Wiktionary

Wiktionary:Foreign Word of the Day/Nominations

< Wiktionary:Foreign Word of the Day
Shortcuts:
WT:FW
WT:FWOTDN

This project handles the daily foreign language word posted on the main page. It mimics the English Word of the Day. Nominations may be in any language other than English.

Here’s a checklist for nominations:

  1. Is it foreign? For nomination of English words, see Word of the Day.
  2. Is it non-offensive? Don’t nominate if it would be embarrassing to have someone’s boss or grandmother overhear.
  3. It hasn’t been lauded elsewhere recently, right? We want Wiktionary to be original, not a copycat.
  4. Do we have an entry for it? An entry needs to be created first, or you could request it.

Before a nominated word is featured, it needs to meet certain requirements:

  1. Words in well-documented languages need to have at least one CFI-compliant quotation and a pronunciation section with an audio file or IPA transcription.
  2. Words in ancient, barely attested languages need to have at least one quotation or reference.
  3. Words in other languages need to meet either of the following criteria:
    1. A pronunciation section with audio or IPA, and either a reference from an appropriate resource or a quotation.
    2. Two independent quotations/references.
  4. Terms currently in RFC, RFV, or RFD whose problems have not been resolved by those discussions will not be accepted.
  5. Entries may be required to have images of their headword available on Commons if the script they are in is not widely supported (e.g., Kannada or Phoenician).

Ideal candidates include entries that are fairly complete, having a considerable amount of information, or words with unusual meanings, for instance:

  • A word for an item or idea with which most English speakers are unfamiliar.
  • A false friend, a word that an English speaker would assume to have a different meaning.
  • A word with a couple of well-known definitions that have very different English translations.
  • A word whose primary definition incorporates a range of somewhat varied concepts in English.
  • An idiom or unusual expression, or anything else you think might be interesting.

Nominate a new word

Focus weeksEdit

Every so often, focus weeks are held in the Foreign Word of the Day. During focus weeks, we choose words or phrases with a certain theme, highlight languages with some special features, or show words that have particularly interesting or unusual properties. Proposals for focus weeks can be found at Wiktionary:Foreign Word of the Day/Focus weeks.

General nominationsEdit

ReadyEdit

AfricaEdit
AmericasEdit
AsiaEdit
EuropeEdit
Minor or extinct European languageEdit
OceaniaEdit
Constructed languageEdit

Not readyEdit

Africa (not ready)Edit
Americas (not ready)Edit
Asia (not ready)Edit