Hello, and welcome to Wiktionary!

If you have edited Wikipedia, you probably already know some basics, but Wiktionary does have a few conventions of its own. Please take a moment to learn our basics before jumping in.

First, all articles should be in our standard format, even if they are not yet complete. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with it. You can use one of our pre-defined article templates by typing the name of a non-existent article into the search box and hitting 'Go'. You can link Wikipedia pages, including your user page, using [[w:pagename]], {{pedia}}, or {{wikipedia}}.

Notice that article titles are case-sensitive and are not capitalized unless, like proper nouns, they are ordinarily capitalized (Poland or January). Also, take a moment to familiarize yourself with our criteria for inclusion, since Wiktionary is not an encyclopedia. Don't go looking for a Village pump – we have a Beer parlour. Note that while Wikipedia likes redirects, Wiktionary deletes most redirects (especially spelling variations), in favor of short entries. Please do not copy entries here from Wikipedia if they are in wikipedia:Category:Copy to Wiktionary; they are moved by bot, and will appear presently in the Transwiki: namespace.

A further major caveat is that a "Citation" on Wiktionary is synonymous with a "Quotation", we use these primary sources to construct dictionary definitions from evidence of the word being used. "References" (aka "Citations" on Wikipedia) are used predominantly for verifying Etymologies and usage notes, not the definitions themselves. This is partly to avoid copyright violation, and partly to ensure that we don't fall into the trap of adding "list words", or words that while often defined are never used in practice.

Note for experienced Wikipedians:
Wiktionary is run in a very different manner from Wikipedia and you will have a better experience if you do not assume the two are similar in culture. Please remember that despite your experience on Wikipedia, that experience may not always be applicable here. While you do not need to be an expert, or anything close to one, to contribute, please be as respectful of local policies and community practices as you can. Be aware that well-meaning Wikipedians have unfortunately found themselves blocked in the past for perceived disruption due to misunderstandings. To prevent a similar outcome, remember the maxim: be bold, but don't be reckless!
Having said that, we welcome Wikipedians, who have useful skills and experience to offer. The following are a couple of the most jarring differences between our projects that Wikipedians may want to learn up front, so things go smoothly for everyone. Changing policy pages on Wiktionary is very strongly discouraged. If you think something needs changing, please discuss it at the beer parlour, after which we may formally vote on the issue. You should also note that Wiktionary has very different user-space policies, we are here to build a dictionary and your user-page exists only to facilitate that. In particular we have voted to explicitly ban all userboxes with the exception of {{Babel}}; please do not create or use them.

We hope you enjoy editing Wiktionary and being a Wiktionarian. Equinox 19:58, 21 June 2019 (UTC)Reply

I post that when I'm afraid that a Wikipedian will come and create a trail of destruction. But you have been going around checking that you're doing it right. Haha. PERSONAL WELCOME <3 Equinox 20:28, 23 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
@Equinox I was afraid of the same thing, so I'm pleasantly surprised about the compliment; I'm glad to have received such a warm welcome from you and the folks at the Tea House. You all deserve way more appreciation for the fantastic work you do here, even if it often gets overshadowed by Wikipedia. I'm not sure how much I can contribute compared to Wikipedia, due both to the lack of obviously problematic articles and the more specialized knowledge required, but I'll give it a go. Maybe I'd be able to help out with the thesaurus if that's not already effectively done; I think I'd really enjoy that. Thanks again. TheTechnician27 (talk) 05:47, 24 June 2019 (UTC)Reply
If you are still interesting in thesaurus-ing, you should talk to User:AdamBMorgan, who does a lot of work on those pages. I tend to feel that 50% of a good thesaurus page is picking the best "base" word for it. But who knows... Equinox 09:12, 7 July 2019 (UTC)Reply
@Equinox Well, while Adam hasn't been on to reply back, I've found myself working on a sort of niche mini-project, namely a table for zodiac signs. I'm not into astrology, but I noticed that pages about these heavily related articles were largely disconnected from each other. I wanted to know what you think. TheTechnician27 (talk) 02:32, 5 November 2019 (UTC)Reply
Seems like a reasonable use of a table! Equinox 05:42, 8 November 2019 (UTC)Reply

Hiragana entries edit

Thanks for your contributions in Japanese. Please use {{ja-see}} in hiragana entries as it is now considered a preferred convention. See しんぱい, せいじょう. Shen233 (talk) 19:56, 23 August 2021 (UTC)Reply

Thank you! I'll learn the template and retroactively apply it to one of the entries I previously created, just to run it by you that I'm using it correctly. TheTechnician27 (talk) 20:01, 23 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
@Shen233: So over at いんばいふ (I created it after finding a red link at ; I'm disclaiming this just so I don't feel too awkward about it), I added the ja-see template. Should I have used ja-see-kango here instead of just ja-see? TheTechnician27 (talk) 20:10, 23 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
Here's what the original creator has to say about {{ja-see}} and {{ja-see-kango}},https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Template_talk:ja-see#Message_from_Dine2016. In short, I believe {{ja-see}} in vast majority of cases work well enough.Shen233 (talk) 21:23, 23 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
@Shen233: is ja-see also preferred for katakana entries, and/or entries with mixed kana? I added it over at ワインプレスき, and I just wanted to make sure.   TheTechnician27 (talk) 20:42, 23 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
Yeah, same for katakana or mixed kana entries, though I think they aren't as useful, no one will really search ワインプレスき...Shen233 (talk) 21:23, 23 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
I think they're rather useful for people like me who search using romaji, but I see what you mean. TheTechnician27 (talk) 21:50, 23 August 2021 (UTC)Reply

A goldmine of attestation edit

@Shen233: @Suzukaze-c: @Eirikr: I'm not sure if there's a discussion forum dedicated to specific languages (akin to a Wikiproject), but I wanted to share an insane source for attestation for Japanese entries. The Japanese Penal Code is available here and is fully translated into English. I stumbled upon this when creating the Japanese entry for 財物, and it's an official, sprawling document from the Minister of Justice with accompanying (technically unofficial, but seemingly pnly insofar as actual interpretation of the law goes, which is beyond our purpose) translation. The only thing it's really missing is the transliteration or kana for the kanji, but it has a direct translation for everything; you can even hover over the English words to see Japanese equivalents. TheTechnician27 (talk) 22:54, 28 August 2021 (UTC)Reply

Wiktionary talk:About Japanese is one usual place.
Very impressive, although I also imagine that legal code is not a good source for colloquial language :P But since legal terminology is boring in itself, it's probably an area we are lacking in. I see that we are missing an entry for 累犯. Doubtless many more can be found. —Suzukaze-c (talk) 23:04, 28 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
@Suzukaze-c: As a boring person, I resent that sort of slander. Joking aside, thank you for telling me about talk:AJ. I'll also take a look through the penal code and see what we may be missing. TheTechnician27 (talk) 03:26, 29 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
@Suzukaze-c: Lawdy mercy; it turns out there are tons of these translated documents. If you look at this homepage and click on one of the compounds next to 'Search by', each one of those has a ton of documents. Even just the first one has over 12 pages of translated Acts. I mean obviously there'll be many repeated words, but all of these documents have thousands of characters. It doesn't seem like they have hover text like the penal code (e.g. this one doesn't), but still: absolute insanity. TheTechnician27 (talk) 05:22, 29 August 2021 (UTC)Reply
Very cool! Something like the law category definitely could be expanded a lot. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:ja:Law Shen233 (talk) 04:41, 30 August 2021 (UTC)Reply

Template:table: edit

can you make a table for tastes like sweet/salty/sour etc? AleksiB 1945 (talk) 14:42, 10 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

I'd be more than happy to! I think that's a great idea! There are five basic tastes, so it'll probably just be a 1x5 table. Thank you for the idea; I'll be sure to credit you in the edit summary. TheTechnician27 (talk) 21:07, 11 May 2023 (UTC)Reply

Template:kinship: edit

Hey could you make a table for kinship terms like this or a simpler one like this? AleksiB 1945 (talk) 10:05, 3 January 2024 (UTC)Reply

I'll give it a shot and let you know what I come up with! TheTechnician27 (talk) 18:08, 3 January 2024 (UTC)Reply