Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary

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Part of What Wikipedia is not.

Wikipedia is not a dictionary, and an entry that is only a definition does not belong here, but, an article can and should always begin with a good definition or a clear description of the topic. If you are interested in working on a wiki dictionary, check out the Simple English Wiktionary or the English Wiktionary projects!

Nearly everyone here agrees that in general, stub articles are good, if they are done correctly. There are also some disagreements about if just definitions are acceptable for beginning an article. If you want to make everybody happy, add a little encyclopedic information of some sort —don't just give the meanings of the word. That's probably okay in most cases, but some see this as against the WINAD policy, or something that should be deleted. Deletion is an important process on Simple English Wikipedia and articles which do not follow minimum standards may be deleted quickly.

Also, there are many meanings of terms that are not valuable in an encyclopedia. They would be in a dictionary but Wikipedia is not a dictionary. So it is not useful to describe those other meanings in Wikipedia articles.

While we are all happy that Simple English Wikipedia is growing in size, some see size as a bad idea when the basic idea is forgotten -- making an encyclopedia.

While Wikipedia is not a dictionary, our companion project Wiktionary is. Wikipedia articles that are only dictionary definitions should be given the tag {{Move to Wiktionary}}.

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[edit] Wikipedia is not a usage guide

Wikipedia is not made to say how words, idioms, etc., should be used. (But it may be important in the context of an encyclopedia article to say just how a word is used. For example, the article on freedom may have a discussion about this.)

By a simple extension of this, Wikipedia is not a guide for hacker/computer usage or other slang and idioms. We are not teaching people how to talk like a hacker or a Cockney chimney-sweep; we're writing an encyclopedia. (See here for a historical example.)

[edit] Wikipedia is not a genealogical dictionary

There are special reference works called genealogical dictionaries or biographical dictionaries. These focus mainly on the family relations (parents, spouses, children, etc.) of the article subject. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and focuses on the actions and contributions of an article subject. This means that many genealogical details should be removed for a better-flowing, more rounded article.

Biography articles should only be made for people with an achievement. A good measure of achievement is whether someone is featured in several external sources. Minor characters may of course be mentioned within other articles (e.g. Ronald Gay in Persecution of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgendered).

[edit] Good definitions

"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 on English Wikipedia)

A good definition is not circular, a one-word synonym or a near synonym, too broad or too narrow, ambiguous, figurative, or obscure.

[edit] See also