A glossary of terms used in the Wiktionary community. see also Appendix:Glossary - which contains terms used in the body of this dictionary. (There is also the Wikipedia:Glossary)



Table of Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


  • Accessibility - the ease with which web pages may be navigated and read, especially by those with disabilities.
  • Adj., -adjadjective. E.g.: {{en-adj}}
  • Adv., -advadverb. E.g.: {{en-adv}}
  • AF, AutoFormatទំព័រគំរូ:user, an all-purpose formatting-bot created and operated by ទំព័រគំរូ:user.
  • AGFassume good faithA general principle of public wikis.
  • AHDAmerican Heritage Dictionary. See {{enPR}}.
  • 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.
  • archaic – The definition is no longer in general use, but still found in some contemporary texts (e.g., the Bible). Examples: thee and thou (for you). Generally understood by educated people, but rarely used in current texts or speech. Compare with obsolete and dated. This definition is currently under active debate in Wiktionary:Obsolete and archaic terms
  • 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 his/her own edits. See Wiktionary:Whitelist.
  • 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 - a link to an existing Wiktionary (or other Wikimedia) page; contrast redlink
  • bookmark - the term Frontpage uses for the anchor HTML tag.
  • bot - an automated or semiautomated process used to perform tasks on Wiktionary, an abbreviated form of robot.
  • BP - the Beer Parlour discussion forum for general policy discussions and proposals, requests for permissions and major announcements. E.g.: WT:BP.
  • bugzilla - The bug tracking system for the MediaWiki software used on Wiktionary, Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia wikis, homepage bugzilla.wikimedia.org.
  • dat - the dative case. Caution: dat is also the ISO 639-3 code for the Darang Deng language.
  • dated – still in use, but generally only by older people, and considered unfashionable or superseded, particularly by younger people. Examples: wireless (in sense "broadcast radio tuner"), groovy, gramophone, gay (in the senses of "bright", "happy", etc.) Compare with obsolete and archaic This definition is currently under active debate in Wiktionary:Obsolete and archaic terms
  • desysop - To revoke the admin privileges of a Wikimedia administrator.
  • dewikify - To convert one or more intra-wiki links to plain words.
  • ecsee edit conflict
  • ed. – editor, edition – often used in quotations.
  • edit conflict – what occurs when someone tries to save a page that he started editing before its latest revision was saved; see Help:Edit conflict
  • ELE - Entry layout explained, the style guide for Wiktionary
  • emphatic pronoun -
    English: a reflexive pronoun (eg yourself) used for emphasis (eg you must do it yourself.)
    Greek: a structurally independent personal pronoun, in contrast with weak or clitic prounouns.
  • enEnglish
    • enWP or enwiki – English Wikipedia
    • enwikt – English Wiktionary
  • estEstonia, Estonian
  • etymon – the source word in an etymology
  • extant – Of a word, in current use (as opposed to archaic or obsolete).
  • f – of feminine gender
  • FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions
  • FL, fl – foreign language
  • fpl – feminine plural. Caution: this abbreviation has the same form as an ISO 639-3 code.
  • Fr, frFrench
  • 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. līber), entries without Unicode representation (e.g. sign language entries and hieroglyphics like wi), 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.
  • historical – Means included for historical information; the thing it refers to is not in current use or no longer exists; e.g. blueshirt, Czechoslovakia. This does not mean the same as "obsolete"; while the thing referred to is obsolete, the word that refers to it is extant.
  • L1, L2, etc. – the first-level, second-level, etc. headers on any Wiktionary page, corresponding to (and generating) HTML elements <h1>, <h2>, etc.
  • lemma – the citation form of an inflected word, especially the form found in bilingual or abridged dictionaries. For verbs, this is usually either the infinitive, or the first-person singular present tense form (depending on the language); for nouns, this is usually the nominative singular (in languages with case and number); and for adjectives, this is usually the nominative singular masculine or neuter form. The plural of lemma is traditionally lemmata, but the form lemmas exists as well.
  • lemming – a dictionary (with the implication that trusting other dictionaries, rather than real-world usage, might be blindly unwise).
  • lexeme – roughly: the abstract "word" underlying a set of inflections; for example, gives and given belong to the same lexeme, which is usually identified by its lemma form give. See also: (1) Wikipedia on lexeme, (2) Wiktionary:Languages with more than one grammatical gender, (3) conjugation (above, on this list) and (4) declension (also above).
  • list word - A word that while frequently defined in lists, has no actual usage.
  • LOP - Wiktionary:List of protologisms, see protologism
  • m – of masculine gender
  • m.pl – masculine plural
  • MediaWiki – the software that runs Wiktionary
  • Monobook – the name used for the CSS file used to control the appearance of Wiktionary on your web browser.
  • mpl – masculine plural, although m.pl may be preferred to avoid confusion with the ISO 639-3 code for the language Middle Watut.
  • n – of neuter gender
  • namespace - an optional prefix to a page title, eg "Help", "Template". Thus Help:How to check translations is a page within the "Help" namespace.
  • NISOP – non-idiomatic sum of parts: a term (such as "brown leaf") that can be understood from its constituent parts and is not an idiom, thus probably not suitable for inclusion in a dictionary.
  • nl – Netherlands, Dutch
  • nonce – said of a term that was coined for a particular utterance
  • NPOV – "Neutral Point of View". (Articles are meant to be written from a NPOV, not from a POV or particular Point Of View.)
  • ns/NS - namespace
  • p - plural
  • p.post or after, often used in quotations.
  • per nom - in accordance or agreement with the nomination.
  • periphrastic - using more words, eg more fair is a periphrastic form of fairer.
  • phrase – Sometimes called a "set phrase", a string of words which have a special meaning. In other words, if one of the words in the phrase is changed for another word of similar meaning, the entire phrase is altered. Flight simulator is a phrase because it has a special meaning that flying simulator doesn't. Cf idiom
  • plplural, although the abbreviation p is preferred, to avoid confusion with the ISO 639-1 code for the Polish language.
  • pluralia tantum – nouns with no singular form – see Category:English_pluralia_tantum
  • POSPart(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.
  • redlink — a link to a Wiktionary (or other Wikimedia) page that does not exist; contrast bluelink
  • 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
  • romanisation/romanization — a particular form of transliteration, where a non-Roman script is converted into the Roman one. (eg. singnómi in “συγγνώμη (singnómi)”). See tr.
  • rv — Revert to prior content.
  • rvv — Revert Vandalism.
  • ssingular
  • SAMPASAMPA, a set of systems for representing the phonemes of various languages in plain ASCII text.
    Not to be confused with X–SAMPA, the system for representing the full IPA in plain ASCII text.
  • sandbox - a page that users may edit in whatever way they want. There is a public sandbox at Wiktionary: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 template to select the optimal fonts for readers. Templates like {{t}} and {{term}} accept a parameter named {{{sc}}} to specify the script. Caution: the ISO 639-1 code sc is for the Sardinian language. See tr. E.g. {{term|sc=Grek|λόγος|tr=lógos}}
  • scap - specific to #wikimedia-tech channel: sync-common-all-php.
  • sg - Some templates use this abbreviation for singular, but the abbreviation s is preferred to avoid confusion with the ISO 639-1 code for the Sango language. E.g.: {{en-noun|sg=[[noun]] [[phrase]]}}
  • SILSIL International, formerly the Summer Institute of Linguistics; home of Ethnologue, and official registrar of the ISO 639 three-letter language codes (such as en 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.
  • 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.
  • strong pronoun - (Greek) an emphatic pronoun.
  • sum of parts, sum of its parts - See SoP.
  • 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 {{t}} and {{term}} 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. {{term|sc=Grek|λόγος|tr=lógos}}
  • tr., tran. – translator or translated, often used in quotations.
  • transclusion The inclusion of the contents of one page within another page, by calling up the first page as if it were a subroutine (in analogy to procedural programming). 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).
  • transliteration – the conversion of text in one script into an equivalent in another script. This may include the conversion of diacritical marks into alternate forms without diacritical marks (e.g., Mörder → Moerder).
  • TTBC - Ambiguous or possibly incorrect translations needing checking from a native speaker.
  • UK – UK English, i.e. The English of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the British Isles excluding the Irish Republic).
  • usex — usage example, an example sentence for a sense
  • UTCCoordinated Universal Time
  • !vote – A sarcastic reference to the essay Polls are evil, a reminder that wiki-voting is not binding, per se, but a useful tool nevertheless. The exclamation point is a computing term for "not".
  • VIP - Wiktionary:Vandalism in progress, a page to list recent vandalism sprees.
  • WEAE - acronym for Well-Enunciated American English
  • weak pronoun – a pronoun of one syllable which is dependent on another word and cannot be used on its own; sometimes called clitic. Compare with emphatic or strong.
  • 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
  • Wiktionarian - One who edits Wiktionary
  • WiktionaryZ - See OmegaWiki
  • WMF - Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., the parent organization of Wiktionary and other projects
  • WordNet - lexical database for the English language at Princeton University [១].
  • WP – Wikipedia