User:Daniel Carrero/Color-coded EL


 * PINK means unvoted text.
 * KHAKI means text currently being voted. (votes that already started or that were created but didn't start)
 * LIGHTGREEN means voted text. (supersedes KHAKI )

Flexibility
While the information below may represent some kind of “standard” form, it is not a set of rigid rules. You may experiment with deviations, but other editors may find those deviations unacceptable, and revert those changes. They have just as much right to do that as you have to make them. Be ready to discuss those changes. If you want your way accepted, you have to make the case for that. Unless there is a good reason for deviating, the standard should be presumed correct. Refusing to discuss, or engaging in edit wars may also affect your credibility in other unrelated areas.

The essentials

 * 1) Language lets you know the language of the word in question. It is almost always in a level two heading (See Wiktionary:How to edit a page for some basic terminology we use). In most cases the language header contains a language in its traditional meaning. Priority is given to ==Translingual== ; this heading includes terms that remain the same in all languages. The symbols for the chemical elements and the abbreviations for international units of measurement are but two examples of translingual terms. English comes next because this is the English Wiktionary. After that come the other languages in alphabetical order.
 * 2) Part of speech may be a misnomer, but it seemed to make sense when it was first chosen. Most part-of-speech headings represent the lexical function of the term, such as Noun, Verb, Adjective, or Interjection. Others, such as Symbol, Suffix, Initialism, Phrase, or Proverb, classify the various terms in Wiktionary. Each entry has one or more part of speech sections, where the definitions themselves are found. The sections are most frequently level three, but may have a lower level for terms that have multiple etymologies or pronunciations.
 * 3) References are becoming more important as we strive to improve the reliability of Wiktionary. While we may be lax in demanding references for words that are easily found in most paper dictionaries, references for more obscure words are essential. References may be added in a separate header of adequately chosen level or added directly to specific senses.

A very simple example
This is a simple entry for the word bed, and shows the most fundamental elements of an entry:
 * 1) a word’s language (as a level 2 heading),
 * 2) its part of speech or “type” (as a level 3 heading),
 * 3) the word itself (using the correct headword template),
 * 4) a definition (preceded by “#”, which causes automatic numbering),
 * 5) links in the definition for key words,
 * 6) “References” (as a level 3 heading), and
 * 7) a verifiable place where you found the word

This example can be copied and used to start an entry or section of an entry. 

Noun

 * 1) A piece of furniture to sleep on.

Variations for languages other than English
Entries for terms in other languages should follow the standard format as closely as possible regardless of the language of the word. However, a translation into English should normally be given instead of a definition, including a gloss to indicate which meaning of the English translation is intended. Also, the translations section should be omitted.

For languages written in other scripts (Japanese, Gothic, etc.), we have romanization systems in place. It is required that each romanization entry contain at least one definition line starting with "#" in the wikitext.

Some languages do have characteristics that require variation from the standard format. For links to these variations see Language considerations.

Additional headings
There are additional headings which you should include if possible, but if you don’t have the necessary expertise, resources or time, you have no obligation to add them, with the possible exception of “References”. The list below is not an exclusive list; other headings may be essential in some circumstances. An order for these headings is recommended, but variations in that order are also allowable.

A typical entry that uses many of these additional headings could be formatted thus:

==English== ===Alternative forms=== ===Etymology=== ===Pronunciation=== ===Noun=== Declension etc.
 * Phonetic transcriptions
 * Audio files in any relevant dialects
 * Rhymes
 * Homophones
 * Hyphenation
 * 1) Meaning 1
 * 2) * Quotations
 * 3) Meaning 2
 * 4) * Quotations

Verb
Conjugation etc.
 * 1) Meaning 1
 * 2) * Quotations

Anagrams
(Dividing line between languages)

Noun
Inflections
 * 1) Meaning 1 in English
 * 2) * Quotation in Finnish
 * 3) ** Quotation translated into English
 * 4) Meaning 2 in English
 * 5) * Quotation in Finnish
 * 6) ** Quotation translated into English

Related terms
A key principle in ordering the headings and indentation levels is nesting. The order shown above accomplishes this most of the time. A heading placed at one level includes everything that follows until an equivalent level is encountered. If a word can be a noun and a verb, everything that derives from its being the first chosen part of speech should be put before the second one is started. Nesting is a key principle to the organization of Wiktionary, but the concept suffers from being difficult to describe with verbal economy. If you have problems with this, examine existing entries, or ask questions of a more senior person.

Headings before the definitions
In general, headings in this group do not depend on the meaning of the word. They give an environment that leads up to the word and its relation to other words, and allow us to distinguish it from others that may be similar in some respects.

Etymology

 * Main article: Etymology

The first header below the language heading is usually the level 3 “Etymology” header. The etymology is given right below the header without indentation. Etymology essentially shows where the word comes from. This may show the forms in other languages that underlie the word. For many modern words it may show who coined the word. If a word is derived from another in the same language by a regular rule, such as formation of an English adverb by adding “ly”, it is not necessary to repeat the complete details of the word’s origin on the page for the derived word.

Sometimes two words with different etymologies belong in the same entry because they are spelled the same (they are homographs). In such a case there will be more than one “Etymology” header, which we number. Hence for a word like lead the basic header skeleton looks like this:



Verb
Note that in the case of multiple etymologies, all subordinate headers need to have their levels increased by 1 in order to comply with the fundamental concept of showing dependence through nesting.


 * The vote “2007-10/style for mentioned terms” is relevant to this section, without specifying text to be amended in this document, so please see it for details.

Pronunciation

 * Main article: Pronunciation

A typical pronunciation section may look like the following example based on the word portmanteau:



The region or accent [,, , et al.] is first if there is regional variation, followed by the pronunciation system (such as enPR or IPA), a colon, then the pronunciation. (See Wiktionary:Pronunciation key for an outline of these two systems.) The phonetic transcriptions are normally placed between diagonal strokes. Use an established system of pronunciation transcription, such as IPA.

Ideally, every entry should have a pronunciation section, and perhaps a sound sample to accompany it. However, pronunciations vary widely between dialects, and non-linguists often have trouble writing down pronunciations properly.

For audio pronunciations, upload the Ogg file to Commons and link here using Template:audio.

The r phoneme used in English in words like red, green and orange is to be represented with /ɹ/ instead of /r/, except in accents where it is actually a trill.

Homophones
List any homophones of the word in alphabetical order, wikifying each one. For example, the Pronunciation section of the English word contains the line



which results in


 * Homophones: rite, wright, write

which are the English words that sound identical to.

If a word is a homophone in a particular dialect, it may be added provided the dialect is referred to (for example, is a homophone of  in accents with flapping, and  is a homophone of  in non-rhotic accents). Examples (for and, respectively):


 * Homophones: beta
 * Homophones: rite, wright, write, ride

The following must not be added to the homophones section:


 * Words that are “nearly” homophones or rhymes (for example, for, the words or );
 * Words that are homophones if they are mispronounced in some way (e.g. for, the word when pronounced with a lisp);
 * Words from other languages (which are unlikely to be true homophones anyway).

(Note that the term used here is ; the term used by some is ambiguous as it can mean either “homophone” or “homograph”.)

Rhymes
Add a link to the page in the “Rhymes” namespace that lists the rhymes for the word. So, for example, on the entry for, add the line



to the code. This displays as



To see the usage instructions for, see Template:rhymes/documentation.

Do not list the rhymes themselves in the main namespace.

Entry name
The name of the entry is the term, phrase, symbol, morpheme or other lexical unit being defined.

For languages with two cases of script, the entry name usually begins with a lowercase letter. For example, use for the English noun and verb, not "". Words which begin with a capital letter in running text are exceptions. Typical examples include proper nouns, German nouns , and many abbreviations. If someone tries accessing the entry with incorrect capitalization, the software will try to redirect to the correct page automatically.

For prefixes, suffixes and other morphemes in most languages, place the character "-" where it links with other words:, , , etc.

Some languages have variations in script. (English is written in Latin script, other scripts include Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Gothic, etc.) Compare vs. (both are Serbo-Croatian for in different scripts). Some languages allow separate entries for romanizations: for example, Japanese is romanized as kin'en according to the applicable policy.

When multiple capitalizations, punctuation, diacritics, ligatures, scripts and combinations with numbers and other symbols exist, such as (as in "frying pan"),  (the Greek god),  (meaning "all-") and  (Japanese for "bread"), use the template  at the top of the page to cross-link between them. When there are too many variations, place them in a separate appendix page, in this case Appendix:Variations of "pan".

Some variations of the same word kept in multiple pages include:


 * regional variations:, ; ,
 * historical variations:, ; ,
 * hyphenization/compounds:, ,
 * style variation: ,
 * some misspellings: see WT:CFI
 * uncertain capitalization: ,
 * different scripts: see above

Some page titles can't be created because of restrictions in the software, usually because they contain certain symbols such as # or |, or are too long. The full list of those entries is at Appendix:Unsupported titles. They are named using the descriptive format "Unsupported titles/Number sign", while using JavaScript to show the correct title like a normal entry.

Matched-pairs, such as brackets and quotation marks, can be defined together as single entries. The entries are named with a space between the left and right characters. Examples:, [ ] , “ ”, ‘ ’, " ", „ ”, « », ⌊ ⌋, ¡ ! and ¿ ?.

The part of speech or other descriptor
This is usually a level-3 header but may be a higher-level header when multiple etymologies or pronunciations are a factor. This header most often shows the part of speech, but is not restricted to “parts of speech” in the traditional sense. Many other descriptors are allowed, like “Proper noun”, “Idiom”, “Abbreviation”, “Symbol”, “Prefix”, “Prepositional phrase”, etc.

Headword line
We give a word’s inflections without indentation in the line below the “Part of speech” header. There is no separate header for this. For uninflected words it is enough to repeat the entry word in boldface. Further forms can be given in parentheses.
 * For a noun this will simply be one of...
 * word (plural words)
 * word (uncountable)
 * word (plurale tantum)
 * ...depending whether the noun has a plural, is uncountable, or is itself a plural with no singular form, respectively. For an adjective this will appear as one of...
 * hard (comparative harder, superlative hardest)
 * growling (not comparable)
 * ...depending whether the adjective is comparable or not, respectively. For a verb you may use
 * to end (third-person singular simple present ends, present participle ending, simple past ended, past participle ended)

Templates are available at Wiktionary:Headword-line templates for those who prefer this technique.

Definitions
The definitions are the most fundamental piece of dictionary information but do not have their own header. They are simply added in one big block, line after line, each beginning with a number sign ( # ). Each definition may be treated as a sentence: beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop. The key terms of a definition should be wikified.


 * The vote “2006-12/form-of style” is relevant to this section, without specifying text to be amended in this document, so please see it for details.


 * The vote “2010-08/Italicizing use-with-mention” is relevant to this section, without specifying text to be amended in this document, so please see it for details.

Abbreviations

 * See Entry layout explained/POS headers for discussion of the appropriate part of speech for different types of abbreviation

The “definitions” of entries that are abbreviations should be the expanded forms of the abbreviations. Where there is more than one expansion of the abbreviation, ideally these should be listed alphabetically to prevent the expanded forms being duplicated. The case used in the expanded form should be the usual one &mdash; do not capitalise words in the expanded form of an abbreviation that is made up of capital letters unless that is how the expanded form is usually written.

Where the expanded forms are entries that appear (or should appear) in Wiktionary, wikify them. Expanded forms that are encyclopedic entries should also be wikified and linked to the appropriate Wikipedia entry. When the expanded form does not merit an entry of its own, either in Wiktionary or Wikipedia material, wikify its component words and give a gloss (italicised, in parentheses) after the expansion explaining what the term means (see SNAFU for an example).

See PC for an example entry.

Context labels
A context label identifies a definition which only applies in a restricted context. Such labels indicate, for example, that the following definition occurs in a limited geographic region or temporal period, or is used only by specialists in a particular field and not by the general population.

Many context label templates also place an entry into a relevant category, but they must not be used merely for categorization (see category links, below).

One or more labels may be placed before the definition:

Details in Context labels.

Example sentences
 Generally, every definition should be accompanied by a quotation illustrating the definition. If no quotation can be found, it is strongly encouraged to create an example sentence. Example sentences should:
 * be grammatically complete sentences, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
 * be placed immediately after the applicable numbered definition, and before any quotations associated with that specific definition.
 * be italicized, with the defined term boldfaced.
 * be as brief as possible while still clarifying the sense of the term. (In rare cases, examples consisting of two brief sentences may work best.)
 * be indented using the “ ” command placed at the start of the line.
 * for languages in non-Latin scripts, a transcription is to be given in the line below, with an additional level of indentation: “ ”.
 * for languages other than English, a translation is to be given in the line below (i.e. below the sentence or below the transcription), with an additional level of indentation: “ ”, and with the translation of the defined term boldfaced.
 * not contain wikilinks (the words should be easy enough to understand without additional lookup)

The goal of the example sentences is the following, which is to be kept in mind when making one up:
 * To place the term in a context in which it is likely to appear, addressing level of formality, dialect, etc.
 * To provide notable collocations, particularly those that are not idiomatic.
 * To select scenarios in which the meaning of the example itself is clear.
 * To illustrate the meaning of the term to the extent that a definition is obtuse.
 * To exemplify varying grammatical frames that are well understood, especially those that may not be obvious, for instance relying on collocation with a preposition.


 * See Example sentences for more.

Headings after the definitions
These headings generally derive from knowing the meaning of the word.

In the main namespace, any line of text whose only purpose is linking to an external website (for example, a link to an encyclopedia, such as Wikipedia, or 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica), should be placed within an "External links" section, and never within a "See also" section.

Order of headings

 * Usage notes (can be placed anywhere appropriate)
 * Inflection, or Conjugation for verbs, or Declension for nouns and adjectives, only present in non-English entries
 * Quotations (when not given under a particular sense)
 * Synonyms
 * Antonyms
 * Other allowable -nyms
 * Coordinate terms
 * Derived terms
 * Related terms
 * Descendants
 * Translations (only present in English entries)
 * See also
 * References
 * External links

Usage notes
This section, whether identified by a heading or indent level may come anywhere. It should follow as closely as possible after the point that needs explaining. Curb the tendency to be long winded in this section; brief explicit notes tend to be more effective. These notes should not take the place of restrictive labels when those are adequate for the job. Be prepared to document these notes with references. Remember to describe how a term is used, rather than try to dictate how it should be used from your point of view.


 * The vote “2007-10/style for mentioned terms” is relevant to this section, without specifying text to be amended in this document, so please see it for details.

Quotations

 * Main article: Quotations

Quotations are generally placed under the definition which they illustrate. If there is more than one being provided, or where this is not possible (e.g., a very early usage that does not clearly relate to a specific sense of the word), a separate section should be used. Quotations here are formatted normally but without definition numbers.


 * 1561, Flat Footed (translator), Platypus (author), Odes, chapter 3, line 12:
 * The hrunk it hrunketh every day.

Synonyms
This is a list of words that have similar meanings as the word being defined. They are often very inexact.

Where several definitions of the headword exist, synonyms should be given in a separate list for each meaning.

The following approach is suggested:
 * 1) Summarise the definition for which synonyms are being given, putting it in italics between parentheses, followed by a colon.
 * 2) List the synonyms for this definition, in alphabetical order and separated by commas, wikifying each synonym.
 * 3) Use one line for each definition, beginning each line with a bullet.

The synonyms section for “hrunk” might look like this (the synonyms are also made up):
 * (flrink with cumplus): flrink, pigglehick
 * (furp): furp, whoodleplunk

An alternative to identical lengthy lists of synonyms in many entries is offered by Wikisaurus entries. Instead of listing many synonyms in each of several synonymous entries, a single reference can be made in each to a common Wikisaurus page. See corpse, body, Wikisaurus:corpse, Wikisaurus:body for examples.

Further semantic relations
The following headers are available to define sections containing semantically related words other than synonyms: Antonyms, Hypernyms, Hyponyms, Meronyms, Holonyms, Troponyms, Coordinate terms, See also.

Each of these sections is formatted exactly like the Synonyms section (see above). More detailed information can be found on Semantic relations.

Derived terms
List terms in the same language that are morphological derivatives. For example, the noun driver is derived, by addition of the suffix -er, from the verb to drive. If it is not known from which part of speech a certain derivative was formed it is necessary to have a “Derived terms” header on the same level as the part of speech headings.

Related terms
List words in the same language that have strong etymological connections but aren’t derived terms. Each such term should be wikified. For example, datum and data should point to each other in this section since the latter is the plural of the former, and the plural form is not obtained by morphological derivation but was taken directly from Latin (where it is a morphological derivation). Another example is the pair of nouns pendant and pennant. These should cross-reference each other as they have very similar (arguably identical) etymologies in some subsenses.

Descendants
List terms in other languages that have borrowed or inherited the word. The etymology of these terms should then link back to the page.

Translations

 * See Translations for more.


 * ONLY add translations that you are CERTAIN of. If you aren’t familiar with a language, or aren’t sure of a particular translation, it is far better not to add it than to risk adding an incorrect translation.
 * NEVER use automatic translation software to generate translations from English into a language you don’t speak. Automatic translations into English are likewise problematic. Translation software rarely gives accurate results.
 * DO NOT COPY from translating dictionaries (bilingual or multilingual) as this may constitute copyright violation. This applies to dictionaries both in print form and online. Dictionaries that are out of copyright may be used.

Translations are to be given for English words only. In entries for foreign words, only the English translation is given, instead of a definition. Any translation between two foreign languages is best handled on the Wiktionaries in those languages.

English inflected forms will not have translations. For example, will not, as it is the plural and third-person singular of. In such entries as have additional meanings, these additional meanings should have translations. For example, the noun should have translations, but the present participle of  will not.

The translation section is separated into a number of divisions that are keyed to the various meanings of the English word. Each division is separated into a distinct collapsible navigation box by use of the translation section templates (see below for example.) The boxes are each headed by a summary of the translated meaning.

Within each box, the languages for which translations exist are listed in two columns by their English names in alphabetical order. The language name is preceded by a bullet (generated by * ) followed by a colon and the translations into that language. The two columns within the collapsible navigation box are obtained by adding the template just before the first language,  halfway down, and  at the line after the last translation.

Translation dos and don’ts

 * Do use the template for each translation. This will create a link to that word in this Wiktionary and a small link to the Wiktionary for that language.    References for the translation should be on that other page rather than in the translation list. If you think  is too complex, simply enclose the translation in square brackets.


 * Do add a transliteration or romanization of a translation into a language that does not use the Roman alphabet. Note however that only widespread romanization systems may be used. See Transliteration.


 * Do not link the language name
 * Correct:
 * *Portuguese: cachorro
 * Incorrect:
 * *Portuguese: cachorro


 * Do provide the grammatical gender of the translations of nouns, if appropriate, giving the parameters m, f, n and c for “masculine”, “feminine”, “neuter” and “common” respectively to.


 * Do not add the pronunciation of the translation or detailed grammatical information: such information should be provided on the page for the translation itself.


 * Do ensure that multiple translations are given in full. For example, for the German for “ankle”, which is Knöchel or Fußknöchel, write:
 * *German: Knöchel, Fußknöchel
 * rather than just combining the two as “(Fuß-) Knöchel” or similar, which is liable to be misunderstood.


 * Do not give literal (word-for-word) translations of idioms, unless the literal translation is what is actually used in the target language. Most idioms do not translate word for word. For example, the idiom “none of your beeswax” cannot be translated into German literally as “nicht dein Bienenwachs”, as this does not have the same meaning in German; an idiomatic translation is “nicht dein Bier” (which means, literally, “not your beer” in English).


 * Do not give translations back into English of idiomatic translations. For example, when translating “bell bottoms” into French as “pattes d’éléphant”, do not follow this with the literal translation back into English of “elephant’s feet”. While this sort of information is undoubtedly interesting, it belongs in the entry for the translation itself.

Here is an example (a shortened version of the entry for orange) illustrating some of the conventions:



Noun

 * 1) The fruit of the orange tree.
 * 2) The reddish-yellow colour of an orange.

Translations

 * French: orange
 * German: Apfelsine, Orange
 * Japanese: オレンジ


 * Russian: апельсин


 * Serbo-Croatian:


 * Cyrillic: наранџа, поморанџа
 * Roman: narandža, pomorandža


 * German: Orange
 * Hebrew: כתום


 * Latvian: oranžs

Translating words which are not lemmas in a target language
 ... ...
 * When a translation in the target language is not a lemma form, use <tt>alt</tt> parameter to display the translation but use lemma-forms as the page name, e.g. the Russian translation of asleep links to the Russian verb ("to sleep") but displays "спящий" (lit. "sleeping"), which is an equivalent of "asleep".
 * Russian:

Translating words without an exact equivalent in the target language

 * When there is no single word equivalent in the target language, use with embedded wikilinks for the individual words. For example the Russian translation of livelihood:

<pre style="background-color: khaki"> ... ...
 * Russian: средства к существованию

Result:


 * Russian: средства к существованию

Anagrams and other trivia

 * Main article: Anagrams

Anagrams may be entered in alphabetical order under a level 3 header ===Anagrams===. Only list anagrams that are words in the same language. You may include the alphagram which is not wikied unless it is itself a word. For post, the anagrams section would look like this:

<pre style="background-color: lightgreen">
 * opts, pots, spot, stop, tops

Other sections with other trivia and observations may be added, either under the heading “Trivia” or some other suitably explanatory heading. Because of the unlimited range of possibilities, no formatting details can be provided.

Metadata
This is material which is edited in a regular edit box, but does not appear in the entry when it is read. In some cases where it appears depends on your user preferences, especially the skin that you have chosen.

Category links
A Wiktionary category is a group of related entries which are listed on a category page. Sub-categories may also appear on that page. Categories and lists under various names may seem very similar, but the way they are built is very different; in most cases, but especially in open-ended lists, they complement each other.

To include an entry in a category, simply add a category tag to the entry thus:

<pre style="background-color: pink">

The link will appear at the bottom of the page in some skins and at the top in others, regardless of where it is placed in the edit box. Category links are placed one per line at the end of the appropriate language section. Putting these tags in a consistent place makes them easier to find in a longer entry’s edit field. A category link appears red if its category page has not yet been described, but categorized entries will appear there. You should edit a new category page, usually to add a brief description of the category and adding one or more tags to place it in a higher-level category.

By convention, it is preferable to use the plural for most category names that are nouns. This will avoid having a category divided in two when some use the plural and some use the singular.


 * Some votes are relevant to this section, without specifying text to be amended in this document, so please see them for details:
 * 2011-04/Representative entries
 * 2011-04/Lexical categories
 * pl-2011-05/Add en: to English topical categories, part 2
 * 2011-08/Categories of names 2
 * 2011-04/Derivations categories
 * 2009-12/Chinese categories

Interwiki links
An Interwiki link is a link to an entry of the same spelling in another Wiktionary. The links start with the (usually two-letter) language code. The syntax is:

<pre style="background-color: pink"> lc:ForeignPageTitle

The result will be that the entry at friend can link to the French Wiktionnaire’s version of “friend” using friend. And the entry at ami can link to the French Wiktionnaire’s version of “ami” using ami. So, on the English wiktionary, there is both friend and ami.

Where such links have been established a list of the linked languages will appear together at a place that depends on the skin that you are using; usually the far left column below the search box. Clicking on a language link will bring you to the entry named ForeignPageTitle in that language on that other Wiktionary.

Interwiki links are best placed as the last item in an entry alphabetically, each on its own line for ease of editing. Some of these links are generated by a bot that compares the various Wiktionary projects.

Newcomers sometimes inadvertently remove Interwiki links, perhaps because they don’t appear to do anything on the page. A single polite explanation is normally successful in curbing that practice.

Note also that for main namespace entries, interwikis are not used in the translation section. An interwiki link provides a link to this same page, explained and written in a different language. Experimental translation interwiki links that need to stay in the translations section must begin with a colon before the language code. The colon has the effect of forcing the link to appear where it is written.

Lastly, note that interwiki links should only be entered manually if you are certain no interwiki bot runs for a given language; interwiki links are normally entered by bots in an automated fashion.