User:Visviva/Model entries

A complete entry is an entry or language section that presents its subject word in a way that is comprehensive, accurate, and accessible to a diverse and multilingual audience.

A complete entry will be suitable for use as an example of how an optimal entry of its kind should be written. At this time, no such model entries have been defined, and our formal policies have focused primarily on minimum standards.

The following criteria are proposed specifically for English entries, but are expected to be similar to those that would apply across the board to non-English terms.

Criteria

Alternative forms and spellings

• The entry should list all eligible alternative forms, spellings and capitalizations, using a show/hide box if necessary.
• Necessary contextual information (e.g. "obsolete", "US only") should be provided and supported by the linked entry

Etymology

• The etymology should be thorough, and should include every etymon for which there is scholarly consensus, as well as a representative selection of cognates. Any disputes in current scholarship should also be reflected.
• The etymology should be referenced from authoritative works.

Pronunciation

• The pronunciation section should include IPA, ENPR, SAMPA and audio representations of (at least) British and North American pronunciations.
• Applicable homophone and rhyme links should be included.

Senses

• The list of senses should be comprehensive. Specifically, any distinct and attestable sense which can be found in a major dictionary or through a casual check of Wikipedia and Google Definitions should be included.
• All appropriate context tags, including distinctions such as transitivity and countability, should be applied.
• Every sense should be exemplified, either through a constructed example or through a citation. Citations should be used for those senses which are not common knowledge.
• Senses and examples (including citations) should be as accessible as possible, in terms of both grammar and vocabulary. In general, words not found in some canonical list of basic words should be avoided in the definitions and examples for non-technical senses. Any abstruse synonyms and hypernyms should be offloaded to the appropriate subsections.
• Every illustrable sense should be illustrated with an image.
• The style should be consistent. While there is no consensus on whether sense lines should begin with a capital letter, or end with a period, nonetheless, within an entry, stylistic consistency should be rigorously enforced.

Usage notes

• Any common issues which are documented in major usage guides should be mentioned and referenced. Suitable examples, either constructed or drawn from real use, should be provided.

Nyms

• Synonyms, antonyms, coordinate terms et al. should be listed comprehensively. In many cases this means that a short summary -- either a greatest-hits list or a narrative exposition -- should be given, followed by a link to a suitably comprehensive Wikisaurus page.

Derived terms

• The list should be comprehensive. Specifically, any CFI-meeting derived term found in a major dictionary should be listed, in addition to any such terms already found on Wiktionary.
• If the list is large, it should be broken down by senses if possible.

Derived terms

• The list should be comprehensive. Specifically, any CFI-meeting derived term found in a major dictionary should be listed, in addition to any such terms already found on Wiktionary.
• If the list is large, it should be broken down by senses if possible.

Related terms

• All terms with a close morphological or etymological relationship to the entry should be listed.

Translations

• A model entry should have translations from at least 20 major world languages for every applicable sense.
• All translations should use {{t}} et al. as appropriate.

See also

• Appropriate sister-project links for all relevant senses should be included.

Entry structure

• Senses should be referred to consistently throughout all applicable sections.
• All aspects of the entry should conform to existing standards including WT:ELE.

Considerations for entry improvement

• A careful audit of senses should precede intensive work on other sections. For example, work done on translations may end up having to be redone if the senses have to be reorganized.
• Each sense line in each applicable subsection may constitute a project of its own. For example, to secure thorough coverage of a single concrete noun sense, the following challenges must be addressed: definition, exemplification, illustration, translation, synonyms, meronyms, hyponyms, hypernyms, coordinate terms, derived terms (if applicable), and sister projects. Thus a high-frequency word with 40 senses (not at all unusual) presents around 400 distinct challenges. This is one reason why such entries have tended to languish.