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This page deals with the specific issues of English entries on Wiktionary. For language-independent guidelines for entries seeWiktionary:Entry layout.
This policy applies to the Modern and Early Modern English language, starting around the beginning of the 16th century.
The following languages have their own language codes and are out of scope for this policy:
The following creoles and pidgins are similarly excluded:
Obviously, English is written in the Latin script. At various times, other scripts have been experimentally used to write English, most notably theDeseret script and theShavian script, both of which were used in several durably-archived publications. However, on Wiktionary, only the Latin script is to be used for English entry titles, excepting individual letter entries such as𐑐 (Shavian/p/) and special cases such asな-adjective and🧵s.
See thehistory of English language on Wikipedia. The ancestors of Modern English (1500 to present) are, in order:Middle English (1150 to 1500),Old English (450 to 1150),Proto-Germanic, andProto-Indo-European.
Webster’s early dictionaries used three terms where Wiktionary and modern convention is to use two. Thus, where Webster uses “AS.” (Anglo-Saxon), we speak of “Old English”; where Webster uses “OE.” (Old English), we speak of “(the early period of) Middle English”; where Webster uses “ME.” (Middle English), we speak of “(the late period of) Middle English”.
English has also borrowed extensively from other languages. Key waves of borrowings into English are fromOld Norse (non);Anglo-Norman (xno);French (fr);Latin (la; seeLatin influence in English); andAncient Greek (grc). Note however that many French words were borrowed via Anglo-Norman (fromOld French (fro)), with the main borrowing from French happening from the 14th century withMiddle French (frm); many Latin words were borrowed via French, and others areclassical compounds, which instead of being borrowed are modern coinages based on nativizedcombining forms (e.g.,biology is not borrowed from Ancient Greek, but is coined frombio- +-logy); and many Ancient Greek words were borrowed via Latin (and often then via French), and others are classical compounds. In modern times, English has borrowed from a great many languages.
SeeAppendix:English pronunciation
UK English pronunciations should give theReceived Pronunciation of the entry.
Ther phoneme used in English in words likered,green andorange is to be represented with/ɹ/ instead of/r/, except in accents where it is actually a trill.[1]
If a word is spelled differently in different standard varieties of English, the spelling (that is, the entry) which was created first is made the lemma; to avoid unmaintainable duplication of content, other spellings soft-redirect to it.
The orthography of abbreviations (e.g.Rev.), acronyms (e.g.AIDS) and initialisms (e.g.CEO) have several regional and historical differences. Here we outline the spelling that the “main” entries for these terms should have as well as list acceptable differences that can be soft-redirects to the main entry.
Historically, with a less literate population, all types of abbreviations were written with periods to denote the deleted parts of the original term. Today this usage is not as common. The main entry for acronyms, initialisms, and “contraction” abbreviations (e.g.Dr for “Doctor”) should be spelled without a period whereas “truncation” abbreviations (abbr. for “abbreviation”) should be spelled with a period. An exception to this rule is when the reverse form is vastly more common (e.g.P.S. forpostscript). Ellipsis may also be shown using the slash ‘/’ (w/o anda/c) and numbers representing the length of deleted part (sol10n forlocalization). Common variants include:
Almost all initialisms and acronyms are spelled with all letters capitalized. Exceptions include words that have become fully naturalized over time (laser is more common now thanLASER) and cases where individual letters may be lower-case if for instance they were not a word-initial letter in the original term (PhD). Abbreviations are in all lower-case (km forkilometer) except where the originally term was capitalized (soLev. forLeviticus). Common variants include:
The main entry for initialisms and acronyms should be spelled without spaces, so ‘U.S.’ instead of ‘U. S.’ (note: for this example, ‘US’ is the main entry).
The traditional style of pluralizing single letters with the addition of-’s (for example,B’s come after A’s) was extended to some of the earliest initialisms. Modern usage however inflects all types of abbreviations like nouns by adding-s (e.g.MPs). The logic here is that the apostrophe should be restricted to possessives: for example,theCD’s label (the label of the compact disc). There are some exceptions:
Many phrases take several forms. It is not necessary to include every conceivable variant. When present, minor variants should simply redirect to the main entry. For the main entry, prefer the most generic and simplistic form.
Prefer the generic personal pronoun,one orone’s orsomeone orsomeone’s, to pronouns likeyou orhis. Thus,feel one’s oats is preferable tofeel his oats. Use of other personal pronouns, especially in the singular, should be avoided except where they are essential to the meaning. For pronouns in verb phrases, “one(’s)” and “oneself” are used to indicate that the referent is usually the same as the subject of the (reflexive) verb and “someone(’s)” is used to indicate that the referent is often different from the subject. The pronounsomeone is preferred in entry titles tosomebody, thesomebody forms may exist as redirects to thesomeone forms in these cases
Omit an initial article unless it makes a difference in the meaning. For example,bomb andthe bomb have distinct meanings. Another example of a phrase that typically appears with an article isthe bends.
Use the infinitive form of the verb (but without “to”) for the principal verb of a verbal phrase. Thus for the sayingIt’s raining cats and dogs, orIt was raining cats and dogs, orI think it’s going to rain cats and dogs any minute now, orIt’s rained cats and dogs for the last week solid the entry should be atrain cats and dogs. The other variants are derived by the usual rules of grammar (including the use ofit with weather terms and otherimpersonal verbs).
A proverb entry’s title begins with a lowercase letter, whether it is a full sentence or not. The first word may still be capitalized on its own:
This is basically a level 3 header but may be a level 4 or higher 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. The classical parts of speech are:
Additional commonly used grammatical headers are:
In addition to these headers, there are other descriptors that identify the usage of the entry, but which are not (strictly speaking) parts of speech:
Certain oddities of the way in which numbers are used in English has led to the use of:
Debated headers
Many multi-word terms can readily be assigned to such categories as Noun or Verb. Those categories are taken to mean “noun phrase” or “verb phrase” respectively. Phrasal verbs are assigned to the category “Verb”. Many idioms have grammatical forms of noun or verb phrases. Some multi-word entries may be adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, or interjections. In some cases the appropriate category is not at all obvious and may be disputed by grammar authorities. In such cases the category and header “Phrase” may be appropriate. Prepositional phrases should be placed inCategory:English prepositional phrases and shown are Adverbs and/or Adjectives by their common use. Most prepositional phrases can function both as if they were adjectives and as if they were adverbs. It is sometimes hard to distinguish nouns used attributively and adjectives, butWiktionary:English adjectives outlines some tests.
Proverbs are a special category that usually has the form of a sentence and always the force of a sentence. They may be elliptical references to a full sentence that constitutes the underlying proverb. We have yet to formalize criteria for determining whether a given entry should appear under a Proverb rather than a Phrase header.
Multiword terms may merit inclusion in categories which indicate their grammar more precisely than the header, such asCategory:English prepositional phrases orCategory:English phrasal verbs. Some entries (not Proverbs) are full sentences with noun as subject and verb and should be placed inCategory:English sentences. Items appearing under the Phrase header, in particular, may need some further grammatical categorization.
Aside from Wiktionary's generalcriteria for inclusion, there are some restrictions specific to English.
It is community consensus not to provide entries for Modern English possessive forms which are formed by adding theenclitics-’s or-’, and which are otherwise notidiomatic (with the single exception of the pronounone’s). Pronunciation transcriptions for possessive forms of words, if necessary, can be given in the pronunciation sections of the words’ entries.EXPLANATIONVOTE
When they meetWiktionary's criteria for inclusion, single-word comparative and superlative forms such asnewer,newest,faster, andfastest are allowed. Comparatives and superlatives formed usingmore andmost arenot considered idiomatic and should not have their own entries. For example,more excitable andmost excitable do not exist.
English headword-line templates should be used on theheadword line for all English entries. They list the headword and its key inflections, providing consistent layout and giving the Wiktionary community the flexibility to evolve inflection lines’ display styles, automatic categorization, and personalization options (seeWT:CUSTOM). If no headword-line template is available for a particular situation, the generic template{{head}} should be used. Writing the headword directly in the page surrounded by three quotes ('''word''') was done in the past, but this is obsolete and the appropriate template should be used instead.
All of the templates here should be transcluded (e.g. {{en-noun}}), they do not work when substituted (e.g. {{subst:en-noun}}). For regular entries, parameters are often not required. For instructions on how to use each of the individual templates, see their documentation pages.
For multi-word proper entries, the headword can be overridden with the parameterhead= to specify wiki syntax (e.g. “{{en-noun|head=...|...s}}”, “{{en-verb|head=...|...s|...ing|...d}}”, and “{{en-adj|head=...|...er|...est}}”).
Use{{en-noun}} for most nouns.{{en-noun|p}} is used for plural nouns that have no singular form. A quick guide:
| code | result |
|---|---|
{{en-noun}} | noun (pluralnouns) |
{{en-noun|es}} | church (pluralchurches) |
{{en-noun|belfries}} | belfry (pluralbelfries) |
{{en-noun|-}} | awe (uncountable) |
{{en-noun|~}} | beer (countable anduncountable,pluralbeers) |
{{en-noun|?}} | awe |
{{en-noun|chairmen}} | chairman (pluralchairmen) |
See more examples atTemplate:en-noun/documentation.
For{{en-verb}}. Many verbs form the third-person singular by adding-s, the past by adding-ed, and the present participle by adding-ing. For such verbs, no parameters are necessary:
| code | result |
|---|---|
{{en-verb}} | play (third-person singular simple presentplays,present participleplaying,simple past and past participleplayed) |
{{en-verb|scratch|es}} | scratch (third-person singular simple presentscratches,present participlescratching,simple past and past participlescratched) |
{{en-verb|free|d}} | free (third-person singular simple presentfrees,present participlefreeing,simple past and past participlefreed) |
{{en-verb|admir|ing}} | admire (third-person singular simple presentadmires,present participleadmiring,simple past and past participleadmired) |
{{en-verb|sets|setting|set}} | set (third-person singular simple presentsets,present participlesetting,simple past and past participleset) |
{{en-verb|does|doing|did|done}} | do (third-person singular simple presentdoes,present participledoing,simple pastdid,past participledone) |
{{en-verb| [[works]] | [[working]] | '''[[worked]]''' ''or obsolete'', '''[[wrought]]'''}} | work (third-person singular simple presentworks,present participleworking,simple past and past participleworkedor obsolete,wrought) |
Multi-word verbs have a little more code to add: asterisks and commas.
| code | result |
|---|---|
{{en-verb|*}} | play up (third-person singular simple presentplays up,present participleplaying up,simple past and past participleplayed up) |
{{en-verb|set<,,set> up}} | set up (third-person singular simple presentsets up,present participlesetting up,simple past and past participleset up) |
Use{{en-adj}} to show the inflection line of an English adjective.
This template shows the adjective in bold (optionally linking its components) and its comparative and superlative inflections, if any.
| code | result |
|---|---|
{{en-adj}} | beautiful (comparativemore beautiful,superlativemost beautiful) |
{{en-adj|er}} | tall (comparativetaller,superlativetallest) |
{{en-adj|later}} | late (comparativelater,superlativelatest) |
{{en-adj|better|sup=best}} | good (comparativebetter,superlativebest) |
{{en-adj|er|more}} | abject (comparativeabjecterormore abject,superlativeabjectestormost abject) |
{{en-adj|-}} | annual (notcomparable) |
{{en-adj|?}} | disliked |
Use{{en-adv}} to show the inflection line of an English adverb.
This template shows the adverb in bold (optionally linking its components) and its comparative and superlative inflections, if any.
| code | result |
|---|---|
{{en-adv}} | beautifully (comparativemore beautifully,superlativemost beautifully) |
{{en-adv|er}} | fast (comparativefaster,superlativefastest) |
{{en-adv|later}} | late (comparativelater,superlativelatest) |
{{en-adv|better|sup=best}} | well (comparativebetter,superlativebest) |
{{en-adv|-}} | uniquely (notcomparable) |
{{en-adv|?}} | relatedly |
These templates are generally placed on entries without any modification, although some will need|head= to be specified (or occasionally|nolink=1) to override the default linking algorithm.
{{en-head|conj}}{{en-intj}}{{en-head|prep}}{{en-head|det}}{{en-head|contr}}{{en-prefix}}{{en-head|infix}}{{en-suffix}}{{en-head|art}}Templates for types of entries that will not need much more work:
{{en-proper noun}}{{en-pron}}As the native language of this Wiktionary, English is given special treatment. Firstly, entries and policies are written in English, and where an entry contains multiple language sections, including an English section, the English section is listed first (behind only Translingual sections, because those are for words used in Englishand other languages). In addition, translations sections areonly given on English pages, perWT:ELE#Translations — foreign terms are only translated into English, not into other foreign languages.