Wiktionary:Glossary

This is a glossary of terms used in the Wiktionary community but not in the body of the dictionary. See also Appendix:Glossary, which contains terms used in the body of this dictionary. (There is also the Wikipedia:Glossary.)

A

 * accessibility – The ease with which web pages may be navigated and read, especially by those with disabilities who may, for example, use screen readers.
 * adj. – Adjective. E.g.:
 * adv. – Adverb. E.g.:
 * AF, AutoFormat —, an all-purpose formatting-bot created and operated by (out of use since 2010).
 * AGF – Assume good faith, a general principle of public wikis.
 * alt – Alternative, as in "alt form".
 * anchor – An HTML marker used to direct a web browser to a position which is not at the default top of page position.
 * anon, anonip – Someone who edits Wiktionary without signing in. Also, IP.
 * attributive(ly) –  (Note: in real life this is not at all what this word means: adjectives are regularly used attributively, and conversely, there are other adjective-like ways to use non-adjectives. Also note that some editors do use this word in the standard way.)
 * autopatroller – A user whose edits are not marked in Recent Changes with a red exclamation mark meaning "this edit has not yet been patrolled." In other words, a user who is deemed trustworthy enough to patrol their own edits. See Whitelist.

B

 * b.g.c., bgc – (not used in articles) books.google.com
 * block – To (temporarily or permanently) prevent a specific user—by username or IP address—from editing Wiktionary by entering the user on a list of blocked individuals; only admins can do this.
 * bluelink, blue link – A link to an existing Wiktionary (or other Wikimedia) page; contrast redlink and orangelink.
 * bot – An automated or semiautomated process used to perform tasks on Wiktionary, an abbreviated form of robot. Bots are governed by WT:BOT.
 * BP – The Beer Parlour discussion forum for general policy discussions and proposals, requests for permissions and major announcements. E.g.: WT:BP.

C

 * cat, category – See Appendix:Glossary.
 * catboiler, category boilerplate – A standardized explanatory text that appears at the top of many categories, and is usually provided by a template.
 * CFI – Criteria for inclusion, WT:CFI.
 * CGEL – Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
 * citogenesis – Circular form of citation where various sources report each other.
 * CSS – Cascading Style Sheets, used in creating web pages.
 * CVN – Countervandalism Network

D

 * deadmin, desysop – To revoke the admin privileges of a Wikimedia administrator.
 * dewikify – To convert one or more intra-wiki links to plain words.
 * dictionary word, or dictionary-only word – A word that is found in dictionaries but never or rarely used. See list word,.
 * diff – An automatic comparison between two revisions of a page, or a link to a page showing the difference between two revisions.
 * DT – Derived terms.

E

 * edit conflict, ec, E/C – What occurs when someone tries to save a page that he started editing before its latest revision was saved; see Help:Edit conflict.
 * EL, previously known as ELE – Entry layout, the style guide for Wiktionary.
 * etymonline – the Online Etymology Dictionary, a popular reference site. See.
 * exp – Expression.
 * extant – Of a word, in current use (as opposed to archaic or obsolete).

F

 * FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions.
 * FL, fl – Foreign language.
 * form-of entry – A non-lemma entry; that is, an entry that contains a term that is a modified form of another term.

G

 * GB, GBS — Google Books [Search], https://books.google.com.
 * ggc — http://groups.google.com, a reference for search for citations in Usenet.
 * ghit — Google [Search] hit.
 * GNV —Google Ngram Viewer. See.
 * GP — Grease Pit (WT:GP), a place to discuss technical issues in Wiktionary.

H

 * hard redirect – A use of the MediaWiki software on which this site runs to automatically redirect to a page the user who attempts to access a particular other page; contrast soft redirect.
 * headword – The word described by a given dictionary entry. Usually, the headword has the same spelling as the page name. Exceptions are for entries in languages with optional diacritics (e.g. ), entries without Unicode representation (e.g. sign language entries and hieroglyphics like ), and when MediaWiki prohibits the preferred spelling (e.g. -)).
 * headword line – At the core of each entry is a headword line, which lists the headword in bold, often followed by basic grammar and orthography details, e.g. gender, inflected forms, alternate orthography in languages with multiple orthographies like Japanese, Korean, and Serbian. Some editors use the phrase inflection line instead.

I

 * IMO, IMHO – In My Opinion, In My Honest Opinion (Internet slang phrase).
 * inflection line, infl – See headword line. E.g.
 * IP – Someone who edits without signing in (and is therefore logged as an IP address). Also, anon, anonip.
 * IP lawyer – lawyer.
 * IW – interwiki, a wikilink that uses an interwiki prefix, usually in entries a link to another language's Wiktionary that starts with the wiki's language code and a colon (for instance, ). Mostly deprecated since the introduction of the Cognate extension.

J

 * JS – JavaScript

L

 * L1, L2, etc. – The first-level, second-level, etc. headers on any Wiktionary page, corresponding to (and generating) HTML elements &lt;h1>, &lt;h2>, etc. In wikitext the level also happens to correspond to the number of equal signs surrounding the header text, so ==English== is an L2 header and ===Noun=== is an L3 header. This is unrelated to the use of “L2” to mean a speaker’s second language.
 * LDL – Limited Documentation Language; see WT:LDL.
 * lemming – A dictionary other than Wiktionary (with the implication that blindly trusting other dictionaries, rather than real-world usage, might be unwise).
 * list word – A word that while frequently defined in lists, has no actual usage. See dictionary word.

M

 * MediaWiki – the software that runs Wiktionary and other wikis. MediaWiki is also a namespace in Wiktionary.
 * Monobook – One of the skins that can be chosen in your preferences.
 * mop – admin tools on wiki sites are sometimes likened to janitors' mops, for which reason being given sysop rights is sometimes referred to as being given the mop

N

 * namespace – An optional prefix to a page title, eg "Help", "Template". Thus Help:How to edit a page is a page within the "Help" namespace.
 * NISOP – Non-idiomatic sum of parts: a term (such as "green leaf") that can be understood from its constituent parts and is not an idiom, thus probably not suitable for inclusion in a dictionary. See further at
 * NPOV – "Neutral point of view". (Content should be written from a NPOV, not from a POV, or particular point of view.)
 * ns, NS – namespace

O

 * OBE – Overtaken By Events.
 * OED – Oxford English Dictionary. Also SOED (Shorter), OED1 (1st edition), OED2 (2nd edition), NOED (New).
 * OmegaWiki – Previously known as Ultimate Wiktionary and WiktionaryZ, a project stemming from Wiktionary but using a relational database for storage. homepage
 * OneLook – A multi-dictionary portal with wild-card word-search tools
 * orangelink, orange link — A link to a Wiktionary page that exists but does not contain an entry for the linked language; contrast bluelink and redlink. (see MediaWiki:Gadget-OrangeLinks.js).
 * OR – original research. Discouraged on Wikipedia, but necessary on Wiktionary. See Wiktionary for Wikipedians.
 * OTRS – Open source Ticket Request System
 * out-of-process – Not following the usual process established by the community, for example the removal of entries or definitions without discussion in WT:RFV or WT:RFD.

P

 * per nom – In agreement with the nomination for the reasons provided by the nominator.
 * phab, Phabricator – The bug tracking system for the MediaWiki software and other WMF projects.
 * POS – Part(s) of Speech. (POS) is a placeholder which can be replaced with any of the approved POS headers.
 * POV – "Point of View"
 * protologism – A word which has not yet been used widely enough to merit inclusion in a dictionary.

Q

 * QQ — Quiet Quentin, a tool for quickly adding quotes.

R

 * redirect — See soft redirect and hard redirect.
 * redlink, red link — A link to a Wiktionary (or other Wikimedia) page that does not exist; contrast bluelink and orangelink.
 * RFA — Request for adminship.
 * RfAP — Request for audio pronunciation; i.e. request that an audio file be added to an entry.
 * RfC — Request for clean-up, see WT:RFC.
 * RfD — Request for deletion, see WT:RFD.
 * RfV — Request for verification, see WT:RFV.
 * RHU — Random House Unabridged.
 * rm, rmv — Remove (used in edit summaries).
 * rv — Revert to prior content.
 * rvv — Revert Vandalism.

S

 * sandbox – A page that users may edit in whatever way they want. There is a public sandbox at Sandbox or users may create their own.
 * sc – Script. Terms appearing in the English Wiktionary that are written in scripts other than the Latin (roman) script use a script code to select the optimal fonts for readers. Templates like and  accept a parameter named   to specify the script. Caution: the ISO 639-1 code sc is for the Sardinian language. See tr. E.g..
 * scap – (specific to #wikimedia-tech channel) sync-common-all-php.
 * SIL – SIL International, formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics; home of Ethnologue, and official registrar of the ISO 639 two- and three-letter language codes (such as  for English).
 * skin – The appearance (and behaviour) of Wiktionary on your web browser, which is controlled by CSS and JS files. See Help:Customizing your skin.
 * soft redirect – A page which tells the user to see another instead; contrast hard redirect.
 * SOP, SoP — "[The] sum of [its] parts." Describes a multi-word term whose meaning follows directly from the combination of its constituent words. Such terms are generally not permitted on Wiktionary, per WT:CFI.
 * speedy, speedy delete – To delete a page on sight, without discussion.
 * stemmer, stemming – Software used to produce the stem from the inflected form of words.
 * stop word – A word ignored by a search engines, usually one on a list of such common words.
 * subst, substitute – To convert a template or module call into plain wikitext by expanding all templates. See Help:Substitution; contrast transclude.
 * sum of parts, sum of its parts – See SoP.

T

 * template – A way of automatically including ("transcluding") the contents of one page within another page, used for many automated processes such as generating headword lines, inflection tables and so on.
 * term – Something (word, morpheme, phrase, symbol or group of symbols) that might have an entry in Wiktionary.
 * TR – The Tea room.
 * tr – Transliteration. Terms appearing in the English Wiktionary that are written in scripts other than the Latin (roman) script are followed by a transliteration. Templates like and  accept a parameter named tr for the transliteration. See sc above. Caution: the ISO 639-1 code tr is for the Turkish language. E.g..
 * transclude – To include by transclusion, see below.
 * transclusion – The inclusion of the contents of one page within another page, by calling up the first page as if it were a (in analogy to ). See MediaWiki Help:Transclusion. The term is applicable to wikis in general, but here on Wiktionary, pages which can be transcluded are restricted to the Template namespace and the User namespace (articles from main namespace can be transcluded by preceding the article title with a colon).
 * translation hub, thub – An English multi-word entry that may be sum of parts and is there to host translations and enable navigation from one non-English entry to another non-English entry. An example: English studies.
 * TTBC – Translation to be checked: Ambiguous or possibly incorrect translations needing checking from a native speaker.

U

 * umbrella category — A category that acts as a container for other categories, usually one for each language, without containing entries. E.g.: Category:Dated terms by language.
 * usex — Usage example, an example sentence for a sense. See.
 * UTC – Coordinated Universal Time, the standard time used in en.wiktionary.

V

 * !vote – An ironic reference to the essay Polls are evil; a reminder that wiki-voting is not a substitute for discussion, and is not the only means of making a decision. The exclamation point is a computing term for "not". Used wherever one might use vote in a sentence (as a noun or as a verb).
 * VIP – Vandalism in progress, a page to list recent vandalism sprees.

W

 * WEAE – Well-Enunciated American English.
 * wheel war – A struggle between two or more admins in which each undoes the other's admin actions — in particular, unblocking and reblocking a user; undeleting and redeleting, or unprotecting and reprotecting an article. Note: "wheel" was the older UN*X term for "admin".
 * wikify, wfy, wikification – To create wikilinks and/or to format in accordance with Wiktionary's standards.
 * wikitext, wiki markup – A markup language, the simplified alternative to HTML used to write pages in wiki webs.
 * wikt – Abbreviation for Wiktionary. Often used with language prefixes, as in: en.wikt/enwikt and fr.wikt/frwikt.
 * Wiktionarian – One who edits Wiktionary.
 * WiktionaryZ – See OmegaWiki.
 * WMF – The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., the parent organization of Wiktionary and other projects.
 * WordNet – The lexical database for the English language found at Princeton University: http://wordnet.princeton.edu.
 * WP – Wikipedia.
 * WT – Wiktionary.