adverb, or an inflection of a verb that isn't a noun. Such articles are dictionary articles only if they discuss the word or phrase as a word or phrase, rather than what the word or phrase denotes. If such articles should explain what the word or phrase denotes, then they should be renamed or merged to a title that adheres to our Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions. For example: the adjective "supermassive" doesn't by itself denote a subject. "Supermassive black hole", on the other hand, is a subject.

Misplaced dictionary entries

Sometimes an article really is a mis-placed stub dictionary entry, that discusses the etymology, translations, usage, inflections, multiple distinct meanings, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, spelling, pronunciation, and so forth of a word or an idiomatic phrase.

If Wiktionary doesn't already have an entry for the word or idiom (which is unlikely), one can be created. Previously it could be copied to Wiktionary using the transwiki system by marking the article with the {{Copy to Wiktionary}} template, but that template was deleted by a 2021 TfD.

After copying, the final disposition of the article here is up to Misplaced Pages. If the article cannot be renamed, merged, or rewritten into a stub encyclopedia article about a subject, denoted by its title, then it should be deleted.

Pointers to Wiktionary

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A template can be used to point to a Wiktionary entry from a Misplaced Pages article which has encyclopedic content; for example, the code {{Wiktionary|dictionary}} produces a pointer to the Wiktionary definition of dictionary as illustrated here. For Misplaced Pages articles which could only ever be dictionary definitions and keep being re-created and re-deleted, or which could potentially be proper articles but are dictionary-like stubs at the moment, it is possible to effectively "salt" them with a soft redirect to Wiktionary using code such as {{Wiktionary redirect|dictionary}}. The general guidelines for what is acceptable as a soft redirect to Wiktionary are enumerated in that template's documentation.

See also

References

  1. Béjoint, Henri (2000). Modern Lexicography: An Introduction (Reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780198299516.
  2. Note: they must not be largely or completely related only by the titular term
  3. Dictionary of lexicography By R. R. K. Hartmann, Gregory James
  4. Ancestry Magazine, Nov-Dec 1999, p 43

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