EUSwiki:Manual of Style/Disambiguation pages
| 30px | This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions. Please ensure that any edits to this page reflect consensus. | </td></tr></table>
Disambiguation pages ("dab pages") are designed to help a reader find Wikipedia articles on different topics that could be referenced by the same search term, as described in the Disambiguation guideline. Disambiguation pages are not articles; they are aids in searching. This style guideline is intended to make the search more efficient, by giving disambiguation pages a consistent look and by avoiding distracting information. In brief, the pages should contain only disambiguation content, whether or not the page title contains the parenthetical (disambiguation). (This guideline does not apply to articles that are primary topics, even if the articles are prefaced by a "See also" hatnote or the like at the top of the page.) Template:Dabnav Template:TOClimit Page namingIn general, the title of a disambiguation page is the ambiguous term itself, provided there is no primary topic for that term. If there is already a primary topic, then "(disambiguation)" is added to the title of the disambiguation page, as in Jupiter (disambiguation). For more on how to title a disambiguation page, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation § Naming the disambiguation page. At the top of the pageThe first line of a disambiguation page should be the introductory line (see below) unless there is a link to Wiktionary using the templates shown below, in which case that should be the first line. If there is a link to the primary topic (see below), that line should appear before the introductory line, but after the Wiktionary link. Each of these three should begin its own line (the Wiktionary template creates a box on the right side of the page). Linking to WiktionaryWhen a dictionary definition should be included (see Wikipedia:Disambiguation § What not to include), rather than writing a text entry, create a cross-link to Wiktionary, one of the Wikimedia sister projects. To do this, use one of these Wiktionary link templates on the first line:
Be sure to check the links created by these templates, as Wiktionary's case sensitivity sometimes differs from Wikipedia's. (On the first letter, Wiktionary uses proper capitalization for its entries, unlike Wikipedia's use of an uppercase first letter for each page name.) Linking to a primary topicWhen a page has "(disambiguation)" in its title – i.e., it is the disambiguation page for a term for which a primary topic has been identified – users are most likely to arrive there by clicking on a top link from the primary topic article, generated by a template in the The primary topic is the one reached by using the disambiguation page title without the (disambiguation) qualifier. Capitalisation differences matter, so there will only be one primary topic for a title. Since it is unlikely that this primary topic is what readers are looking for if they have reached the disambiguation page, it should not be mixed in with the other links. It is recommended that the link back to the primary topic appear at the top, in a brief explanatory sentence. For instance:
When the ambiguous term has a primary topic but that article has a different title (so that the term is the title of a redirect), the primary topic line normally uses the redirect to link to that article:
Similarly for an acronym, initialism or alphabetism:
In some cases it may be clearer to link directly to the redirect target:
instead of the more awkward
Introductory lineTemplate:Also The term being disambiguated should be in bold (not italics). It should begin a sentence fragment ending with a colon, introducing a bulleted list:
Where several variants of a term are being disambiguated together, significant variants may be included in the lead sentence. For example:
However, it is not necessary to mention minor variations of capitalization, punctuation or diacritics. For example, AU may refer to: is preferable to "AU, au, Au or A-U may refer to"; and Saiyuki may refer to: is preferable to "Saiyuki, Saiyūki or Saiyûki may refer to". Individual entriesAfter the introductory line comes a list of individual entries – lines which direct the readers to Wikipedia articles on the various topics which might be referenced by the term being disambiguated. Keep in mind that the primary purpose of the disambiguation page is to help people find the specific article they want quickly and easily. Example:
Apply the following rules when constructing entries:
In most cases the title of the target article will be an expansion or variation of the term being disambiguated (as in the example above). If this is the case:
In some cases, however, the target article title is not an expansion or variation of the term being disambiguated.Template:Clarification needed For these cases see §§ Red links and Items appearing within other articles below. Note also the following points when constructing lists of entries:
<span id="Specific_instances" />Examples of individual entries that should not be createdDo not include entries for topics that are not ambiguous (according to the linked article) with the title. Use list articles for lists of related topics if needed. On a page called Title, do not create entries merely because Title is part of the name (see Wikipedia:Disambiguation § Partial title matches). Common examples:
The above does not apply if the subject is commonly referred to simply by Title. For instance, Oxford (disambiguation) should link to University of Oxford and Catalina might include Santa Catalina Island, California. If there is disagreement about whether this exception applies, it is often best to assume that it does. When multiple articles contain Title but are not referred to by it, You may want to create entries on the same page for:
Given names or surnamesPersons who have the ambiguous term as surname or given name should be listed in the body of the disambiguation page if they are frequently referred to simply by the single name (e.g., Elvis, Shakespeare). Otherwise, small numbers of name holders can be added to the "See also" section, below the main disambiguation list. For longer lists, create an anthroponymy list article and link to it from the disambiguation page. If it isn't clear that the article includes a list, consider mentioning that in the description. For example:
Articles only listing persons with a certain given name or surname, known as anthroponymy articles, are not disambiguation pages, and this Manual of Style does not apply to them. Anthroponymy articles follow their own style standards. For those articles, do not use MisspellingsCommon misspellings should be listed only if there is a genuine risk of confusion or misspelling. These cross-links should be placed in a separate section entitled "Common misspellings" or "See also". For example, in a page called Kington (disambiguation), a link to Kingston (disambiguation) would appropriately be included in the "See also" section. Piping and redirectsTemplate:Redirect Piping and redirects are two different mechanisms which allow the displayed text of a link to differ from the title of the page that the link points to. Piping and redirects should not generally be used on disambiguation pages, except as described below.
Subject to certain exceptions as listed below, piping or redirects should not be used in disambiguation pages. This is to make it clear to the reader which article is being suggested. For example, on the disambiguation page Moment, in the entry Moment (physics), " (physics)" should be visible to the reader. In many cases, what would be hidden by a pipe is exactly what the user would need in order to find their intended article. However, raw section and anchor points should not be displayed; see § Section and anchor point linking for those cases. Though piping and redirects should generally not be used in disambiguation pages, there are certain cases in which they may be useful to the reader: Where redirecting may be appropriate
Where piping may be appropriate
Section and anchor point linkingSection and anchor points in links should not be visible to the reader (e.g.,
When creating a redirect to a section, add the template Specific entry typesExternal linksExternal links do not belong on disambiguation pages; they should not be used. Foreign languagesFor foreign-language terms, be sure an article exists or could be written for the word or phrase in question. Usually this means that the term has been at least partially adopted into English or is used by specialists.
Avoid adding foreign words or phrases that are merely translations of an English term. For example, do not include:
Instead, consider linking to Wiktionary. PeopleFor people, include their birth and death years (when known), and only enough descriptive information that the reader can distinguish between different people with the same name. Keep in mind the conventions for birth and death dates—see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Dates of birth and death. Do not include a, an or the before the description of the person's occupation or role.
PlacesFor places, it may only be necessary to write the name of the article.
It may be appropriate to add the country after the link. Leave the country unlinked.
Red linksA link to a non-existent article (a "red link") should only be included on a disambiguation page when an article (not just disambiguation pages) also includes that red link. Do not create red links to articles that are unlikely ever to be written, or are likely to be removed as insufficiently notable topics. To find out if any article uses the red link, click on it, and then click "What links here" on the toolbox on the left side of the page. If the only pages that use the red link are disambiguation pages, do one of the following:
In the following (made-up) example, the architectural motif is judged to be appropriate for a future article, but the noodle is not; therefore, only the entry for the architectural motif includes a red link (and this assumes that the fictitious "flibbygibby" entries are described in their respective linked articles):
SynonymsIf the link is to a synonym, simply use it as it is named:
Items appearing within other articlesIf a topic does not have an article of its own, but is mentioned within another article, then a link to that article should be included. In this case, the link does not start the line, but it should still be the only blue wikilink. For example:
It is often useful to link to the relevant section of the target page using anchors and conceal that by making it a piped link. For examples, see "Where piping may be appropriate" under § Exceptions, above. If the title is not mentioned on the other article, that article should not be linked to in the disambiguation page, since linking to it would not help readers find information about the sought topic. Acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviationsMany pages serve primarily to disambiguate short letter combinations that can represent various acronyms and initialisms. When considering articles to include in the list, it is important that each individual entry is referred to its respective abbreviation within its article. For example:
The second entry is incorrect because the article that it refers to, the British Soap Awards, does not mention that it is abbreviated "BSA", and therefore is unlikely to be searched for by that letter combination. The Boy Scouts of America page, however, notes that the organization is abbreviated "BSA", and would thus be a likely candidate for someone searching that initialism. See also WP:DABABBREV. OrganizationOrdering
The following guidelines describe the appropriate ordering of disambiguation pages:
Example ordering
Grouping by subject areaSometimes the sheer number of topics can make it difficult for a reader to find a particular topic on a disambiguation page. In these cases, it can be helpful to separate entries by subject sections. Section headings should be as simple as possible; Sports is preferred to Sports people or Sports figures, since the nature of the category (people, in this case) should be obvious. Subject areas should be chosen carefully to simplify navigation. Use subject areas that are well-defined, and that group the entries into similarly sized sections. Very small sections may impede navigation, and should usually be avoided. Entries which don't fit neatly into any section should be placed in an "Other uses" section or subsection, at the bottom of the page or section (but above any "See also" section). The "Other uses" section should be relatively short; if it becomes excessively long, it may indicate that the page should be reorganized. Keep in mind that a particular division scheme may not work equally well on all disambiguation pages. An example:
On longer lists, section headings should be used instead of, or in addition to, bold headings. Using more than one level may be necessary, as on Aurora (disambiguation). Always use ==Level two== as the highest-level header. Section headings should not include links. See Wikipedia:Writing better articles § Headings for more. On longer lists, Images and templatesIncluding images and transcluding templates are discouraged unless they aid in selecting between articles on the particular search term in question. Examples of this are the images at Congo (disambiguation) and Mississippi Delta (disambiguation). Icons, including flag icons, should not be used on disambiguation pages. Only if flag topics are being disambiguated and images are needed to do so, then flag icons or flag images might be added. See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Icons. The disambig notice and categorizationTemplate:See also After all of the disambiguation content (including the See also section, if present), but before any categories (see below) or interlanguage links, a template should be placed identifying the page as a disambiguation page. This generates a message to the reader explaining the purpose of the page, and also places the page in the appropriate category or categories. The usual template to use is If a disambiguation page consists exclusively of items in one of the more specific classes, then a specific template should be used instead of If a disambiguation page needs cleaning up to bring it into conformance with this style manual, use Do not use Most disambiguation pages do not need to be placed into any categories other than those generated by the template. If such cases do arise (for example, specific categories of personal names that do not have corresponding template parameters), then the additional categories should be placed after the template. If new topical categories of disambiguation pages seem to be needed, please bring this up for discussion at Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation. ExceptionsSet index articlesSet index articles are list articles about a set of items of a specific type that have similar or identical names. Set index articles are not disambiguation pages and do not have to follow the style outlined on this page. Note that the set index article exception was designed to be narrow: for pages that contain links to articles about different topics, please follow this style guide for disambiguation pages. An example of a set index article is a list of ships with the same name, such as HMS Albatross. For more information about such ship lists, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Ships/Guidelines § Index pages. Disambiguation pages with only two entriesSome disambiguation pages with "(disambiguation)" in the title list only two meanings, one of them being the primary topic. In such cases, the disambiguation page is not strictly necessary, but is harmless. The recommended practice in these situations is to place a hatnote on the primary topic article to link directly to the secondary topic. The If neither of the two meanings is primary, then a normal disambiguation page is used at the base name. When to break Wikipedia rulesTemplate:See also Application of these guidelines will generally produce useful disambiguation pages which are consistent with each other and therefore easily usable by most readers. Usefulness to the reader is their principal goal. However, for every style recommendation above, there may be pages in which a good reason exists to use another way; so ignore these guidelines if doing so will be more helpful to readers than following them. See also |
