 | This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
| Manual of Style (MoS) |
|---|
|
This Manual of Style (MoS or MOS) is the style manual for all English Wikipedia articles (though provisions related to accessibility apply across the entire project, not just to articles). This primary page is supported by further detail pages, which are cross-referenced here and listed at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Contents. If any contradiction arises, this page has precedence.
Editors should write articles using straightforward, succinct, and easily understood language. Editors should structure articles with consistent, reader-friendly layouts and formatting (which are detailed in this guide).
Where more than one style or format is acceptable under the MoS, one should be used consistently within an article and should not be changed without good reason. Edit warring over stylistic choices is unacceptable.
New content added to this page should directly address a persistently recurring style issue.
Retaining existing styles
Sometimes the MoS provides more than one acceptable style or gives no specific guidance. When either of two styles is acceptable it is generally considered inappropriate for a Wikipedia editor to change from one style to another unless there is some substantial reason for the change.
Edit warring over style, or enforcing optional style in a bot-like fashion without prior consensus, is never acceptable.
Unjustified changes from one acceptable, consistently applied style in an article to a different style may generally be reverted. Seek opportunities for commonality to avoid disputes over style.
If you believe an alternative style would be more appropriate for a particular article, seek consensus by discussing this at the article's talk page or – if it raises an issue of more general application or with the MoS itself – at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style. If a discussion does not result in consensus for the change at the article, continue to use the already-established style there. If discussion fails to reach a consensus regarding which of two or more competing styles to use at all, then default to the style that was used in the first post-stub version of the article in which one of the applicable styles appeared. (This fall-back position does not give unchallengeable primacy to that particular style during consensus discussion, nor give the editor who imposed that earliest style any more say in the discussion.)
Article titles, sections, and headings
Article titles
A title should be a recognizable name or description of the topic, balancing the criteria of being natural, sufficiently precise, concise, and consistent with those of related articles.
For formatting guidance see the Wikipedia:Article titles § Article title format section, noting the following:
- Capitalize the initial letter (except in rare cases, such as eBay), but otherwise follow sentence case (Funding of UNESCO projects), not title case (Funding of UNESCO Projects), except where title case would be used in ordinary prose. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (capitalization).
- To italicize, add
{{italic title}}near the top of the article. For mixed situations, use, e.g.,{{DISPLAYTITLE:Interpretations of ''2001: A Space Odyssey''}}, instead. Use of italics should conform to Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting § Italic type. - Do not use articles (a, an, or the) as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The economy of the Second Empire), unless it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague) or of the title of a work (A Clockwork Orange, The Simpsons).
- Normally use nouns or noun phrases: Early life, not In early life.
- The final character should not be punctuation unless it is an inseparable part of a name (Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) or an abbreviation (Inverness City F.C.), or when a closing round bracket or quotation mark is required (John Palmer (1814 schooner)).
- Whenever quotation marks or apostrophe-like variants appear, add a redirect for the same title using apostrophes.
Subject both to the above and to Wikipedia:Article titles, the rest of the MoS, particularly § Punctuation, applies also to the title.
Section organization
An article's content should begin with an introductory lead section – a concise summary of the article – which is never divided into sections . The remainder of the article is typically divided into sections.
Infoboxes, images, and related content in the lead section must be right-aligned.
Certain standardized templates and wikicode that are not sections go at the very top of the article, before the content of the lead section, and in the following order:
- A short description, with the
{{Short description}}template - A disambiguation hatnote, most of the time with the
{{Hatnote}}template - No-output templates that indicate the article's established date format and English-language variety, if any (e.g.,
{{Use dmy dates}},{{Use Canadian English}}) - Banner-type maintenance templates, Dispute and Cleanup templates for article-wide issues that have been flagged (otherwise used at the top of a specific section, after any sectional hatnote such as
{{main}}) - An infobox, which is optional (except in special cases like
{{Taxobox}}and{{Chembox}}, or a variant thereof, at applicable articles); usually also includes the first image - An introductory image, when an infobox is not used, or an additional image is desired for the lead section (for unusually long leads, a second image can be placed midway through the lead text)
In the Vector 2022 skin, the table of contents is separate from the article content. In some older skins, a navigable table of contents appears automatically just after the lead if an article has at least four section headings.
If the topic of a section is covered in more detail in a dedicated article , insert {{main|Article name}} or {{further|Article name}} immediately under the section heading.
As explained in detail in Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout § Standard appendices and footers, several kinds of material (mostly optional) may appear after the main body of the article, in the following order:
- Books or other works created by the subject of the article, under a section heading "Works", "Publications", "Discography", "Filmography", etc. as appropriate (avoid "Bibliography", confusable with reference citations)
- Internal links to related English Wikipedia articles, with section heading "See also"
- Notes and references, with a section heading "Notes" or "References" (usually the latter), or a separate section for each in this order ; avoid "Bibliography", confusable with the subject's works
- Relevant books, articles, or other publications that have not been used as sources; use the section heading "Further reading"; be highly selective, as Wikipedia is not a bibliographic directory
- Relevant and appropriate websites that have not been used as sources and do not appear in the earlier appendices, using the heading "External links", which may be made a subsection of "Further reading" (or such links can be integrated directly into the "Further reading" list instead); link templates for sister-project content also usually go at the top of this section when it is present (otherwise in the last section on the page)
- The following final items never take section headings:
- Internal links organized into navigational boxes
- Authority control metadata, if needed, using
{{Authority control}}(distinguishes uses of the same name for two subjects, or multiple names for one subject) - Categories, which should be the very last material in the article's source code if there are no stub templates
- Stub templates, if needed, which should follow the categories
Stand-alone list articles have some additional layout considerations.
Section headings
Section headings should generally follow the guidance for article titles (above), and should be presented in sentence case (Funding of UNESCO projects in developing countries), not title case (Funding of UNESCO Projects in Developing Countries).
The heading must be on its own line, with one blank line just before it; a blank line just after is optional and ignored (but do not use two blank lines, before or after, because that will add unwanted visible space).
For technical reasons, section headings should:
- Be unique within a page, so that section links lead to the correct place.
- Not contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
- Not contain images or icons.
- Not contain <math> markup.
- Not contain citations or footnotes.
- Not misuse description list markup ("
;") to create pseudo-headings. - Not contain template transclusions.
These technical restrictions are necessary to avoid technical complications and are not subject to override by local consensus.
As a matter of consistent style, section headings should:
- Not redundantly refer back to the subject of the article, e.g., Early life, not Smith's early life or His early life.
- Not refer to a higher-level heading, unless doing so is shorter or clearer.
- Not be numbered or lettered as an outline.
- Not be phrased as a question, e.g., Languages, not What languages are spoken in Mexico?.
- Not use color or unusual fonts that may cause accessibility problems.
- Not be wrapped in markup, which may break their display and cause other accessibility issues.
These are broadly accepted community preferences.
A hidden comment on the same line must be inside the == == markup:
== Implications<!--This comment works fine.--> ==== <!--This comment works fine.-->Implications ==
== Implications == <!--This comment causes problems.--><!--This comment breaks the heading completely.--> == Implications ==
It is preferred to put such comments below the heading.
Before changing a heading, consider whether you might be breaking existing links to it. If there are many links to the old title, create an anchor with that title to ensure that these still work. Similarly, when linking to a section, leave an invisible comment at the heading of the target section, naming the linking articles, so that if the heading is later altered these can be easily fixed, or alternatively another anchor can be created if there are many. For (a combined) example:
==Implications{{subst:Anchor|Consequences}}==
<!-- Section linked from [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Daniel Dennett]]. -->which will be saved in the article as:
==Implications<span class="anchor" id="Consequences"></span>==
<!-- Section linked from [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Daniel Dennett]]. -->The advantage of using {{subst:Anchor}}, or simply inserting the <span> tags directly, is that when edits are made to the section in the future, the anchor will not be included in page history entries as part of the section name. When {{Anchor}} is used directly, that undesirable behavior does occur. Note: if electing to insert the span directly, do not abbreviate it by using a self-closing tag, as in ==Implications<span id="Consequences"/>==, since in HTML5 that XML-style syntax is valid only for certain tags, such as <br />. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking § Avoiding broken section links for further discussion.
Heading-like material
The above guidance about sentence case, redundancy, images, and questions also applies to headers of tables (and of table columns and rows). However, table headings can incorporate citations and may begin with, or be, numbers. Unlike page headings, table headers do not automatically generate link anchors. Aside from sentence case in glossaries, the heading advice also applies to the term entries in description lists. If using template-structured glossaries, terms will automatically have link anchors, but will not otherwise. Citations for description-list content go in the term or definition element, as needed.
National varieties of English
National varieties of English (for example, American English or British English) differ in vocabulary (elevator vs. lift ), spelling (center vs. centre), and occasionally grammar . Articles such as English plurals and Comparison of American and British English provide information about such differences. The English Wikipedia prefers no national variety over others.
An article's date formatting (February 24, 2025 vs. 24 February 2025) is also related to national varieties of English – see MOS:DATEFORMAT and especially MOS:DATETIES and MOS:DATEVAR.
Consistency within articles
The conventions of a particular variety of English should be followed consistently within a given article. Exceptions include:
- Quotations and titles of works (such as books, films, and music) should be given as they appear in sources. However, there are certain situations where this principle is not followed in order to maintain a level of typographic conformity across the encyclopedia: see § Typographic conformity.
- Proper names use the subject's own spelling, e.g., joint project of the United States Department of Defense and the Australian Defence Force; International Labour Organization.
- For articles about chemistry-related topics, the international standard spellings aluminium, sulfur, caesium (and derivative terms) should be used regardless of the variety of English otherwise employed in the article. See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (chemistry) § Element names.
Opportunities for commonality
For an international encyclopedia, using vocabulary common to all varieties of English is preferable.
- Use universally accepted terms rather than those less widely distributed, especially in titles. For example, glasses is preferred to the national varieties spectacles (British English) and eyeglasses (American English); ten million is preferable to one crore (Indian English).
- If a variant spelling appears in a title, make a redirect page to accommodate the others, as with artefact and artifact, so that all variants can be used in searches and linking.
- Terms that differ between varieties of English, or that have divergent meanings, may be glossed to prevent confusion, for example, the trunk (American English) or boot (British English) of a car ....
- Use a commonly understood word or phrase in preference to one that has a different meaning because of national differences (rather than alternate, use alternative or alternating, as appropriate), except in technical contexts where such substitution would be inappropriate (alternate leaves; alternate law).
- When more than one variant spelling exists within a national variety of English, the most commonly used current variant should usually be preferred, except where the less common spelling has a specific usage in a specialized context, e.g., connexion in Methodist connexionalism.
Strong national ties to a topic
An article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should use the (formal, not colloquial) English of that nation. For example:
- Afrikaners (South African English)
- American Civil War (American English)
- Australian Defence Force (Australian English)
- Christchurch (New Zealand English)
- Dublin (Hiberno-English)
- Fish River Canyon (Namibian English)
- Great Fire of London (British English)
- Lagos (Nigerian English)
- Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Pakistani English)
- Mumbai (Indian English)
- Vancouver (Canadian English)
- Wanchai Tower (Hong Kong English)
For topics with strong ties to Commonwealth of Nations countries and other former British territories, use Commonwealth English orthography, largely indistinguishable from British English in encyclopedic writing (excepting Canada, which uses a different orthography).
Retaining the existing variety
When an English variety's consistent usage has been established in an article, maintain it in the absence of consensus to the contrary. With few exceptions (e.g., when a topic has strong national ties or the change reduces ambiguity), there is no valid reason for changing from one acceptable option to another.
When no English variety has been established and discussion does not resolve the issue, use the variety found in the first post-stub revision that introduced an identifiable variety. The established variety in a given article can be documented by placing the appropriate variety of English template on its talk page.
An article should not be edited or renamed simply to switch from one variety of English to another. {{subst:uw-engvar}} may be placed on an editor's talk page to explain this.
Capital letters
Wikipedia article titles and section headings use sentence case, not title case; see Wikipedia:Article titles and § Section headings. For capitalization of list items, see § Bulleted and numbered lists. Other points concerning capitalization are summarized below. Full information can be found at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters. The central point is that Wikipedia does not capitalize something unless it is consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent, reliable sources.
Capitalization of The
Generally, do not capitalize the word the in mid-sentence: throughout the United Kingdom, not throughout The United Kingdom. Conventional exceptions include certain proper names (he visited The Hague) and most titles of creative works (Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings – but be aware that the might not be part of the title itself, e.g., Homer composed the Odyssey).
There are special considerations for: band names · institution names · nicknames · titles of works · trademarks.
Titles of works
The English-language titles of compositions (books and other print works, songs and other audio works, films and other visual media works, paintings and other artworks, etc.) are given in title case, in which every word is given an initial capital except for certain less important words (as detailed at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Capital letters § Composition titles). The first and last words in an English-language title are always capitalized.
- Correct: An Eye for an Eye
- Correct: Worth the Fighting For
Capitalization in non-English language titles varies, even over time within the same language; generally, retain the style of the original for modern works, and follow the usage in current English-language reliable sources for historical works. When written in the Latin alphabet, many of these items should also be in italics, or enclosed in quotation marks.
- Correct: Les Liaisons dangereuses
- Correct: "Hymnus an den heiligen Geist"
Titles of people
- In generic use, use lower case for words such as president, king, and emperor (De Gaulle was a French president; Louis XVI was a French king; Three prime ministers attended the conference).
- Directly before the person's name, such words begin with a capital letter (President Obama, not president Obama). Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper names (David Cameron was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Hirohito was Emperor of Japan; Louis XVI was King of France). Royal styles take capitals (Her Majesty; His Highness); exceptions may apply for particular offices.
Religions, deities, philosophies, doctrines
- Religions, sects, and churches and their followers (in noun or adjective form) start with a capital letter. Generally, "the" is not capitalized before such names (the Unitarians, not The Unitarians).
- Religious texts are capitalized, but often not italicized (the Bhagavad Gita, the Quran, the Talmud, the Granth Sahib, the Bible). Do not capitalize "the" when using it in this way. Some derived adjectives are capitalized by convention, and some are not (biblical, but Quranic); if unsure, check a dictionary.
- Honorifics for deities, including proper names and titles, start with a capital letter (God, Allah, the Lord, the Supreme Being, the Great Spirit, the Horned One, Bhagavan). Do not capitalize "the" in such cases or when referring to major religious figures or characters from mythology (the Prophet, the Messiah, the Virgin). Common nouns for deities and religious figures are not capitalized (many gods; the god Woden; saints and prophets).
- Pronouns for figures of veneration or worship are not capitalized, even if capitalized in a religion's scriptures (God and his will).
- Broad categories of mythical or legendary beings start with lower-case letters (elf, fairy, nymph, unicorn, angel), although in works of fantasy, such as the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien and some video games, initial capitals are sometimes used to indicate that the beings form a culture or race in a fictional universe. Capitalize the names or titles of individual creatures (the Minotaur, Pegasus) and of groups whose name and membership are fixed (the Magi, or the Three Wise Men, the Furies). Generalized references are not capitalized (these priests; several wise men; cherub-like).
- Spiritual or religious events are capitalized only when referring to specific incidents or periods (the Great Flood and the Exodus; but annual flooding and an exodus of refugees).
- Philosophies, theories, movements, and doctrines use lower case unless the name derives from a proper name (capitalism versus Marxism) or has become a proper name (republican, a system of political thought; Republican, a political party). Use lower case for doctrinal topics or canonical religious ideas (as opposed to specific events), even if they are capitalized by some religious adherents (virgin birth, original sin, transubstantiation).
- Platonic or transcendent ideals are capitalized in the context of philosophical doctrine (Truth, the Good); used more broadly, they are in lower case (Superman represents American ideals of truth and justice). Use capitals for personifications represented in art (the guidebook mentioned statues of Justice and Liberty).
- Eponyms are capitalized (Edwardian, De Morgan's laws, Alice in Wonderland syndrome, plaster of Paris, Platonic idealism, Draconian constitution of Athens), except in idiomatic uses disconnected from the original context and usually lower-cased in sources (a platonic relationship; complained of draconian workplace policies). An entire phrase in which an eponym is an adjective is not capitalized except when the phrase is itself a proper name (e.g., the title of a published work: The China Syndrome).
Calendar items
- Months, days of the week, and holidays start with a capital letter (June, Monday; the Fourth of July refers only to the US Independence Day – otherwise July 4 or 4 July).
- Seasons are in lower case (her last summer; the winter solstice; spring fever), except in personifications or in proper names for periods or events (Old Man Winter; competed on the Spring Circuit).
Animals, plants, and other organisms
When using taxonomic ("scientific") names, capitalize and italicize the genus: Berberis, Erithacus. (Supergenus and subgenus, when applicable, are treated the same way.) Italicize but do not capitalize taxonomic ranks at the level of species and below: Berberis darwinii, Erithacus rubecula superbus, Acacia coriacea subsp. sericophylla; no exception is made for proper names forming part of scientific names. Higher taxa (order, family, etc.) are capitalized in Latin (Carnivora, Felidae) but not in their English equivalents (carnivorans, felids); they are not italicized in either form, except for viruses, where all names accepted by the ICTV are italicized (Retroviridae).
Cultivar and cultivar group names of plants are not italicized, and are capitalized (including the word Group in the name); cultivar names appear within single quotes (Malus domestica 'Red Delicious'), while cultivar groups do not (Cynara cardunculus Scolymus Group).
English vernacular ("common") names are given in lower case in article prose (plains zebra, mountain maple, and southwestern red-tailed hawk) and in sentence case at the start of sentences and in other places where the first letter of the first word is capitalized. They are additionally capitalized where they contain proper names: Przewalski's horse, California condor, and fair-maid-of-France. This applies to species and subspecies, as in the previous examples, as well as to general names for groups or types of organism: bird of prey, oak, great apes, Bryde's whales, livestock guardian dog, poodle, Van cat, wolfdog. When the common name coincides with a scientific taxon, do not capitalize or italicize, except where addressing the organism taxonomically: A lynx is any of the four medium-sized wild cat species within the genus Lynx. Non-English vernacular names, when relevant to include, are handled like any other non-English terms: italicized as such, and capitalized only if the rules of the native language require it. Non-English names that have become English-assimilated are treated as English (ayahuasca, okapi).
Standardized breeds should generally retain the capitalization used in the breed standards. Examples: German Shepherd, Russian White goat, Berlin Short-faced Tumbler. As with plant cultivars, this applies whether or not the included noun is a proper name, in contrast to how vernacular names of species are written. However, unlike cultivars, breeds are never put in single quotation marks, and their names are never part of a scientific name. A species term appended at the end for disambiguation ("cat", "hound", "horse", "swine", etc.) should not be capitalized, unless it is a part of the breed name itself and is consistently presented that way in the breed standards (rare cases include Norwegian Forest Cat and American Quarter Horse).
Create redirects from alternative capitalization and spelling forms of article titles, and from alternative names, e.g., Adélie Penguin, Adelie penguin, Adelie Penguin and Pygoscelis adeliae should all redirect to Adélie penguin.
Celestial bodies
The words sun, earth, moon, and solar system do not take capitals in general use (The sun was over the mountain top; The tribal people thought of the whole earth as their home). They are capitalized when the entity is personified (Sol Invictus ('Unconquered Sun') was the Roman sun god) or when used as the name of a specific body in a scientific or astronomical context (The Moon orbits the Earth; but Io is a moon of Jupiter).
Names of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, stars, constellations, and galaxies are proper names, and therefore capitalized (The planet Mars is in the constellation Gemini, near the star Pollux). The first letter of every word in such a name is capitalized (Alpha Centauri and not Alpha centauri; Milky Way, not Milky way). Words such as comet and galaxy should be capitalized when they form part of a proper name, but not when they are used as a generic term (Halley's Comet is the most famous of the comets; The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy).
Compass points
Do not capitalize directions such as north or their related forms (We took the northern road) except when they are parts of proper names (Great North Road, Great Western Drive, South Pole).
Capitalize names of regions if they have attained proper-name status, including informal conventional names (Southern California; the Western Desert), and derived terms for people (e.g., a Southerner as someone from the Southern United States). Do not capitalize descriptive names for regions that have not attained the status of proper names, such as southern Poland.
Composite directions may or may not be hyphenated, depending on the variety of English adopted in the article. Southeast Asia and northwest are more common in American English; but South-East Asia and north-west in British English. In cases such as north–south dialogue and east–west orientation, use an en dash; see § En dashes: other uses.
Proper names versus generic terms
Capitalize names of particular institutions (the founding of the University of Delhi; the history of Stanford University) but not generic words for institutions (the high school is near the university). Do not capitalize the at the start of an institution's name, regardless of the institution's preferred style. There are rare exceptions, when a leading The is represented by a T in the organization's acronym: The International Cat Association (TICA).
Treat political or geographic units similarly: The city has a population of 55,000; The two towns merged to become the City of Smithville. Do not mimic the style of local newspapers which refer to their municipality as the City or The City; an exception is the City of London, referred to as the City in a context that already makes the subject clear, as distinct from London and Greater London. When in doubt, use the full name for accessibility reasons; users of text-to-speech systems usually cannot hear a difference between city and City.
Ligatures
Ligatures should be used in languages in which they are standard (hence Moreau's last words were clin d'œil is preferable to Moreau's last words were clin d'oeil) but not in English (encyclopedia or encyclopaedia, not encyclopædia), except in proper names (Æthelstan, not Aethelstan).
Abbreviations
Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. In strict analysis, they are distinct from contractions, which use an apostrophe (e.g., won't, see § Contractions), and initialisms. An initialism is formed from some or all of the initial letters of words in a phrase. Below, references to abbreviations should be taken to include acronyms, and the term acronym should also apply to initialisms.
Write first occurrences in full
When an abbreviation will be used in an article, introduce it using the full expression, and the abbreviation in parentheses:
Do not use capitals in the full version merely because capitals are used in the abbreviation: an early Local Area Network (LAN).
Except in special circumstances, common abbreviations (such as PhD, DNA, USSR) need not be expanded even on first use.
Plural forms
Pluralize acronyms by adding -s or -es: Three CD-ROMs and two BIOSes were released. Do not use apostrophes to form plurals: Three CD-ROM's and two BIOS's were released.
Punctuation and spacing
An abbreviation may or may not be terminated with a full point (also called a period or full stop). A consistent style should be maintained within an article. North American usage is typically to end all abbreviations with a period/point (Dr. Smith of 42 Drummond St.) but in common British and Australian usage, no period/point is used if the abbreviation (contraction) ends in the last letter of the unabbreviated form (Dr Smith of 42 Drummond St) unless confusion could result. This is also common practice in scientific writing. Regardless of punctuation, words that are abbreviated to more than one letter are spaced (op. cit. not op.cit. or opcit). There are some exceptions: PhD for "Philosophiae Doctor"; BVetMed for "Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine". In most situations, Wikipedia uses no such punctuation inside acronyms and initialisms: GDP, not G.D.P.
US and U.S.
US is a commonly used abbreviation for United States, although U.S. – with periods and without a space – remains common in North American publications, including in news journalism. Multiple American style guides, including The Chicago Manual of Style (since 2010), now deprecate U.S. and recommend US.
For commonality reasons, use US by default when abbreviating, but retain U.S. in American or Canadian English articles in which it is already established, unless there is a good reason to change it. Because use of periods for abbreviations and acronyms should be consistent within any given article, use US in an article with other country abbreviations, and especially avoid constructions like the U.S. and the UK. In longer abbreviations that incorporate the country's initials (USN, USAF), never use periods. When the United States is mentioned with one or more other countries in the same sentence, US (or U.S.) may be too informal, especially at the first mention or as a noun instead of an adjective (France and the United States, not France and the US). Do not use the spaced U. S. or the archaic U.S. of A., except when quoting. Do not use U.S.A. or USA except in a quotation, as part of a proper name (Team USA), or in certain technical and formal uses (e.g., the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, FIFA, and IOC country codes).
Circa
To indicate approximately, the use of {{circa}}, showing as c., is preferred over circa, c., ca., or approx.
Avoid unwarranted use
Avoid abbreviations when they might confuse the reader, interrupt the flow, or appear informal. For example:
- Do not use approx. for approximate(ly) except in an infobox or table (in which case use
{{abbr|approx.|approximately}}at first occurrence: approx.). - Do not use the legalism Smith J for Justice Smith.
Do not invent
Avoid devising new abbreviations, especially acronyms. For example, World Union of Billiards is good as a translation of Union Mondiale de Billard, but neither it nor the reduction WUB is used by the organization or by independent sources; use the original name and its official abbreviation, UMB.
If it is necessary to abbreviate in a tight space, such as a column header in a table, use widely recognized abbreviations. For example, for New Zealand gross national product, use NZ and GNP, with a link if the term has not already been written out in the article: NZ GNP. Do not make up initialisms such as NZGNP.
HTML tags and templates
Either <abbr> or {{abbr}} can be used for abbreviations and acronyms: <abbr title="World Health Organization">WHO</abbr> or {{abbr|WHO|World Health Organization}} will generate WHO; hovering over the rendered text causes a tooltip of the long form to pop up.
Ampersand
In normal text and headings, use and instead of the ampersand (&): January 1 and 2, not January 1 & 2. But retain an ampersand when it is a legitimate part of the style of a proper noun, the title of a work, or a trademark, such as in Up & Down or AT&T. Elsewhere, ampersands may be used with consistency and discretion where space is extremely limited (e.g., tables and infoboxes). Quotations may be cautiously modified, especially for consistency where different editions are quoted, as modern editions of old texts routinely replace ampersands with and (just as they replace other disused glyphs, ligatures, and abbreviations). Another frequent permissible but not required use is in short bibliographic references to works by multiple authors, e.g.: <ref>Lubbers & Scheepers (2002); Van Hiel & Mervielde (2002); Swyngedouw & Giles (2007); Van Hiel (2012).</ref>.
Italics
Emphasis
Italics are used for emphasis, rather than boldface or capitals. But overuse diminishes its effect: consider rewriting instead.
Use <em>...</em> or {{em|...}} for emphasis. This allows user style sheets to handle emphasis in a customized way, and helps reusers and translators.
- Correct:
The meerkat is <em>not</em> actually a cat. - Correct:
The meerkat is {{em|not}} actually a cat.
Titles
Use italics for the titles of works (such as books, films, television series, named exhibitions, computer games, music albums, and artworks). The titles of articles, chapters, songs, episodes, storylines, research papers and other short works instead take double quotation marks.
Italics are not used for major religious works (the Bible, the Quran, the Talmud). Many of these titles should also be in title case.
Words as words
Use italics when mentioning a word or character or a string of words up to one sentence (the term panning is derived from panorama; the most common letter in English is e). When a whole sentence is mentioned, double quotation marks may be used instead, with consistency (The preposition in She sat on the chair is on; or The preposition in "She sat on the chair" is "on"). Quotation marks may also be used for shorter material to avoid confusion, such as when italics are already heavily used in the page for another purpose (e.g., for many non-English words and phrases). Mentioning (to discuss grammar, wording, punctuation, etc.) is different from quoting (in which something is usually expressed on behalf of a quoted source). Quotation is done with quotation marks, never italics, nor both at once
A closely related use of italics is when introducing or distinguishing terms: The natural numbers are the integers greater than 0.
Non-English words
Italics are indicated for non-English phrases and isolated non-English words that are not commonly used in everyday English. However, proper names (such as place names) in other languages are not usually italicized, nor are terms in non-Latin scripts. The {{lang}} template and its variants support all ISO 639 language codes, correctly identifying the language and automatically italicizing for you. Please use these templates rather than just manually italicizing non-English material.
Scientific names
Use italics for the scientific names of plants, animals, and all other organisms except viruses at the genus level and below (italicize Panthera leo and Retroviridae, but not Felidae). The hybrid sign is not italicized (Rosa × damascena), nor is the "connecting term" required in three-part botanical names (Rosa gallica subsp. officinalis).
Quotations in italics
Do not put quotations in italics. Quotation marks (or block quoting) alone are sufficient and the correct ways to denote quotations. Italics should only be used if the quoted material would otherwise call for italics. (See below.)
Italics within quotations
Use italics within quotations to reproduce emphasis that exists in the source material or to indicate the use of non-English words. The emphasis is better done with {{em}}. If it is not clear that the source already included italics (or some other styling) for emphasis, or to indicate when emphasis was not used in the original text but was editorially added later, add the editorial note [emphasis in original] or [emphasis added], respectively, after the quotation.
- For example: "Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." [emphasis in original].
Effect on nearby punctuation
Italicize only the elements of the sentence affected by the emphasis. Do not italicize surrounding punctuation.
- Incorrect: What are we to make of that? (The question mark applies to the whole sentence, not just to the emphasized that, so it should not be italicized.)
- Correct: What are we to make of that?
- Correct: Four of Patrick White's most famous novels are A Fringe of Leaves, The Aunt's Story, Voss, and The Tree of Man. (The commas, the period, and the word and are not italicized.)
Quotations
Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. While quotations are an indispensable part of Wikipedia, excessive use of them is incompatible with an encyclopedic writing style and may be copyright infringement, so most of the content should be in the editor's own words. Consider paraphrasing quotations into plain and concise text when appropriate (while being aware that close paraphrasing can still violate copyright). Do not put quotations in italics unless the material would be italicized for some other reason.
Per the verifiability policy, direct quotations must be accompanied by an inline citation from a reliable source that supports the material. This is especially important in articles that are about or contain material about living or recently deceased people (BLPs).
Original wording
Quotations must be verifiably attributed, and the wording of the quoted text must be faithfully reproduced. This is referred to as the principle of minimal change. Where there is good reason to change the wording, square bracket the changed text; for example, "Ocyrhoe told him his fate" might be quoted as "Ocyrhoe told [her father] his fate". If there is a significant error in the original, follow it with {{sic}} (producing [sic] ) to show that the error was not made by Wikipedia. (for example, "his interview with the Dolly Llama [sic]") However, insignificant spelling and typographic errors should simply be silently corrected (for example, correct basicly to basically). When applied to text that is linked, the syntax of the template may be adjusted to {{sic|nolink=y}} (producing [sic] in the resulting linked text; for example in the link: [sic] template). For the sake of accuracy and indexing, the titles of referenced sources should not be corrected for spelling, but minor typographic adjustments (like changing curly quotes to straight) may be made silently. Inline citations in the quoted text, to sources not used in the Wikipedia article, should be silently removed.
Use ellipses to indicate omissions from quoted text. Legitimate omissions include extraneous, irrelevant, or parenthetical words, and unintelligible speech (umm and hmm), but do not omit text where doing so would remove important context or alter the meaning of the text. Vulgarities and obscenities should be shown exactly as they appear in the quoted source; Wikipedians should never bowdlerize words (G-d d--m it!), but if the text being quoted itself does so, copy the text verbatim and use {{sic}} to indicate that the text is quoted as shown in the source.
In direct quotations, retain dialectal and archaic spellings, including capitalization (but not archaic glyphs and ligatures, as detailed below in § Typographic conformity).
Point of view
Quotation should be used, with attribution, to present emotive opinions that cannot be expressed in Wikipedia's own voice, but never to present cultural norms as simply opinional:
- Acceptable: Siskel and Ebert called the film "unforgettable".
- Unacceptable: The site is considered "sacred" by the religion's scriptures.
Concise opinions that are not overly emotive can often be reported with attribution instead of direct quotation. Use of quotation marks around simple descriptive terms can imply something doubtful regarding the material being quoted; sarcasm or weasel words such as supposedly or so-called, might be inferred.
- Permissible: Siskel and Ebert called the film interesting.
- Unnecessary and may imply doubt: Siskel and Ebert called the film "interesting".
- Should be quoted: Siskel and Ebert called the film "interesting but heart-wrenching".
Typographic conformity
A quotation is not a facsimile and, in most cases, it is not a requirement that the original formatting be preserved. Formatting and other purely typographical elements of quoted text should be adapted to English Wikipedia's conventions without comment, provided that doing so will not change or obscure meaning or intent of the text. These are alterations which make no difference when the text is read aloud, for example:
- Normalize dashes and hyphens: see § Dashes. Use the style chosen for the article: unspaced em dash or spaced en dash.
- Convert apostrophes and quotation marks to Wikipedia's style:
- These should be straight, not curly or slanted. See § Quotation marks.
- When quoting a quotation that itself contains a quotation, alternate between using double and single quotes for each quotation. See § For a quotation within a quotation for details.
- When quoting text from non-English languages, the outer punctuation should follow the Manual of Style for English quote marks. If there are nested quotations, follow the rules for correct punctuation in that language. If there are multiple styles for a language, the one used by the Wikipedia for that language is preferred unless the punctuation itself is under discussion.
- The cynical response "L'auteur aurait dû demander : « à quoi sert-il d'écrire ceci ? » mais ne l'a pas fait" was all he wrote.
- Remove spaces before punctuation such as periods and colons.
- Generally preserve bold and italics , but most other styling should be altered. Underlining, spac ing within words, colors, ALL CAPS, small caps, etc. should generally be normalized to plain text. If it clearly indicates emphasis, use italic emphasis (
{{em}}) or, in an already-italic passage, boldface (with{{strong}}). For titles of books, articles, poems, and so forth, use italics or quotation marks following the guidance for titles. Italics can also be added to mark up non-English terms (with the{{lang}}template), for an organism's scientific name, and to indicate a words-as-words usage. - Expand an abbreviation (not already used in the content before the quotation) as a square-bracketed change, or explain it using
{{abbr}}. - Normalize archaic glyphs and ligatures in English that are unnecessary to the meaning. Examples include æ→ae, œ→oe, ſ→s, and þe→the.
However, national varieties should not be changed, as these may involve changes in vocabulary. For example, a quotation from a British source should retain British spelling, even in an article that otherwise uses American spelling. Numbers also usually should not be reformatted.
Direct quotation should not be used to preserve the formatting preferred by an external publisher (especially when the material would otherwise be unchanged), as this tends to have the effect of scare-quoting:
- Acceptable: The animal is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
- Unacceptable: The animal is listed as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Italics can be used to mark a particular usage as a term of art (a case of "words as words"), especially when it is unfamiliar or should not be reworded by a non-expert:
- Permissible: The animal is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
When quoting a complete sentence, it is usually recommended to keep the first word capitalized. However, if the quoted passage has been integrated into the surrounding sentence (for example, with an introduction such as "X said that"), the original capital letter may be lower-cased.
- LaVesque's report stated: "The equipment was selected for its low price. This is the primary reason for criticism of the program."
- LaVesque's report said that "the equipment was selected for its low price".
- The program was criticized primarily because "the equipment was selected for its low price", according to LaVesque.
It is normally unnecessary to explicitly note changes in capitalization. However, for more precision, the altered letter may be put inside square brackets: "The" → "[t]he".
- The program was criticized primarily because "[t]he equipment was selected for its low price", according to LaVesque.
Attribution
The reader must be able to determine the source of any quotation, at the very least via a footnote. The source must be named in article text if the quotation is an opinion . When attributing a quotation, avoid characterizing it in a biased manner.
Quotations within quotations
See § For a quotation within a quotation.
Linking
Be conservative when linking within quotations; link only to targets that correspond to the meaning clearly intended by the quote's author. Where possible, link from text outside of the quotation instead – either before it or soon after. (If quoting hypertext, add an editorial note, [link in original] or [link added], as appropriate, to avoid ambiguity as to whether the link was made by the original author.)
Block quotations
Format a long quote (more than about forty words or a few hundred characters, or consisting of more than one paragraph, regardless of length) as a block quotation, indented on both sides. Block quotations should be enclosed in {{blockquote}}.
Do not enclose block quotations in quotation marks (and especially avoid large, decorative quotation marks; those provided by the {{cquote}} template have been disabled in mainspace). Block quotations using a colored background are also discouraged.
Use {{blockquote}} and so on only for actual quotations; indentation for other purposes is done differently.
It is conventional to precede a block quotation with an introductory sentence (or sentence fragment) and append the source citation to that line. Alternatively, the {{blockquote}} template provides parameters for attribution and citation which will appear below the quotation. This below-quotation attribution style is intended for famous quotations and is unusual in articles because it may strike an inappropriate tone. A quotation with no cited source should be flagged with {{quote without source}}, or deleted.
Line breaks and indentation inside a {{blockquote}} or <blockquote> are generally ignored; use <poem> or {{poem quote}} for poetry, lyrics, and similar material:
{{blockquote|<poem> What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking "Nevermore." </poem>}} This gives:
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
Or quote such material inline, with line breaks indicated by {{nbsp}}/, and paragraph or stanza breaks by {{nbsp}}//.
Pull quotes do not belong in Wikipedia articles. These are the news and magazine style of "pulling" material already in the article to reuse it in attention-grabbing decorative quotations. This unencyclopedic approach is a form of editorializing, produces out-of-context and undue emphasis, and may lead the reader to conclusions not supported in the material.
Note that although this section does not provide a maximum limit of quotation length, extensive quotation of copyrighted text is prohibited. See: WP:COPYQUOTE.
Non-English quotations
Quotations from non-English language sources should appear with a translation into English, preferably a modern one. Quotations that are translations should be explicitly distinguished from those that are not. Indicate the original source of a translation (if it is available, and not first published within Wikipedia), and the original language (if that is not clear from the context).
If the original, untranslated text is available, provide a reference for it or include it, as appropriate.
When editors themselves translate text into English, care must always be taken to include the original text, in italics (except for non-Latin-based writing systems, and best done with the {{lang}} template which both italicizes as appropriate and provides language metadata); and to use actual and (if at all possible) common English words in the translation. Unless you are certain of your competency to translate something, see Wikipedia:Translation for assistance.
Punctuation
Apostrophes
- Use straight apostrophes ('), not curly apostrophes (’). Do not use accent marks or backticks (`) as apostrophes.
- Templates such as
{{'}}and{{'s}}are helpful when an apostrophe (or single quote) appears at the beginning or end of text in italics or bold, because italics and bold are themselves indicated by sequences of single quotes. Example: Dynasty's first season (markup:''Dynasty''{{'s}} first season). - Letters resembling apostrophes, such as the ʻokina (ʻ – inserted using
{{okina}}), saltillo (ꞌ –{{saltillo}}), Hebrew ayin or Arabic ʿayn (ʽ –{{ayin}}), and Arabic hamza (ʼ –{{hamza}}), should be represented by those templates or by their respective Unicode values.- Templates cannot be used in article titles; if necessary, use the corresponding Unicode character directly. Per WP:TITLESPECIALCHARACTERS, also make a redirect from the ASCII form to aid searches. Forms without apostrophe-like characters are sometimes preferred by WP:COMMONNAME (e.g. Hawaii but not Kealiʻi Reichel).
- For Wade–Giles romanizations of Mandarin Chinese, use
{{wg-apos}}. - For languages with ejective consonants and the like, use
{{hamza}}. - For the Cyrillic soft sign, when indicated at all, use
{{softsign}}or{{hamza}}. - For usage of the possessive apostrophe, see § Possessives.
- For further treatment of apostrophe usage (possessive, elision, formation of certain plurals, non-English language issues), see the article Apostrophe.
Quotation marks
In the material below, the term quotation includes conventional uses of quotation marks such as for titles of songs, chapters, episodes, and so on. Quotation marks are also used in other contexts, such as in cultivar names.
Quotation characters
- Use "straight" quotation marks, not “curly” ones. (For single-apostrophe quotes: 'straight', not ‘curly’.)
- Do not use accent marks, backticks (`text´), low-high („ “) or guillemet (« ») marks as quotation marks (except when such marks are internal to quoted non-English text – see § Typographic conformity). The symbols ′ and ″ seen in edit window dropdowns are prime and double prime: these are used to designate units of angular measurement, and not as apostrophes or quote marks.
- Quotation marks and apostrophes in imported material should be changed if necessary to comply with the above.
Double or single
Most quotations take double quotation marks (Bob said: "Jim ate the apple."). Exceptions:
- Plant cultivars take single quotation marks (Malus domestica 'Golden Delicious'; see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (flora)).
- Glosses that translate or define unfamiliar terms take single quotes; simple glosses require no comma before the definition (Turkic qazaq 'freebooter' is the root of Cossack; republic comes from Latin res publica, loosely meaning 'public affair'.). The {{Gloss}} template can be used for this; e.g.
{{lang|es|casa}}{{gloss|house}}yields: casa 'house'.
For a quotation within a quotation
Use single quotes:
- Darwin wrote in his introduction that "the maxim 'de minimis lex non curat' does not apply to science".
For deeper nesting, alternate between single and double quotes:
- He said, "That book asserts, 'Confucius said "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."'"
For quote marks in immediate succession, add a sliver of space by using {{" '}}, {{' "}}, or (as in the example just given) {{" ' "}}:
- He announced, "The answer was 'Yes!'" Markup:
He announced, "The answer was 'Yes!{{' "}} - He announced, "The answer was 'Yes!'" (simply jamming things together looks awful in most fonts)
- He announced, "The answer was 'Yes!' " (a regular space is too much)
Article openings
In the bolded text typically appearing at the opening of an article:
- Any quotation marks that are part of the title should be in bold just like the rest of the title.
- From "A" Is for Alibi: "A" Is for Alibi is a mystery novel ...
- Quotation marks not part of the article title should not be bolded.
- From Jabberwocky: "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem ...
- From Babe Ruth: George Herman "Babe" Ruth was an American baseball player ...
Punctuation before quotations
If a non-quoted but otherwise identical construction would work grammatically without a comma, using a comma before a quotation embedded within a sentence is optional:
- The report stated "There was a 45% reduction in transmission rate." (Cf. the non-quotation The report stated there was a 45% reduction in transmission rate.)
- The report stated, "There was a 45% reduction in transmission rate."
The comma-free approach is often used with partial quotations:
- The report observed "a 45% reduction in transmission rate".
A comma is required when it would be present in the same construction if none of the material were a quotation:
- In Margaret Mead's view, "we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities" to enrich our culture.
Do not insert a comma if it would confuse or alter the meaning:
- Caitlyn Jenner expressed concerns about children "who are coming to terms with being true to who they are". (Accurate quote of a statement about some children – specifically those children "who are coming to terms ...")
- Caitlyn Jenner expressed concerns about children, "who are coming to terms with being true to who they are". (Changes the meaning to imply Jenner was expressing concern about all children, while separately observing that children, in general, "are coming to terms ...")
It is clearer to use a colon to introduce a quotation if it forms a complete sentence, and this should always be done for multi-sentence quotations:
- The report stated: "There was a 45% reduction in transmission rate."
- In a letter to his son, Albert Einstein wrote: "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving."
No additional punctuation is necessary for an explicit words-as-words scenario:
- The message was unintelligible except for the fragments "help soon" and "how much longer before".
Names and titles
Quotation marks should be used for the following names and titles:
- Articles and chapters (books and periodicals italicized)
- Short stories (books and periodicals italicized)
- Sections of musical pieces (pieces italicized)
- Individual strips from comics and webcomics (comics italicized)
- Poems (long or epic poems italicized)
- Songs (albums, song cycles, operas, operettas, and oratorios italicized)
- Individual episodes of television and radio series and serials (series title italicized)
Correct: The Beatles wrote "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" for their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Do not use quotation marks or italics for:
- Ancient writings
- Concert tours
- Locations
- Myths and epics
- Prayers
Many, but not all, of the above items should also be in title case.
Punctuation inside or outside
Use the logical quotation style in all articles, regardless of the variety of English in which they are written. Include terminal punctuation within the quotation marks only if it was present in the original material, and otherwise place it after the closing quotation mark. For the most part, this means treating periods and commas in the same way as question marks: keep them inside the quotation marks if they apply only to the quoted material and outside if they apply to the whole sentence. Examples are given below.
- Correct: Did Darla say, "Here I am"? (question mark applies to whole sentence)
- Incorrect: Did Darla say, "Here I am?" (incorrect to apply the question mark to the quotation)
- Correct: Darla said, "Where am I?" (question mark applies to quoted material only)
If the quotation is a single word or a sentence fragment, place the terminal punctuation outside the closing quotation mark. When quoting a full sentence, the end of which coincides with the end of the sentence containing it, place terminal punctuation inside the closing quotation mark.
- Miller wanted, he said, "to create something timeless".
- Miller said: "I wanted to create something timeless."
If the quoted sentence is followed by a clause that should be preceded by a comma, omit the full stop (period), and do not replace it with a comma inside the quotation. Other terminal punctuation, such as a question mark or exclamation mark, may be retained.
- Livingston then said, "It is done", and turned to the people.
- Livingston then exclaimed, "It is done!", and turned to the people.
If the quoted sentence is followed by a clause identifying the speaker, use a comma outside the quotation mark instead of a full stop inside it, but retain any other terminal punctuation, such as a question mark.
- "There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet", said Kennedy.
- By asking "Who are you?", da Gama prompts Adamastor to tell his story.
Do not follow quoted words or fragments with commas inside the quotation marks, except where a longer quotation has been broken up and the comma is part of the full quotation.
- Correct: "I began to change, opening the way to confidence and courage", said Turner.
- Correct: "I began to change," said Turner, "opening the way to confidence and courage."
- Correct: "I began to change, opening the way", said Turner, "to confidence and courage."
- Incorrect: "I began to change, opening the way," said Turner, "to confidence and courage."
Quotation marks and external links
External links to article titles should have the title in quotes inside the link. The CS1 and CS2 citation templates do this automatically, and untemplated references should do the same.
- Correct: Kiefer, Francine (May 29, 1998). "Clinton: The Early Years". The Christian Science Monitor. (Using {{cite news}})
- Correct: Kiefer, Francine (May 29, 1998). "Clinton: The Early Years". The Christian Science Monitor. (Untemplated)
- Incorrect: Kiefer, Francine (May 29, 1998). "Clinton: The Early Years". The Christian Science Monitor. (Untemplated)
Quotation marks and internal links
Internal links (wikilinks) accompanied by quotation marks should usually have the quotes outside the link. This applies to titles of works in quotation marks (songs, episodes, etc.)
- Correct: Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By". (Using
"[[ ]]".) - Incorrect: Play it, Sam. Play "As Time Goes By". (Using
[[" "]].)
However, quotation marks are needed inside wikilinks when the quotation mark is part of the link, or where the linked display text includes quotation marks indicating slang, nicknames, common names, or similar usage.
- Correct: The term soccer comes from Oxford "-er" slang, which was prevalent at the University of Oxford in England from about 1875....
- Correct: A Cockney accent drops the "r" after a vowel.
- Correct: The Proletarian Sports Society "Dynamo" was established in Moscow in 1923.
- Correct: President Suharto's "New Order" administration received US support for its economic policies.
- Correct: Japan's "Lost Decades" began in 1991.
Brackets and parentheses
This section applies to both round brackets ( ), often called parentheses, and square brackets [ ].
If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase, place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets (as shown here). However, where one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets, place their punctuation inside the brackets. There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket. An opening bracket should usually be preceded by a space. This may not be the case if it is preceded by an opening quotation mark, another opening bracket, or a portion of a word:
- He rose to address the meeting: "(Ahem) ... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome!"
- Only the royal characters in the play ([Prince] Hamlet and his family) habitually speak in blank verse.
- We journeyed on the Inter[continental].
- Most people are right-handed. (Some people are left-handed, but that does not make right-handed people "better" than left-handed people.)
There should be a space after a closing bracket, except where a punctuation mark follows (though a spaced dash would still be spaced after a closing bracket) and in unusual cases similar to those listed for opening brackets.
Avoid adjacent sets of brackets. Either put the parenthetical phrases in one set separated by semicolons, or rewrite:
- Avoid: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919) (also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader.
- Better: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919; also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader.
- Better: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. He was also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv.
Square brackets are used to indicate editorial replacements and insertions within quotations, though this should never alter the intended meaning. They serve three main purposes:
- To clarify: She attended [secondary] school, where this was the intended meaning, but the type of school was unstated in the original sentence.
- To reduce the size of a quotation: X contains Y, and under certain circumstances, X may contain Z as well may be reduced to X contains Y [and sometimes Z]. When an ellipsis (...) is used to indicate that material is removed from a direct quotation, it should not normally be bracketed.
- To make the grammar work: Referring to someone's statement "I hate to do laundry", one could properly write She "hate[s] to do laundry".
If a sentence includes subsidiary material enclosed in square or round brackets, it must still carry terminal punctuation after those brackets, regardless of any punctuation within the brackets.
However, if the entire sentence is within brackets, the closing punctuation falls within the brackets. (This sentence is an example.)
Brackets and linking
Square brackets inside of links must be escaped:
He said, "[[John Doe|John [Doe]]] answered." | He said, "John [Doe] answered." |
He said, "[[John Doe|John {{bracket|Doe}}]] answered." | He said, "John [Doe] answered." |
[https://example.com On the first day [etc.]] | On the first day [etc.] |
[https://example.com On the first day {{bracket|etc.}}] | On the first day [etc.] |
The <nowiki> markup can also be used: <nowiki>[Doe]</nowiki> or <nowiki>[etc.]</nowiki>.
If a URL itself contains square brackets, the wiki-text should use the URL-encoded form https://example.com/foo.php?query=%5Bxxx%5Dyyy, rather than ...query=[xxx]yyy. This will avoid truncation of the link after xxx.
Ellipses
Use an ellipsis (plural ellipses) if material is omitted in the course of a quotation, unless square brackets are used to gloss the quotation .
- Wikipedia's style for an ellipsis is three unspaced dots (
...); do not use the precomposed ellipsis character (…) or three dots separated by spaces (. . .) - Generally, use a non-breaking space before an ellipsis, and a regular space after it:
"Alpha, Bravo,{{nbsp}}... Zulu"- But where an ellipsis is immediately followed by any of
. ? ! : ; , ) ] }or by a closing quotation mark (single or double), use a non-breaking space before the ellipsis, and no space after it:Jones wrote: "These stories amaze me. The facts suffer so frightfully{{nbsp}}..."."But what of the other cities? London, Paris{{nbsp}}...?"(Place terminal punctuation after an ellipsis only if it is textually important, as is often the case with exclamation marks and question marks but rarely with periods.)
- Or, if the ellipsis immediately follows a quotation mark, use no space before the ellipsis, and a non-breaking space after it:
He continued to pursue Smith ("...{{nbsp}}to the ends of the earth", he had sworn) until his own death.
- But where an ellipsis is immediately followed by any of
- In mathematics formulas, formatted using html or wikimarkup, use three unspaced dots rather than the precomposed ellipsis character as above. However, in LaTeX-formatted mathematics formulas, use the proper LaTeX markup for lowered dots (
\dots,) rather than three dots. Do not replace precomposed characters that have dots in other positions (such as centered or diagonal, ⋯, ⋰, or ⋱).
- Pause or suspension of speech
- Three dots are occasionally used to represent a pause in or suspense of speech, in which case the punctuation is retained in its original form: Virginia's startled reply was "Could he ...? No, I can't believe it!". When it indicates an incomplete word, no space is used between the word fragment(s) and the ellipsis: The garbled transmission ended with "We are stranded near San L...o", interpreted as a reference to either San Leandro or San Lorenzo.
- With square brackets
- Square brackets may be placed around an ellipsis that indicates omitted text to distinguish it from an ellipsis that is part of the quoted text: She retorted: "How do I feel? How do you think I ... This is too much! [...] Take me home!". In this example, the first ellipsis is part of the quoted text and the second ellipsis (in square brackets) indicates omitted text.
Commas
- A pair of commas can bracket an appositive, relative clause, or parenthetical phrase (as can brackets or dashes, though with greater interruption of the sentence). For example:
Correct: John Smith, Janet Cooper's son, is a well-known playwright. Correct: Janet Cooper's son John Smith is a well-known playwright. (when Janet has multiple sons) Correct: Janet Cooper's son, John Smith, is a well-known playwright. (when Janet has only one son) Always use a pair of commas for this, unless another punctuation mark takes the place of the second comma:
Incorrect: The newest member, John Smith was blunt. Correct: Blunt comments came from the newest member, John Smith. Correct: The newest member, John Smith – a retired teacher – was blunt. - Don't let other punctuation distract you from the need for a comma, especially when the comma collides with a bracket or parenthesis:
Correct: Burke and Wills, fed by locals (on beans, fish, and ngardu), survived for a few months. Incorrect: Burke and Wills, fed by locals (on beans, fish, and ngardu) survived for a few months. - Modern writing uses fewer commas; there are usually ways to simplify a sentence so that fewer are needed.
Clear: Schubert's heroes included Mozart, Beethoven, and Joseph and Michael Haydn. Awkward: Mozart was, along with the Haydns, both Joseph and Michael, and also Beethoven, one of Schubert's heroes. - In geographical references that include multiple levels of subordinate divisions (e.g., city, state/province, country), a comma separates each element and follows the last element unless followed by terminal punctuation or a closing parenthesis. The last element is treated as parenthetical.
Correct: He traveled through North Carolina before staying in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the night. Incorrect: He traveled through North Carolina before staying in Chattanooga, Tennessee for the night. Also include commas when the geographical element is used as a disambiguator:
Correct: Hantratty received a PhD from the University of California, Irvine, in 1977. Incorrect: Hantratty received a PhD from the University of California, Irvine in 1977. - Dates in month–day–year format require a comma after the day, as well as after the year, unless followed by other punctuation. The last element is treated as parenthetical.
Correct: He set October 1, 2011, as the deadline for Patterson to meet his demands. Incorrect: He set October 1, 2011 as the deadline for Patterson to meet his demands. - Place quotation marks by following § Punctuation inside or outside. This is known as "logical quotation".
Correct: She said, "The weather changes too often", and made other complaints. Incorrect: She said, "The weather changes too often," and made other complaints. - A comma may be included before a quotation embedded within a sentence .
Serial commas
A serial comma (sometimes also known as an Oxford comma or Harvard comma) is a comma used immediately before a conjunction (and, or, nor) in a list of three or more items.
Editors may use either convention so long as each article is internally consistent. Serial commas are more helpful when article text is complex, such as a list with multi-word items (especially if one contains its own "and") or a series of probably unfamiliar terms.
However, there are cases in which either omitting or including the serial comma results in ambiguity:
In such cases of ambiguity, clarify one of four ways:
- Add or remove the serial comma.
- Use separate sentences, bullet lists, or some other structural change to clarify.
- Recast the sentence ("friends" case):
- To list two people: The author thanked her friends Sinéad O'Connor and Bob Marley.
- Clearer: The author thanked two friends – Sinéad O'Connor and Bob Marley.
- To list several people:
- The author thanked Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Marley and her friends or
- The author thanked Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Marley, and her friends.
- But not: The author thanked Bob Marley, Sinéad O'Connor[,] and her friends – introduces ambiguity about her.
- To list two people: The author thanked her friends Sinéad O'Connor and Bob Marley.
- Recast the sentence ("friend" case):
- To list two people: The author thanked Bob Marley and her friend, Sinéad O'Connor.
- Or be more specific when possible (the commas here set off non-restrictive appositives): The author thanked her childhood friend, Sinéad O'Connor, and her mentor, Bob Marley.
- To list three people: The author thanked Bob Marley, Sinéad O'Connor, and a friend.
- Clarity with gender-specific terms such as mother can be tricky; The author thanked her mother, Kim Thayil, and Sinéad O'Connor is unclear because readers may not know Kim Thayil is male and wouldn't be the same person as the mother.
- Clearer: The author thanked Kim Thayil, Sinéad O'Connor, and her own mother or The author thanked her mother and musicians Kim Thayil and Sinéad O'Connor.
- To list two people: The author thanked Bob Marley and her friend, Sinéad O'Connor.
Colons
A colon (:) introduces something that demonstrates, explains, or modifies what has come before, or is a list of items that has just been introduced. The items in such a list may be separated by commas, or if they are more complex and perhaps themselves contain commas, the items should be separated by semicolons or arranged in a bulleted list.
A colon may also be used to introduce direct speech enclosed within quotation marks.
In most cases, a colon works best with a complete grammatical sentence before it. When what follows the colon is also a complete sentence, start it with a capital letter, but otherwise do not capitalize after a colon except where doing so is needed for another reason, such as for a proper name. When a colon is being used as a separator in an article title, section heading, or list item, editors may choose whether to capitalize what follows, taking into consideration the existing practice and consistency with related articles.
Except in technical usage (a 3:1 ratio), no sentence should contain multiple colons, no space should precede a colon, and a space (but never a hyphen or dash) should follow the colon.
Semicolons
A semicolon (;) is sometimes an alternative to a full stop (period), enabling related material to be kept in the same sentence; it marks a more decisive division in a sentence than a comma. If the semicolon separates clauses, normally each clause must be independent (meaning that it could stand on its own as a sentence). In many cases, only a comma or only a semicolon will be correct in a given sentence.
| Correct: | Though he had been here before, I did not recognize him. |
| Incorrect: | Though he had been here before; I did not recognize him. |
Above, "Though he had been here before" cannot stand on its own as a sentence, and therefore is not an independent clause.
| Correct: | Oranges are an acidic fruit; bananas are classified as alkaline. |
| Incorrect: | Oranges are an acidic fruit, bananas are classified as alkaline. |
This incorrect use of a comma between two independent clauses is known as a comma splice; however, in certain kinds of cases, a comma may be used where a semicolon would seem to be called for:
| Accepted: | "Life is short, art is long." (two brief clauses in an aphorism; see Ars longa, vita brevis) |
| Accepted: | "I have studied it, you have not." (reporting brisk conversation, such as this reply of Newton's) |
A sentence may contain several semicolons, especially when the clauses are parallel in construction and meaning; multiple unrelated semicolons are often signs that the sentence should be divided into shorter sentences or otherwise refashioned.
| Unwieldy: | Oranges are an acidic fruit; bananas are classified as alkaline; pears are close to neutral; these distinctions are rarely discussed. |
| Better: | Oranges are an acidic fruit, bananas are alkaline, and pears are close to neutral; these distinctions are rarely discussed. |
Semicolons are used in addition to commas to separate items in a listing, when commas alone would result in confusion.
| Confusing: | Sales offices are located in Boston, Massachusetts, San Francisco, California, Singapore, and Millbank, London, England. |
| Clear: | Sales offices are located in Boston, Massachusetts; San Francisco, California; Singapore; and Millbank, London, England. |
Semicolon before "however"
The meaning of a sentence containing a trailing clause that starts with the word however depends on the punctuation preceding that word. A common error is to use the wrong punctuation, thereby changing the meaning to one not intended.
When the word however is an adverb meaning "nevertheless", it should be preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma. Example:
| It was obvious they could not convert these people; however, they tried. | |
| Meaning: | It was obvious they could not convert these people; nevertheless, they tried. |
When the word however is a conjunction meaning "in whatever manner", or "regardless of how", it may be preceded by a comma but not by a semicolon, and should not be followed by punctuation. Example:
| It was obvious they could not convert these people, however they tried. | |
| Meaning: | It was obvious they could not convert these people, regardless of how they tried. |
In the first case, the clause that starts with "however" cannot be swapped with the first clause; in the second case this can be done without change of meaning:
| However they tried, it was obvious they could not convert these people. | |
| Meaning: | Regardless of how they tried, it was obvious they could not convert these people. |
If the two clauses cannot be swapped, a semicolon is required.
A sentence or clause can also contain the word however in the middle, if it is an adverb meaning "although" that could have been placed at the beginning but does not start a new clause in mid-sentence. In this use, the word may be enclosed between commas. Example:
| He did not know, however, that the venue had been changed at the last minute. | |
| Meaning: | However, he did not know that the venue had been changed at the last minute. |
Hyphens
Hyphens (-) indicate conjunction. There are three main uses:
- In hyphenated personal names (John Lennard-Jones, Omar al-Bashir).
- To link prefixes with their main terms in certain constructions (quasi-scientific, pseudo-Apollodorus, ultra-nationalistic).
- A hyphen may be used to distinguish between homographs (re-dress means dress again, but redress means remedy or set right).
- There is a clear trend to join both elements in all varieties of English (subsection, nonlinear). Hyphenation clarifies when the letters brought into contact are the same (non-negotiable, sub-basement) or are vowels (pre-industrial), or where a word is uncommon (co-proposed, re-target) or may be misread (sub-era, not subera). Some words of these sorts are nevertheless common without the hyphen (e.g., cooperation is more frequently attested than co-operation in contemporary English).
- To link related terms in compound modifiers:
- Hyphens can aid ease of reading (that is, they can be ease-of-reading aids) and are particularly useful in long noun phrases: gas-phase reaction dynamics. But never insert a hyphen into a proper name (Middle Eastern cuisine, not Middle-Eastern cuisine).
- A hyphen can help to disambiguate (some short-story writers are quite tall; a government-monitoring program is a program that monitors the government, whereas a government monitoring program is a government program that monitors).
- Compounds that are hyphenated when used attributively (adjectives before the nouns they qualify: a light-blue handbag, a 34-year-old woman) or substantively (as a noun: she is a 34-year-old) are usually not hyphenated when used predicatively (descriptive phrase separated from the noun: the handbag was light blue, the woman is 34 years old). Where there would otherwise be a loss of clarity, however, a hyphen may be used in the predicative form as well (hand-fed turkeys, the turkeys were hand-fed). Awkward attributive hyphenation can sometimes be avoided with a simple rewording: Hawaiian-native species → native Hawaiian species.
- Avoid using a hyphen after a standard -ly adverb (a newly available home, a wholly owned subsidiary) unless part of a larger compound (a slowly-but-surely strategy). In rare cases, a hyphen can improve clarity if a rewritten alternative is awkward, but rewording is usually preferable: The idea was clearly stated enough can be disambiguated as The idea clearly was stated often enough or The idea was stated with enough clarity.
- A few words ending in -ly function as both adjectives and adverbs (a kindly-looking teacher; a kindly provided facility). Some such dual-purpose words (like early, only, northerly) are not standard -ly adverbs, because they are not formed by addition of -ly to an independent current-English adjective. These need careful treatment: Early flowering plants appeared around 130 million years ago, but Early-flowering plants risk damage from winter frosts; only child actors (no adult actors) but only-child actors (actors without siblings).
- A hyphen is normally used when the adverb well precedes a participle used attributively (a well-meaning gesture; but normally a very well managed firm, because well itself is modified) and even predicatively, if well is necessary to, or alters, the sense of the adjective rather than simply intensifying it (the gesture was well-meaning, the child was well-behaved, but the floor was well polished).
- In some cases, such as diode–transistor logic, the independent status of the linked elements requires an en dash instead of a hyphen.
- Use a suspended hyphen (also called a hanging hyphen) when two compound modifiers are separated (two- and three-digit numbers; a ten-car or -truck convoy; sloping right- or leftward).
- Values and units used as compound modifiers are hyphenated only where the unit is given as a whole word; when using the unit symbol, separate it from the number with a non-breaking space (
).
Multi-word hyphenated items: It is often possible to avoid multi-word hyphenated modifiers by rewording (a four-CD soundtrack album may be easier to read as a soundtrack album of four CDs). This is particularly important where converted units are involved (the 6-hectare-limit (14.8-acre-limit) rule might be possible as the rule imposing a limit of six hectares (14.8 acres), and the ungainly 4.9-mile (7.9 km) -long tributary as simply 4.9-mile (7.9 km) tributary).
For optional hyphenation of compound points of the compass such as southwest/south-west, see § Compass points.
Do not use a capital letter after a hyphen except for a proper name following the hyphen: Graeco-Roman and Mediterranean-style, but not Gandhi-Like. In titles of published works, when given in title case, follow the capitalization rule for each part independently (The Out-of-Towners), unless reliable sources consistently do otherwise in a particular case (The History of Middle-earth).
Hyphenation rules in other languages may be different. Thus, in French a place name such as Trois-Rivières ('Three Rivers') is hyphenated, when it would not be in English. Follow reliable sources in such cases.
Spacing: A hyphen is never followed or preceded by a space, except when hanging or when used to display parts of words independently, such as the prefix sub- and the suffix -less.
Image filenames and redirects: Image filenames are not part of the encyclopedic content; they are tools. They are most useful if they can be readily typed, so they usually use hyphens instead of dashes. Similarly, article titles with dashes should also have a corresponding redirect from a copy of the title with hyphens: for example, Michelson-Morley experiment redirects to Michelson–Morley experiment.
Non-breaking: A non-breaking hyphen ({{nbhyph}}) will not be used as a point of line-wrap.
Soft hyphens: Use soft hyphens to mark locations where a word will be broken and hyphenated if necessary at the end of a line of text, usually in very long words or narrow spaces (such as captions, narrow table columns, or text adjacent to a very wide image), for example: {{shy|Penn|syl|va|nia and Mass|a|chu|setts style themselves com|mon|wealths.}}. Use sparingly to avoid making wikitext difficult to read and edit. For more information, see Help:Line-break handling.
Encoding: The hyphen is represented by the ASCII/UNICODE HYPHEN-MINUS character, which is entered by the hyphen or minus key on all standard keyboards. Do not use the UNICODE HYPHEN character.
Hyphenation involves many subtleties that cannot be covered here; the rules and examples presented above illustrate the broad principles.
Dashes
Two forms of dash are used on Wikipedia: en dash (–) and em dash (—). To enter them, click on them in the CharInsert toolbar, or on a Windows keyboard enter them manually as:
–or—{{endash}}or{{emdash}}
On a Mac keyboard the en dash is entered as ⌥ Opt+-, and the em dash as ⇧ Shift+⌥ Opt+-. Do not use a double hyphen (--) to stand in for a dash.
Sources use dashes in varying ways. For consistency and clarity, Wikipedia adopts the following principles.
In article titles
In article titles, do not use a hyphen (-) as a substitute for an en dash, for example in eye–hand span (since eye does not modify hand). Nonetheless, to aid searching and linking, provide a redirect with hyphens replacing the en dash(es), as in eye-hand span. Similarly, provide category redirects for categories containing dashes. When an en dash is being used as a separator in an article title or section heading, editors may choose whether to capitalize what follows, taking into consideration the existing practice and consistency with related articles.
In running text
Dashes are often used to mark divisions within a sentence: in pairs (parenthetical dashes, instead of parentheses or pairs of commas) or singly (perhaps instead of a colon). They may also indicate an abrupt stop or interruption in reporting quoted speech. In all such cases, either unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes can be used, with consistency maintained throughout a given article:
- An em dash is unspaced on both sides:
- An en dash is spaced on both sides:
Ideally, an en dash should be preceded by a non-breaking space; this prevents the dash from appearing at the beginning of a line. The {{snd}} template may be used for this:
Do not insert any spaces where an en dash should be unspaced .
Dashes can clarify a sentence's structure when commas, parentheses, or both are also being used.
- The book summarizes works of some major philosophers in chronological order: Descartes, Locke, Hume – but not his Treatise (deemed too complex for the target audience) – and Kant.
Use dashes sparingly. More than two in a single sentence makes the structure unclear; it takes time for the reader to see which dashes form a pair, if any.
- The birds – at least the ones Darwin collected – had red and blue feathers.
- "We have run aground at – ", was the final, incomplete message received from the ship.
- Avoid: First – at a marshy site leveled with landfill – came the workshop – then administrative and other buildings.
- Better: First – at a marshy site leveled with landfill – came the workshop; administrative and other buildings were erected later.
In ranges that might otherwise be expressed with to or through
For ranges between numbers, dates, or times, use an en dash:
- pp. 7–19; 64–75%; Henry VIII reigned 1509–1547
Do not change hyphens to dashes in filenames, URLs, or templates such as {{Bibleverse}} (which formats verse ranges into URLs), even if a range is embedded in them.
Do not mix en dashes with between or from.
- 450–500 people
- between 450 and 500 people, not between 450–500 people
- from 450 to 500 people, not from 450–500 people
- from 1961 to 1964, not from 1961–1964
- between the 1961–1962 and 1967–1968 seasons, ticket sales dropped substantially (or between the 1961–62 and 1967–68 seasons)
The en dash in a range is always unspaced, except when either or both elements of the range include at least one space, hyphen, or en dash; in such cases, {{snd}} between them will provide the proper formatting.
- July 23, 1790 – December 1, 1791 (not July 23, 1790–December 1, 1791)
- 14 May – 2 August 2011 (not 14 May–2 August 2011)
- 1–17 September (and note in this case that the second element of the range is 17, not 17 September); February–October 2009; 1492 – 7 April 1556
- Christmas Day – New Year's Eve; Christmas 2001 – Easter 2002; 10:30 pm Tuesday – 1:25 am Wednesday; 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. (but 6:00–9:30 p.m.)
- wavelengths in the range 28 mm – 17 m.
- pages 5-7 – 5-9
If negative values are involved, an unspaced en dash might be confusing:
- −10 to 10, not −10–10 (though −10 – 10 might work in a table consistently formatted with x–y constructions)
In compounds when the connection might otherwise be expressed with to, versus, and, or between
Here, the relationship is thought of as parallel, symmetric, equal, oppositional, or at least involving separate or independent elements. The components may be nouns, adjectives, verbs, or any other independent part of speech. Often, if the components are reversed there would be little change of meaning.
- boyfriend–girlfriend problems; the Paris–Montpellier route; a New York–Los Angeles flight
- iron–cobalt interactions; the components are parallel and reversible; iron and cobalt retain their identity
- Wrong: an iron–roof shed; iron modifies roof, so use a hyphen: an iron-roof shed
- Wrong: a singer–songwriter; not separate persons, so use a hyphen: a singer-songwriter
- red–green colorblind; red and green are separate independent colors, not mixed
- Wrong: blue–green algae; a blended, intermediate color, so use a hyphen: blue-green algae
- a 51–30 win; a 12–0 perfect season; a 22–17 majority vote; but prefer spelling out when using words instead of numerals: a six-to-two majority decision, not with the awkward six–two; avoid confusingly reversed order: a 17–22 majority vote
- a 50–50 joint venture; a 60–40 split; avoid using a slash (stroke) here, which indicates division
- the Uganda–Tanzania War; the Roman–Syrian War; the east–west runway; the Lincoln–Douglas debates; a carbon–carbon bond
- diode–transistor logic; the analog–digital distinction; push–pull output; on–off switch
- a pro-establishment–anti-intellectual alliance; Singapore–Sumatra–Java shipping lanes
- the ballerina's rapid walk–dance transitions; a male–female height ratio of 1.14
Generally, use a hyphen in compounded proper names of single entities.
- Guinea-Bissau; Bissau is its capital, and this name distinguishes the country from neighboring Guinea
- Wilkes-Barre, a single city named after two people, but Minneapolis–Saint Paul, an area encompassing two cities
- John Lennard-Jones, an individual named after two families
Use an en dash between the names of nations or nationalities when referring to an association between them. For people and things identifying with multiple nationalities, use a hyphen when using the combination adjectivally and a space when they are used as nouns, with the first used attributively to modify the second.
- an Italian–Swiss border crossing; but an Italian-Swiss newspaper for Italian-speaking Swiss
- France–Britain rivalry; French–British rivalry
- an Indian-American scientist; was especially popular with Indian Americans
- Wrong: Franco–British rivalry; Franco- is a combining form, not an independent word, so use a hyphen: Franco-British rivalry
A slash or some other alternative may occasionally be better to express a ratio, especially in technical contexts .
- the protein–fat ratio; the protein/fat ratio; the protein-to-fat ratio
- Colons are often used for strictly numeric ratios, to avoid confusion with subtraction and division: a 3:1 ratio; a three-to-one ratio .
Use an en dash for the names of two or more entities in an attributive compound.
- the Seifert–van Kampen theorem; the Alpher–Bethe–Gamow theory
- the Seeliger–Donker-Voet scheme (developed by Seeliger and Donker-Voet)
- Comet Hale–Bopp or just Hale–Bopp (discovered by Hale and Bopp)
Do not use an en dash for hyphenated personal names, even when they are used as adjectives:
- Lennard-Jones potential with a hyphen: named after John Lennard-Jones
Do not use spaces around the en dash in any of the compounds above.
Instead of a hyphen, use an en dash when applying a prefix or suffix to a compound that itself includes a space, dash or hyphen
- ex–prime minister Thatcher (consider recasting: former prime minister Thatcher)
- pre–World War II aircraft (consider recasting: aircraft from before World War II)
- post–September 11 anti-war movement
- Trans–New Guinea languages
- post–Hartree–Fock
- Afro–Puerto Rican
- Turks and Caicos–based company
- a Rodgers and Hammerstein–esque musical number
The form of category names follows the corresponding main articles, e.g., Category:Trans–New Guinea languages. However, the principle is not extended when compounding other words in category names, e.g., Category:Tennis-related lists and Category:Table tennis-related lists both use hyphens.
To separate parts of an item in a list
Spaced en dashes are sometimes used between parts of list items. For example:
- James Galway – flute; Anne-Sophie Mutter – violin; Maurizio Pollini – piano.
or
- "The Future" – 7:21
- "Ain't No Cure for Love" – 6:17
- "Bird on the Wire" – 6:14
Editors may choose whether to capitalize what follows, taking into consideration the existing practice and consistency with related articles.
Other uses for en dashes
The en dash (–) has several common functions beyond its use in lists and running text. It is used to join components less strongly than a hyphen would ; conversely, it may also separate components less strongly than a slash would . Consider the relationship that exists between two components when deciding what punctuation to place between them.
Other uses for em dashes
An indented em dash may be used when attributing the source of a passage, such as a block quotation or poem. This dash should not be fully spaced: however, for reasons related to metadata and accessibility, it is best to place a hair space between the dash and the name. Most of Wikipedia's quotation templates provide this formatting automatically.
For example, {{in5}}—{{hair space}}Charlotte Brontë will produce:
— Charlotte Brontë
Other dashes
Do not use typewriter approximations or other substitutes, such as two hyphens (--), for em or en dashes.
For a negative sign or subtraction operator use U+2212 − MINUS SIGN (−), which can also be generated by clicking on the − following the ± in the Insert toolbar beneath the edit window. Do not use U+2212 − MINUS SIGN inside a <math> tag, as the character gives a syntax error; instead use a normal hyphen U+002D - HYPHEN-MINUS.
Slashes (strokes)
Generally, avoid joining two words with a slash, also called a forward slash, stroke or solidus ( / ), because it suggests that the words are related without specifying how. Replace with clearer wording.
An example: The parent/instructor must be present at all times. Must both be present? (Then write the parent and the instructor.) Must at least one be present? (Then write the parent or the instructor.) Are they the same person? (Use a hyphen: the parent-instructor.)
In circumstances involving a distinction or disjunction, the en dash is usually preferable to the slash: the digital–analog distinction.
An unspaced slash may be used:
- to indicate phonemic pronunciations (rivet is pronounced /ˈrɪvət/);
- in a fraction (
7/8, but see other techniques at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Fractions and ratios); - to indicate regular defined yearly periods that do not coincide with calendar years (e.g., the 2009/2010 fiscal year), if that is the convention used in reliable sources (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Long periods of time for further explanation);
- to express a ratio, in a form in which a slash is conventionally used (e.g., the price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E ratio for short);
- in an expression or abbreviation widely used outside Wikipedia (e.g., n/a or N/A for not applicable).
A spaced slash may be used:
- to separate run-on lines in quoted poetry or song (To be or not to be: that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune), or rarely in quoted prose, where careful marking of a paragraph break is textually important;
- to separate items that include at least one internal space (the NY 31 east / NY 370 exit), where for some reason use of a slash is unavoidable.
To avoid awkward linebreaks, code spaced slashes (and fraction slashes) with a non-breaking space on the left and a normal space on the right, as in: My mama told me / You better shop around. For short constructions, both spaces should be non-breaking: x / y. On the other hand, if two long words are connected by an unspaced slash, an {{wbr}} added after the slash will allow a linebreak at that point.
Do not use the backslash character ( \ ) in place of a slash.
Prefer the division operator ( ÷ ) to slash or fraction slash when representing elementary arithmetic in general text: 10 ÷ 2 = 5. In more advanced mathematical formulas, a vinculum or slash is preferred: 
And/or
Avoid writing and/or unless other constructions would be lengthy or awkward. Instead of Most had trauma and/or smoke inhalation, write simply trauma or smoke inhalation (which would normally be interpreted as an inclusive or to imply or both); or, for emphasis or precision or both, write trauma or smoke inhalation or both. Where more than two possibilities are present, instead of x, y, and/or z write one or more of x, y, and z or some or all of x, y, and z.
Symbols
Unicode symbols are preferred over composed ASCII symbols for improved readability and accessibility. Be mindful of presentations that may require ASCII, like sourcecode. Keys for these symbols can be found at the bottom of the Source Editor.
| Composed ASCII symbol | Preferred replacement |
|---|---|
--> | → |
<-- | ← |
<--> or <-> | ↔ |
^ | ↑ |
>= | ≥ |
<= | ≤ |
~= | ≈ |
Number (pound, hash) sign and numero
Avoid using the # symbol (known as the number sign, hash sign, pound sign, or octothorpe) when referring to numbers or rankings. Instead write number, No. or Nos.; do not use the symbol №. For example:
| Incorrect: | Her album reached #1 in the UK albums chart. |
| Correct: | Her album reached number one in the UK albums chart. |
| Correct: | Her album reached No. 1 in the UK albums chart. |
| Correct: | Her albums Foo and Bar reached Nos. 1 and 3. |
| Correct: | Her albums Foo and Bar reached numbers one and three in the UK albums chart. |
An exception is issue numbers of comic books, which unlike for other periodicals are conventionally given in general text in the form #1, unless a volume is also given, in which case write volume two, number seven or Vol. 2, No. 7. Another exception are periodical publications carrying both, issue and number designations (typically one being a year-relative and the other an absolute value); they should be given in the form 2 #143 in citations, or be spelt out as Iss. 2, No. 143 in text. When using the abbreviations, write {{abbr|Vol.|Volume}}, {{abbr|Iss.|Issue}}, {{abbr|No.|Number}}, or {{abbr|Nos.|Numbers}}, at first occurrence.
Terminal punctuation
- Exclamation and question marks have almost no application in encyclopedic writing.
- For the use of three periods in succession, see § Ellipses.
- In some contexts, no terminal punctuation is necessary. In such cases, the sentence often does not start with a capital letter. See § Quotations and § Quotation marks.
- Sentence fragments in captions or lists should in most cases not end with a period. See § Formatting of captions and § Bulleted and numbered lists.
Spacing
In normal text, never put a space before a comma, semicolon, colon, period/full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark (even in quoted material; see § Typographic conformity).
Some editors place two spaces after a period/full stop (); these are condensed to one space when the page is rendered, so it does not affect what readers see.
Consecutive punctuation marks
Where a word or phrase that includes terminal punctuation ends a sentence, do not add a second terminal punctuation mark. If a quoted phrase or title ends in a question mark or exclamation mark, it may confuse readers as to the nature of the article sentence containing it, and so is usually better reworded to be mid-sentence. Where such a word or phrase occurs mid-sentence, new terminal punctuation (usually a period) must be added at the end.
| Incorrect: | Slovak returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985 after growing tired of What Is This?. |
| Acceptable: | Slovak returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985 after growing tired of What Is This? |
| Better: | Slovak, having grown tired of What Is This?, returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985. |
| Incorrect: | He made several films with Sammy Davis Jr.. |
| Correct: | He made several films with Sammy Davis Jr. |
Punctuation and footnotes
Reference tags (<ref>...</ref>) are used to create footnotes (also called endnotes or simply notes), as citation footnotes and sometimes explanatory notes. All reference tags should immediately follow the text to which the footnote applies, with no intervening space. Apart from the exceptions listed below, references are placed after adjacent punctuation, not before. Adjacent reference tags should have no space between them, nor should there be any between tags and inline dispute and cleanup templates.
When reference tags are used, a footnote list must be added, and this is usually placed in the References section, near the end of the article in the standard appendices and footers.
- Example: Flightless birds have a reduced keel,[10] and they also have smaller wing bones than flying birds of similar size.[11][12]
Exceptions: Reference tags are placed before dashes, not after. If a footnote applies only to material within parentheses, the tags belong just before the closing parenthesis.
- Example: Paris is not the capital city of England – the capital of which is London[10] – but that of France.[11]
- Example: Kim Jong-un (Korean: 김정은; Hanja: 金正恩[10]) is the Supreme Leader of North Korea.[11]
Punctuation after formulae
Sentences should place punctuation after mathematical formulae as if they were normal body text. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Mathematics § Punctuation after formulae.
Dates and time
Dates should be linked only when they are germane and topical to the subject, as discussed at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking § Chronological items. For ranges of dates and times, see § Other uses for en dashes.
Time of day
Times of day are normally expressed in figures rather than words. Context determines whether the 12- or the 24-hour format is more appropriate.
- Twelve-hour clock times are written in one of two forms: 11:15 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., or 11:15 am and 2:30 pm (wherein the spaces should be non-breaking). Use noon and midnight rather than 12 pm and 12 am; it may need to be specified whether midnight refers to the start or end of a date.
- Twenty-four-hour clock times are written in the form 08:15 and 22:55, with no suffix. Midnight written as 00:00 begins the day; 24:00 ends it.
Dates
Full dates are formatted 10 June 1921 or June 10, 1921; or where the year is omitted, use 10 June or June 10.
- The dates in the text of any one article should all have the same format (day-first or month-first).
- For date formats in citations, see Wikipedia:Citing sources § Citation style.
- Dates in quotations and titles are always left as-is.
- If a numerical format is required (e.g., for conciseness in lists and tables), use the YYYY-MM-DD format: 2005-04-03.
- Articles on topics with strong ties to a particular English-speaking country should generally use the more common date format for that country (month-first for the US, except in military usage; day-first for most others; articles related to Canada may use either consistently). Otherwise, do not change an article from one date format to the other without good reason.
Months
- For month and year, write June 1921, with no comma.
- Abbreviations for months, such as Feb, are used only where space is extremely limited. Such abbreviations should use three letters only, and should not be followed by a period (full point) except at the end of a sentence.
Seasons
- Avoid ambiguous references to seasons, which are different in the southern and northern hemispheres.
- Names of seasons may be used when there is a logical connection to the event being described (the autumn harvest) or when referring to a phase of a natural yearly cycle (migration typically starts in mid-spring). Otherwise, neutral wording is usually preferable (He was elected in November 1992, not He was elected in the fall of 1992).
- Journals and other publications that are issued seasonally (e.g., "Summer 2005") should be dated as such in citations .
Years and longer periods
- Do not use the year before the digits (1995, not the year 1995), unless the meaning would otherwise be unclear.
- Decades are written in the format the 1980s, with no apostrophe. Use the two-digit form ('80s) only with an established social or cultural meaning. Avoid forms such as the 1700s that could refer to ten or a hundred years.
- Years are denoted by AD and BC or, equivalently, CE and BCE. Use only one system within an article, and do not change from one system to the other without good reason. The abbreviations are written without periods, and with a non-breaking space, as in 5 BC. Omit AD or CE unless omitting it would cause ambiguity.
More information on all the above topics can be found at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Chronological items, including the handling of dates expressed in different calendars, and times corresponding to different time zones.
Current
Terms such as "current", "now", and "recent" should be avoided. What is current today may not be tomorrow; situations change over time. Instead, use date- and time-specific text. To help keep information updated use {{As of}}, which will allow editors to catalog and update dated statements.
| Incorrect: | He is the current ambassador to ... |
| Correct: | As of March 2011, he is the ambassador to ... |
Numbers
- Integers from zero to nine are spelled out in words. Integers greater than nine expressible in one or two words may be expressed either in numerals or in words. Other numbers are given in numerals or in forms such as 21 million. See MOS:NUM § Numbers as figures or words.
- In general, in numbers with five or more digits to the left of the decimal point, use commas to group those digits. Numbers with four digits are at the editor's discretion: 12,345, but either 1,000 or 1000. See MOS:NUM § Grouping of digits.
- In general, use decimals rather than fractions for measurements, but fractions are sometimes used with imperial and US customary units. Keep articles internally consistent.
- Scientific notation (e.g., 5.8×107 kg) is preferred in scientific contexts. Markup:
{{val|5.8|e=7|u=kg}}. - Write out "million" and "billion" on the first use. After that, unspaced "M" can be used for millions and "bn" for billions: 70M and 25bn. See MOS:NUM § Numbers as figures or words for similar words.
- Write 3%, three percent, or three per cent, but not 3 % (with a space) or three %. "Percent" is American usage, and "per cent" is British usage . In ranges of percentages written with an en dash, write only a single percent sign: 3–14%.
- Indicate uncertainties as e.g., (1.534±0.35)×1023 m. Markup:
{{val|1.534|0.35|e=23|u=m}}. See MOS:NUM § Uncertainty and rounding for other formats.
Currencies
- Use the full abbreviation on first use (US$ for the US dollar and A$ for the Australian dollar), unless the currency is already clear from context. For example, the government of the United States always spends money in American dollars, and never in Canadian or Australian dollars.
- Use only one symbol with ranges, as in $250–300.
- In articles that are not specific to a country, express amounts of money in United States dollars, euros, or pounds sterling. Do not link the names or symbols of currencies that are commonly known to English-speakers ($, €, £), unless there is a particular reason to do so; do not use potentially ambiguous currency symbols, unless the meaning is clear in the context.
- In country-specific articles, use the currency of the country. On first occurrence, consider including conversion to US dollars, euros, or pounds sterling, at a rate appropriate to the context. For example, Since 2001 the grant has been 10,000,000 Swedish kronor (€1.0M as of August 2009). Wording such as "approx." is not appropriate for simple rounding-off of the converted amount.
- Generally, use the full name of a currency, and link it on its first appearance if English-speakers are likely to be unfamiliar with it (52 Nepalese rupees); subsequent occurrences can use the currency sign (just 88 Rs).
- Most currency symbols are placed before the number, and unspaced ($123 not $ 123).
Units of measurement
- The main unit in which a quantity is expressed should generally be an SI unit or non-SI unit officially accepted for use with the SI. However,
- Scientific articles may also use specialist units appropriate for the branch of science in question.
- In non-scientific articles with strong ties to the United States, the main unit is generally a US customary unit (22 pounds (10 kg)).
- In non-scientific articles with strong ties to the United Kingdom, although the main unit is generally a metric unit (10 kilograms (22 lb)), imperial units are still used as the main units in some contexts (7 miles (11 km) by road).
- Where English-speaking countries use different units for the same measurement, provide a conversion in parentheses. Examples: the Mississippi River is 2,320 miles (3,734 km) long; the Murray River is 2,375 kilometres (1,476 mi) long. See
{{convert}}. - In a direct quotation, always retain the source's units. Any conversion should follow in square brackets (or, an obscure use of units can be explained in the article text or a footnote).
- Where space is limited (such as tables, infoboxes, parenthetical notes, and mathematical formulas) unit symbols are preferred. In prose, unit names should be given in full if used only a few times but symbols may be used when a unit (especially one with a long name) is used repeatedly after spelling out the first use (e.g., Up to 15 kilograms of filler is used for a batch of 250 kg), except for unit names that are hardly ever spelled out (°C rather than degrees Celsius).
- Most unit names are not capitalized (see § National varieties of English for spelling differences).
- Use "per" when writing out a unit, rather than a slash: metre per second, not metre/second.
- Units unfamiliar to general readers should be presented as a name–symbol pair on first use, linking the unit name (Energies were originally 2.3 megaelectronvolts (MeV), but were eventually 6 MeV).
- For ranges, see § En dashes: other uses, and MOS:NUM, at §§ Date ranges, Percentages, Unit names and symbols, and Formatting of monetary values.
- Unit symbols are preceded by figures, not by spelled-out numbers. Values and unit symbols are separated by a non-breaking space. For example, 5 min. The percent sign and units of degrees, minutes, and seconds for angles and coordinates are unspaced.
Common mathematical symbols
- For a negative sign or subtraction operator, use a minus sign (−, Unicode character U+2212 MINUS SIGN). Input by clicking on it in the insert box beneath the edit window or by typing
−. - For multiplication, use a multiplication sign (U+00D7 × MULTIPLICATION SIGN) or a dot (U+22C5 ⋅ DOT OPERATOR), which are input by clicking on them in the edit toolbox under the edit window or by entering
×or⋅. Care should be taken not to confuse the dot operator (in the "Math and logic" section of the edit toolbox) with an interpunct (in the "Insert" section of the edit toolbox) or a bullet. The letter x should not be used to indicate multiplication, but it is used (unspaced) as the substitute for "by" in terms such as 4x4. - Exponentiation is indicated by a superscript, an (typed as
''a''<sup>''n''</sup>. - Do not use programming language notation outside computer program text. In most programming languages, subtraction, multiplication, and exponentiation are represented by the hyphen-minus
-, the asterisk*, and either the caret^or the double asterisk**respectively; scientific notation is replaced by E notation. - Symbols for binary operators and relations are usually spaced on both sides:
- plus, minus, and plus-or-minus (as binary operators): +, −, ± (as in 5 − 3);
- multiplication and division: ×, ÷;
- equals, does not equal, equals approximately: =, ≠, ≈;
- is less than, is less than or equal to, is greater than, is greater than or equal to: <, ≤, >, ≥.
- Symbols for unary operators are closed-up to their operand:
- positive, negative, and positive-or-negative signs: +, −, ± (as in −3);
- other unary operators, such as the exclamation mark as a factorial sign (as in 5!).
- Variables are italicized, but digits and punctuation are not; only x and y are italicized in 2(5x + y)2.
{{math}}can be used to style formulas to distinguish them from surrounding text. For single variables,{{mvar}}is handy.
Grammar and usage
Possessives
Singular nouns
For the possessive of singular nouns, including proper names and words ending in s, add 's (my daughter's achievement, my niece's wedding, Cortez's men, the boss's office, Illinois's largest employer, the US's partners, Descartes's philosophy, Verreaux's eagle). Exception: abstract nouns ending with an /s/ sound when followed by sake (for goodness' sake, for his conscience' sake). If a name ending in s or z would be difficult to pronounce with 's added (Jesus's teachings), consider rewording (the teachings of Jesus).
Plural nouns
- For a normal plural noun ending with a pronounced s, form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe (my sons' wives, my nieces' weddings).
- For a plural noun not ending with a pronounced s, add 's (women's careers, people's habits, mice's whiskers; The two Dumas's careers were controversial, but where rewording is an option, this may be better: The career of each Dumas was controversial).
Official names
Official names (of companies, organizations, or places) should not be altered. (St Thomas' Hospital should therefore not be rendered as St Thomas's Hospital or St. Thomas Hospital, even for consistency.)
Pronouns
First-person pronouns
To maintain an objective and impersonal encyclopedic voice, an article should never refer to its editors or readers using I, my, we, us, our, or similar words: We note that some believe that bats are bugs. But some of these words are acceptable in certain figurative uses. For example:
- In historical articles to mean the modern world as a whole: Only portions of De re publica have come down to us.
- The author's we found in scientific writing (We construct S as follows), though passive voice may be preferable (S is constructed as follows).
Second-person pronouns
Avoid addressing the reader using you or your, which sets an inappropriate tone .
- Use a noun or a third-person pronoun: instead of When you move past "Go", you collect $200, use A player passing "Go" collects $200, or When a player passes "Go", they collect $200.
- If a person cannot be specified, or when implying "anyone" as a subject, the impersonal pronoun one may be used: a sense that one is being watched. Other constructions may be preferable if the pronoun one seems stilted: a person's sense of being watched.
- The passive voice may sometimes be used instead:Impurities are removed before bottling.
- Do not bait links, e.g., "Click here for more information"; let the browser's normal highlighting invite a click. ("Click here" also makes no sense to someone reading on paper.)
- Likewise, "See: ..." or "Consider ..." (in reference to arguments, principles, facts, etc.) are milder second-person baits, common in academic writing (pedagogy). This interactive personality is inconsistent with an encyclopedia's passive presentation of objective matter.
- "See" and the like can be used to internally cross-reference other Wikipedia material. Do not italicize words like "see". Such a cross-reference should be parenthetical, so the article text stands alone if the parenthetical is removed.
{{Crossref}}can be used for this:{{Crossref|(see [[Chicken]])}},{{Crossref|(See [[Dacian language]] for details.)}}It is usually better to rewrite the material to integrate these links contextually rather than use explicit Wikipedia self-references.
- "See" and the like can be used to internally cross-reference other Wikipedia material. Do not italicize words like "see". Such a cross-reference should be parenthetical, so the article text stands alone if the parenthetical is removed.
- Do not address the reader with the Socratic method by asking and answering questions. Did Bacon write Shakespeare? Then who wrote Bacon?
Third-person pronouns
Refer to a person with pronouns (and other gendered words) that reflect their latest self-identification in recent reliable sources. Singular they/them/their are appropriate in reference to anyone who uses those, as replacements for neopronouns, and in generic reference to persons of unknown gender.
Ships (military or private-sector) may be referred to by either neuter pronouns (it, its) or feminine pronouns (she, her). Both usages are acceptable, but each article should be internally consistent and exclusively employ only one style. As with all optional styles, articles should not be changed from one style to another without clear and substantial reason. Try to avoid close, successive uses of the same referent for a ship, by using different referents in rotation; for example, it or she, the ship, and the ship's name. The she/her optional style does not apply to other vessel/vehicle types, such as trains.
Plurals
Use the appropriate plural; allow for cases (such as excursus or hanif) in which a word is now listed in major English dictionaries, and normally takes an s or es plural, not its original plural: two excursuses, not two excursūs as in Latin; three hanifs, not three hunafa as in Arabic.
Some collective nouns – such as team (and proper names of them), army, company, crowd, fleet, government, majority, mess, number, pack, and party – may refer either to a single entity or to the members that compose it. In British English, such words are sometimes treated as singular, but more often treated as plural, according to context (but singular is not actually incorrect). In North American English, these words are almost invariably treated as singular; the major exception is that when a sports team is referred to by its short name, plural verbs are commonly used, e.g. the Heat are playing the Lakers tonight.
Names of towns and countries usually take singular verbs (even when grammatically plural: the United States is in North America, the Netherlands is also known as Holland), but exceptionally in British English, typically when used to refer to a sports team named after a town or country or when discussing actions of a government, plural is used. For example, in England are playing Germany tomorrow, England refers to a football team; but in England is in the Northern hemisphere, it refers to the country. See also § National varieties of English including § Opportunities for commonality.
Verb tense
By default, write articles in the present tense, including those covering works of fiction and products or works that have been discontinued. Generally, use past tense only for past events, and for subjects that are dead or no longer meaningfully exist. Use past tense for articles about periodicals no longer produced, with common-sense exceptions.
- The PDP-10 is a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1966 into the 1980s.
- Earth: Final Conflict is a Canadian science fiction television series that ran for five seasons between October 6, 1997, and May 20, 2002.
- The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days of rioting in London motivated by anti-Catholic sentiment.
- The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool in 1960.
- Barack Obama is a former president of the United States (not Barack Obama was a president of the United States).
- Jumbo Comics was an adventure anthology comic book published by Fiction House from 1938 to 1953.
- A Prairie Home Companion is a radio show that aired live from 1974 to 2016 (not A Prairie Home Companion was a radio show).
- Flappy Bird is a mobile game developed by Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen (not Flappy Bird was a mobile game).
Tense can be used to distinguish between current and former status of a subject: Dún Aonghasa is the ruin of a prehistoric Irish cliff fort. Its original shape was presumably oval or D-shaped, but parts of the cliff and fort have since collapsed into the sea. (Emphasis added to distinguish the different tense usages; Dún Aonghasa is a structure that was later damaged by an event.)
Always use present tense for verbs that describe genres, types, and classes, even if the subject of the description (e.g. program, library, device) no longer exists, is discontinued, is unsupported or is unmaintained. Present tense is also used for discontinued television shows.
Vocabulary
Contractions
Avoid contractions, which have little place in formal writing. For example, write do not instead of don't. Use of o'clock is an exception. Contracted titles such as Dr. and St generally should not be used but may apply in some contexts (e.g., quoted material, place names, titles of works).
Gender-neutral language
Use gender-neutral language – avoiding the generic he, for example – if this can be done with clarity and precision. This does not apply to direct quotations or the titles of works (The Ascent of Man), which should not be altered, or to wording about one-gender contexts, such as an all-female school (When any student breaks that rule, she loses privileges).
References to space programs, past, present and future, should use gender-neutral phrasing: human spaceflight, robotic probe, uncrewed mission, crewed spacecraft, piloted, unpiloted, astronaut, cosmonaut, not manned or unmanned. Direct quotations and proper nouns that use gendered words should not be changed, like Manned Maneuvering Unit.
Ships may be referred to using either neuter forms ("it", "its") or feminine forms ("she", "her", "hers"). Either usage is acceptable, but each article should be internally consistent and employ one or the other exclusively. As with all optional styles, articles should not be changed from one style to another unless there is a substantial reason to do so. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Military history § Pronouns.
Contested vocabulary
Avoid words and phrases that give the impression of straining for formality, that are unnecessarily regional, or that are not widely accepted. See List of commonly misused English words; see also § Identity.
Instructional and presumptuous language
Avoid phrases such as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone and lean toward instructional. They are a subtle form of Wikipedia self-reference, "breaking the fourth wall". Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, may express a viewpoint, and may call into question the reason for including the information in the first place.
Do not tell readers that something is interesting, ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, etc. Simply present sourced facts neutrally and let readers draw their own conclusions. Such constructions can usually just be deleted, leaving behind proper sentences with a more academic and less pushy tone: Note that this was naturally subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers. becomes This was subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers. Similar variants which indirectly instruct readers, such as It should be noted that or It is important to note that, may be rewritten by leaving out those words: It is important to note that the colloquial dialect of Portuñol is similar to but different from Mirandese becomes just The colloquial dialect of Portuñol is similar to but different from Mirandese.
Avoid rhetorical questions, especially in headings. Use a heading of Active listening and text such as The term active listening, coined in ..., not What is active listening?
For issues in the use of cross-references – e.g., ) – see § Second-person pronouns.
Subset terms
A subset term identifies a set of members of a larger class. Common subset terms are including, among, and etc. Avoid redundant subset terms (e.g., mis-constructions like Among the most well-known members of the fraternity are included two members of the Onassis family or The elements in stars include hydrogen, helium, etc.). The word including does not introduce a complete list; instead, use consisting of, or composed of.
Identity
When there is a discrepancy between the term most commonly used by reliable sources for a person or group and the term that person or group uses for themselves, use the term that is most commonly used by recent reliable sources. If it is unclear which is most used, use the term that the person or group uses.
Disputes over how to refer to a person or group are addressed by Wikipedia content policies, such as those on verifiability, and neutral point of view (and article titles when the term appears in the title of an article).
Use specific terminology. For example, it is often more appropriate for people or things from Ethiopia (a country in Africa) to be described as Ethiopian, not carelessly (with the risk of stereotyping) as African.
Gender identity
Specific guidelines apply to any person whose gender might be questioned, and any living transgender or non-binary person. In summary:
- Use gendered words only if they reflect the person's latest self-identification as reported in recent sources.
- If the person is living and was not notable yet when a former name was in use, that name should not be included in any Wikipedia page, even in quotations, as a privacy matter. Exception: Do not expunge or replace names in source citations (whether as authors or mentioned in work titles).
- Former names under which a living person was notable should be introduced with "born" or "formerly" in the lead sentence of their main biographical article. Name and gender matters should be explained at first appearance in that article, without overemphasis. In articles on works or other activities of such a person, use their current name by default, and give another name associated with that context in a parenthetical or footnote, only if they were notable under that name. In other articles, do not go into detail about such a person's name or gender except when directly relevant to the context.
- Avoid confusing constructions by rewriting. Paraphrase, elide, or use square brackets to replace portions of quotations as needed to avoid confusion, former names, and mismatching gendered words.
Non-English terms
Terms without common usage in English
Non-English terms should be used sparingly. In general, use italics for phrases and words that are not current in English. This is best done with the {{lang}} template using the appropriate ISO language code, e.g., {{lang|es|casa}}. There are alternatives to the {{lang}} template which also provide additional information about a non-English word or phrase, such as a link to the language name; . As Wikipedia does not apply italics to names of people, places, or organizations, the alternative template {{langr}} can be used to apply the language markup without italicizing. Templates like {{lang}} automatically italicize text written using the Latin alphabet, so specifying italics is unnecessary.
Text written in non-Latin scripts such as Greek, Cyrillic, and Chinese should not be italicized or put in bold, as the difference in script is already sufficient to visually distinguish the text. Generally, any non-Latin text should include an appropriate romanization.
Terms with common usage in English
Loanwords and borrowed phrases that have common usage in English – Gestapo, samurai, vice versa – do not require italics. A rule of thumb is to not italicize words that appear unitalicized in major general-purpose English dictionaries.
Spelling and romanization
Names and terms originally written using a non-Latin script—such as the Greek alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, or Chinese characters—must be
Style guide for all Wikipedia articles This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia s Manual of Style Editors should generally follow it though exceptions may apply Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus When in doubt discuss first on this guideline s talk page ShortcutWP MOSManual of Style MoS ContentAccessibility Biography Disambiguation pages Organizing by subject Gender identity Hidden text Infoboxes Linking Self references Words to watchFormattingAbbreviations Capitalization Dates and numbers Pronunciation Spelling Text formatting Titles of worksImagesCaptions Image placement Icons ImagesLayoutLayout Lead section Tables Trivia sectionsListsLists Lists of works Road junctions Stand alone listsBy topic areaLegalLegal TrademarksArtsAnime and manga Comics Film Lyrics and poetry Novels Television Video games Visual arts Writing about fictionMusicMusic Music samples Record charts Stringed instrumentsHistoryBlazons Military historyRegionalSpecific naming conventions Canada China and Chinese Egypt France and French Hawaii India Indonesia Ireland Japan Korea Macedonia Malaysia Pakistan Philippines Poland Singapore Trinidad and TobagoReligionIslam Latter Day SaintsScienceChemistry Compound classes Chemicals References and external links Safety Structure drawing Computer science Mathematics Medicine TaxonomySportsCue sports Snooker Figure skating Terminology Related guidelinesArticle size Article titles Categories lists and navigation templates Categorization Hatnotes Subpages UnderstandabilityOverview Contents Tipsvte This Manual of Style MoS or MOS is the style manual for all English Wikipedia articles though provisions related to accessibility apply across the entire project not just to articles This primary page is supported by further detail pages which are cross referenced here and listed at Wikipedia Manual of Style Contents If any contradiction arises this page has precedence Editors should write articles using straightforward succinct and easily understood language Editors should structure articles with consistent reader friendly layouts and formatting which are detailed in this guide Where more than one style or format is acceptable under the MoS one should be used consistently within an article and should not be changed without good reason Edit warring over stylistic choices is unacceptable New content added to this page should directly address a persistently recurring style issue Retaining existing stylesShortcutsMOS VARMOS STYLEVARMOS STYLERET Sometimes the MoS provides more than one acceptable style or gives no specific guidance When either of two styles is acceptable it is generally considered inappropriate for a Wikipedia editor to change from one style to another unless there is some substantial reason for the change Edit warring over style or enforcing optional style in a bot like fashion without prior consensus is never acceptable Unjustified changes from one acceptable consistently applied style in an article to a different style may generally be reverted Seek opportunities for commonality to avoid disputes over style If you believe an alternative style would be more appropriate for a particular article seek consensus by discussing this at the article s talk page or if it raises an issue of more general application or with the MoS itself at Wikipedia talk Manual of Style If a discussion does not result in consensus for the change at the article continue to use the already established style there If discussion fails to reach a consensus regarding which of two or more competing styles to use at all then default to the style that was used in the first post stub version of the article in which one of the applicable styles appeared This fall back position does not give unchallengeable primacy to that particular style during consensus discussion nor give the editor who imposed that earliest style any more say in the discussion For retention of an article s established national variety of English and potential reasons to change it see National varieties of English Article titles sections and headingsShortcutMOS AT Article titles A title should be a recognizable name or description of the topic balancing the criteria of being natural sufficiently precise concise and consistent with those of related articles For formatting guidance see the Wikipedia Article titles Article title format section noting the following Capitalize the initial letter except in rare cases such as eBay but otherwise follow sentence case Funding of UNESCO projects not title case Funding of UNESCO Projects except where title case would be used in ordinary prose See Wikipedia Naming conventions capitalization To italicize add a href wiki Template Italic title title Template Italic title italic title a near the top of the article For mixed situations use e g DISPLAYTITLE Interpretations of 2001 A Space Odyssey instead Use of italics should conform to Wikipedia Manual of Style Text formatting Italic type Do not use articles a an or the as the first word Economy of the Second Empire not The economy of the Second Empire unless it is an inseparable part of a name The Hague or of the title of a work A Clockwork Orange The Simpsons Normally use nouns or noun phrases Early life not In early life The final character should not be punctuation unless it is an inseparable part of a name Saint Louis du Ha Ha Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or an abbreviation Inverness City F C or when a closing round bracket or quotation mark is required John Palmer 1814 schooner Whenever quotation marks or apostrophe like variants appear add a redirect for the same title using apostrophes Subject both to the above and to Wikipedia Article titles the rest of the MoS particularly Punctuation applies also to the title See also Wikipedia Manual of Style Titles of works for cases where an article about a published work has a title that coincides with the work s title Section organization ShortcutMOS SO An article s content should begin with an introductory lead section a concise summary of the article which is never divided into sections see Wikipedia Manual of Style Lead section The remainder of the article is typically divided into sections Infoboxes images and related content in the lead section must be right aligned Certain standardized templates and wikicode that are not sections go at the very top of the article before the content of the lead section and in the following order A short description with the a href wiki Template Short description title Template Short description Short description a template A disambiguation hatnote most of the time with the a href wiki Template Hatnote title Template Hatnote Hatnote a template see also Wikipedia Hatnote Hatnote templates No output templates that indicate the article s established date format and English language variety if any e g a href wiki Template Use dmy dates title Template Use dmy dates Use dmy dates a a href wiki Template Use Canadian English title Template Use Canadian English Use Canadian English a Banner type maintenance templates Dispute and Cleanup templates for article wide issues that have been flagged otherwise used at the top of a specific section after any sectional hatnote such as a href wiki Template Main title Template Main main a An infobox which is optional except in special cases like a href wiki Template Taxobox title Template Taxobox Taxobox a and a href wiki Template Chembox title Template Chembox Chembox a or a variant thereof at applicable articles usually also includes the first image An introductory image when an infobox is not used or an additional image is desired for the lead section for unusually long leads a second image can be placed midway through the lead text In the Vector 2022 skin the table of contents is separate from the article content In some older skins a navigable table of contents appears automatically just after the lead if an article has at least four section headings If the topic of a section is covered in more detail in a dedicated article see Wikipedia Summary style insert a href wiki Template Main title Template Main main a var style padding right 1px Article name var or a href wiki Template Further title Template Further further a var style padding right 1px Article name var immediately under the section heading As explained in detail in Wikipedia Manual of Style Layout Standard appendices and footers several kinds of material mostly optional may appear after the main body of the article in the following order Books or other works created by the subject of the article under a section heading Works Publications Discography Filmography etc as appropriate avoid Bibliography confusable with reference citations Internal links to related English Wikipedia articles with section heading See also Notes and references with a section heading Notes or References usually the latter or a separate section for each in this order see Wikipedia Citing sources avoid Bibliography confusable with the subject s works Relevant books articles or other publications that have not been used as sources use the section heading Further reading be highly selective as Wikipedia is not a bibliographic directory Relevant and appropriate websites that have not been used as sources and do not appear in the earlier appendices using the heading External links which may be made a subsection of Further reading or such links can be integrated directly into the Further reading list instead link templates for sister project content also usually go at the top of this section when it is present otherwise in the last section on the page The following final items never take section headings Internal links organized into navigational boxes Authority control metadata if needed using a href wiki Template Authority control title Template Authority control Authority control a distinguishes uses of the same name for two subjects or multiple names for one subject Categories which should be the very last material in the article s source code if there are no stub templates Stub templates if needed which should follow the categories Stand alone list articles have some additional layout considerations Section headings ShortcutsMOS HEADMOS HEADINGSMOS SECTIONSMOS SECTIONHEAD Section headings should generally follow the guidance for article titles above and should be presented in sentence case Funding of UNESCO projects in developing countries not title case Funding of UNESCO Projects in Developing Countries ShortcutMOS BLANKLINE The heading must be on its own line with one blank line just before it a blank line just after is optional and ignored but do not use two blank lines before or after because that will add unwanted visible space For technical reasons section headings should Be unique within a page so that section links lead to the correct place ShortcutMOS NOSECTIONLINKS Not contain links especially where only part of a heading is linked Not contain images or icons Not contain lt math gt markup Not contain citations or footnotes Not misuse description list markup to create pseudo headings Not contain template transclusions These technical restrictions are necessary to avoid technical complications and are not subject to override by local consensus As a matter of consistent style section headings should ShortcutsMOS SECTIONSTYLEMOS NOBACKREF Not redundantly refer back to the subject of the article e g Early life not Smith s early life or His early life Not refer to a higher level heading unless doing so is shorter or clearer Not be numbered or lettered as an outline Not be phrased as a question e g Languages not What languages are spoken in Mexico Not use color or unusual fonts that may cause accessibility problems Not be wrapped in markup which may break their display and cause other accessibility issues These are broadly accepted community preferences ShortcutMOS SECTIONCOMMENT A hidden comment on the same line must be inside the markup Y Implications lt This comment works fine gt Y lt This comment works fine gt Implications N Implications lt This comment causes problems gt N lt This comment breaks the heading completely gt Implications It is preferred to put such comments below the heading ShortcutMOS SECTIONANCHOR Before changing a heading consider whether you might be breaking existing links to it If there are many links to the old title create an anchor with that title to ensure that these still work Similarly when linking to a section leave an invisible comment at the heading of the target section naming the linking articles so that if the heading is later altered these can be easily fixed or alternatively another anchor can be created if there are many For a combined example Implications subst Anchor Consequences br lt Section linked from Richard Dawkins Daniel Dennett gt which will be saved in the article as Implications code class mw highlight mw highlight lang text mw content ltr style dir ltr lt span class anchor id Consequences gt lt span gt lt Section linked from Richard Dawkins Daniel Dennett gt code The advantage of using subst Anchor or simply inserting the lt a href wiki HTML element span title HTML element span a gt tags directly is that when edits are made to the section in the future the anchor will not be included in page history entries as part of the section name When Anchor is used directly that undesirable behavior does occur Note if electing to insert the span directly do not abbreviate it by using a self closing tag as in Implications lt span id Consequences span style margin right 0 1em padding 3px 4px 2px background color ffa07a border 1px border radius 3px box shadow 2px 2px 4px A0A080 span gt since in HTML5 that XML style syntax is valid only for certain tags such as lt br gt See Wikipedia Manual of Style Linking Avoiding broken section links for further discussion Heading like material The above guidance about sentence case redundancy images and questions also applies to headers of tables and of table columns and rows However table headings can incorporate citations and may begin with or be numbers Unlike page headings table headers do not automatically generate link anchors Aside from sentence case in glossaries the heading advice also applies to the term entries in description lists If using template structured glossaries terms will automatically have link anchors but will not otherwise Citations for description list content go in the term or definition element as needed National varieties of EnglishShortcutMOS ENGVAR National varieties of English for example American English or British English differ in vocabulary elevator vs lift spelling center vs centre and occasionally grammar see Plurals below Articles such as English plurals and Comparison of American and British English provide information about such differences The English Wikipedia prefers no national variety over others An article s date formatting February 24 2025 vs 24 February 2025 is also related to national varieties of English see MOS DATEFORMAT and especially MOS DATETIES and MOS DATEVAR Consistency within articles ShortcutsMOS ARTCONMOS CONSISTENT The conventions of a particular variety of English should be followed consistently within a given article Exceptions include Quotations and titles of works such as books films and music should be given as they appear in sources However there are certain situations where this principle is not followed in order to maintain a level of typographic conformity across the encyclopedia see Typographic conformity Proper names use the subject s own spelling e g joint project of the United States Department of Defense and the Australian Defence Force International Labour Organization For articles about chemistry related topics the international standard spellings aluminium sulfur caesium and derivative terms should be used regardless of the variety of English otherwise employed in the article See Wikipedia Naming conventions chemistry Element names Opportunities for commonality ShortcutMOS COMMONALITY For an international encyclopedia using vocabulary common to all varieties of English is preferable Use universally accepted terms rather than those less widely distributed especially in titles For example glasses is preferred to the national varieties spectacles British English and eyeglasses American English ten million is preferable to one crore Indian English If a variant spelling appears in a title make a redirect page to accommodate the others as with artefact and artifact so that all variants can be used in searches and linking Terms that differ between varieties of English or that have divergent meanings may be glossed to prevent confusion for example the trunk American English or boot British English of a car Use a commonly understood word or phrase in preference to one that has a different meaning because of national differences rather than alternate use alternative or alternating as appropriate except in technical contexts where such substitution would be inappropriate alternate leaves alternate law When more than one variant spelling exists within a national variety of English the most commonly used current variant should usually be preferred except where the less common spelling has a specific usage in a specialized context e g connexion in Methodist connexionalism For assistance with specific terms see Comparison of American and British English Vocabulary and American and British English spelling differences most dictionaries also indicate regional terms Strong national ties to a topic ShortcutMOS TIES An article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English speaking nation should use the formal not colloquial English of that nation For example Afrikaners South African English American Civil War American English Australian Defence Force Australian English Christchurch New Zealand English Dublin Hiberno English Fish River Canyon Namibian English Great Fire of London British English Lagos Nigerian English Muhammad Ali Jinnah Pakistani English Mumbai Indian English Vancouver Canadian English Wanchai Tower Hong Kong English For topics with strong ties to Commonwealth of Nations countries and other former British territories use Commonwealth English orthography largely indistinguishable from British English in encyclopedic writing excepting Canada which uses a different orthography Retaining the existing variety ShortcutMOS RETAIN When an English variety s consistent usage has been established in an article maintain it in the absence of consensus to the contrary With few exceptions e g when a topic has strong national ties or the change reduces ambiguity there is no valid reason for changing from one acceptable option to another When no English variety has been established and discussion does not resolve the issue use the variety found in the first post stub revision that introduced an identifiable variety The established variety in a given article can be documented by placing the appropriate variety of English template on its talk page An article should not be edited or renamed simply to switch from one variety of English to another a href wiki Template Uw engvar title Template Uw engvar subst uw engvar a may be placed on an editor s talk page to explain this Capital lettersWikipedia article titles and section headings use sentence case not title case see Wikipedia Article titles and Section headings For capitalization of list items see Bulleted and numbered lists Other points concerning capitalization are summarized below Full information can be found at Wikipedia Manual of Style Capital letters The central point is that Wikipedia does not capitalize something unless it is consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent reliable sources Capitalization of The Generally do not capitalize the word the in mid sentence throughout the United Kingdom not throughout The United Kingdom Conventional exceptions include certain proper names he visited The Hague and most titles of creative works Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings but be aware that the might not be part of the title itself e g Homer composed the Odyssey There are special considerations for band names institution names nicknames titles of works trademarks Titles of works The English language titles of compositions books and other print works songs and other audio works films and other visual media works paintings and other artworks etc are given in title case in which every word is given an initial capital except for certain less important words as detailed at Wikipedia Manual of Style Capital letters Composition titles The first and last words in an English language title are always capitalized Correct An Eye for an Eye Correct Worth the Fighting For Capitalization in non English language titles varies even over time within the same language generally retain the style of the original for modern works and follow the usage in current English language reliable sources for historical works When written in the Latin alphabet many of these items should also be in italics or enclosed in quotation marks Correct Les Liaisons dangereuses Correct Hymnus an den heiligen Geist Titles of people In generic use use lower case for words such as president king and emperor De Gaulle was a French president Louis XVI was a French king Three prime ministers attended the conference Directly before the person s name such words begin with a capital letter President Obama not president Obama Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper names David Cameron was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Hirohito was Emperor of Japan Louis XVI was King of France Royal styles take capitals Her Majesty His Highness exceptions may apply for particular offices Religions deities philosophies doctrines Religions sects and churches and their followers in noun or adjective form start with a capital letter Generally the is not capitalized before such names the Unitarians not The Unitarians Religious texts are capitalized but often not italicized the Bhagavad Gita the Quran the Talmud the Granth Sahib the Bible Do not capitalize the when using it in this way Some derived adjectives are capitalized by convention and some are not biblical but Quranic if unsure check a dictionary Honorifics for deities including proper names and titles start with a capital letter God Allah the Lord the Supreme Being the Great Spirit the Horned One Bhagavan Do not capitalize the in such cases or when referring to major religious figures or characters from mythology the Prophet the Messiah the Virgin Common nouns for deities and religious figures are not capitalized many gods the god Woden saints and prophets Pronouns for figures of veneration or worship are not capitalized even if capitalized in a religion s scriptures God and his will Broad categories of mythical or legendary beings start with lower case letters elf fairy nymph unicorn angel although in works of fantasy such as the novels of J R R Tolkien and some video games initial capitals are sometimes used to indicate that the beings form a culture or race in a fictional universe Capitalize the names or titles of individual creatures the Minotaur Pegasus and of groups whose name and membership are fixed the Magi or the Three Wise Men the Furies Generalized references are not capitalized these priests several wise men cherub like Spiritual or religious events are capitalized only when referring to specific incidents or periods the Great Flood and the Exodus but annual flooding and an exodus of refugees Philosophies theories movements and doctrines use lower case unless the name derives from a proper name capitalism versus Marxism or has become a proper name republican a system of political thought Republican a political party Use lower case for doctrinal topics or canonical religious ideas as opposed to specific events even if they are capitalized by some religious adherents virgin birth original sin transubstantiation Platonic or transcendent ideals are capitalized in the context of philosophical doctrine Truth the Good used more broadly they are in lower case Superman represents American ideals of truth and justice Use capitals for personifications represented in art the guidebook mentioned statues of Justice and Liberty Eponyms are capitalized Edwardian De Morgan s laws Alice in Wonderland syndrome plaster of Paris Platonic idealism Draconian constitution of Athens except in idiomatic uses disconnected from the original context and usually lower cased in sources a platonic relationship complained of draconian workplace policies An entire phrase in which an eponym is an adjective is not capitalized except when the phrase is itself a proper name e g the title of a published work The China Syndrome Calendar items Months days of the week and holidays start with a capital letter June Monday the Fourth of July refers only to the US Independence Day otherwise July 4 or 4 July Seasons are in lower case her last summer the winter solstice spring fever except in personifications or in proper names for periods or events Old Man Winter competed on the Spring Circuit Animals plants and other organisms ShortcutMOS LIFE When using taxonomic scientific names capitalize and italicize the genus Berberis Erithacus Supergenus and subgenus when applicable are treated the same way Italicize but do not capitalize taxonomic ranks at the level of species and below Berberis darwinii Erithacus rubecula superbus Acacia coriacea subsp sericophylla no exception is made for proper names forming part of scientific names Higher taxa order family etc are capitalized in Latin Carnivora Felidae but not in their English equivalents carnivorans felids they are not italicized in either form except for viruses where all names accepted by the ICTV are italicized Retroviridae Cultivar and cultivar group names of plants are not italicized and are capitalized including the word Group in the name cultivar names appear within single quotes Malus domestica Red Delicious while cultivar groups do not Cynara cardunculus Scolymus Group English vernacular common names are given in lower case in article prose plains zebra mountain maple and southwestern red tailed hawk and in sentence case at the start of sentences and in other places where the first letter of the first word is capitalized They are additionally capitalized where they contain proper names Przewalski s horse California condor and fair maid of France This applies to species and subspecies as in the previous examples as well as to general names for groups or types of organism bird of prey oak great apes Bryde s whales livestock guardian dog poodle Van cat wolfdog When the common name coincides with a scientific taxon do not capitalize or italicize except where addressing the organism taxonomically A lynx is any of the four medium sized wild cat species within the genus Lynx Non English vernacular names when relevant to include are handled like any other non English terms italicized as such and capitalized only if the rules of the native language require it Non English names that have become English assimilated are treated as English ayahuasca okapi Standardized breeds should generally retain the capitalization used in the breed standards Examples German Shepherd Russian White goat Berlin Short faced Tumbler As with plant cultivars this applies whether or not the included noun is a proper name in contrast to how vernacular names of species are written However unlike cultivars breeds are never put in single quotation marks and their names are never part of a scientific name A species term appended at the end for disambiguation cat hound horse swine etc should not be capitalized unless it is a part of the breed name itself and is consistently presented that way in the breed standards rare cases include Norwegian Forest Cat and American Quarter Horse Create redirects from alternative capitalization and spelling forms of article titles and from alternative names e g Adelie Penguin Adelie penguin Adelie Penguin and Pygoscelis adeliae should all redirect to Adelie penguin Celestial bodies The words sun earth moon and solar system do not take capitals in general use The sun was over the mountain top The tribal people thought of the whole earth as their home They are capitalized when the entity is personified Sol Invictus Unconquered Sun was the Roman sun god or when used as the name of a specific body in a scientific or astronomical context The Moon orbits the Earth but Io is a moon of Jupiter Names of planets moons asteroids comets stars constellations and galaxies are proper names and therefore capitalized The planet Mars is in the constellation Gemini near the star Pollux The first letter of every word in such a name is capitalized Alpha Centauri and not Alpha centauri Milky Way not Milky way Words such as comet and galaxy should be capitalized when they form part of a proper name but not when they are used as a generic term Halley s Comet is the most famous of the comets The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy Compass points Do not capitalize directions such as north or their related forms We took the northern road except when they are parts of proper names Great North Road Great Western Drive South Pole Capitalize names of regions if they have attained proper name status including informal conventional names Southern California the Western Desert and derived terms for people e g a Southerner as someone from the Southern United States Do not capitalize descriptive names for regions that have not attained the status of proper names such as southern Poland Composite directions may or may not be hyphenated depending on the variety of English adopted in the article Southeast Asia and northwest are more common in American English but South East Asia and north west in British English In cases such as north south dialogue and east west orientation use an en dash see En dashes other uses Proper names versus generic terms Capitalize names of particular institutions the founding of the University of Delhi the history of Stanford University but not generic words for institutions the high school is near the university Do not capitalize the at the start of an institution s name regardless of the institution s preferred style There are rare exceptions when a leading The is represented by a T in the organization s acronym The International Cat Association TICA Treat political or geographic units similarly The city has a population of 55 000 The two towns merged to become the City of Smithville Do not mimic the style of local newspapers which refer to their municipality as the City or The City an exception is the City of London referred to as the City in a context that already makes the subject clear as distinct from London and Greater London When in doubt use the full name for accessibility reasons users of text to speech systems usually cannot hear a difference between city and City LigaturesShortcutsMOS LIGMOS LIGATURE Ligatures should be used in languages in which they are standard hence Moreau s last words were clin d œil is preferable to Moreau s last words were clin d oeil but not in English encyclopedia or encyclopaedia not encyclopaedia except in proper names AEthelstan not Aethelstan AbbreviationsAbbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases In strict analysis they are distinct from contractions which use an apostrophe e g won t see Contractions and initialisms An initialism is formed from some or all of the initial letters of words in a phrase Below references to abbreviations should be taken to include acronyms and the term acronym should also apply to initialisms Write first occurrences in full ShortcutsMOS 1STOCCMOS 1STABBR When an abbreviation will be used in an article introduce it using the full expression and the abbreviation in parentheses an early local area network LAN developed by Digital Equipment Corporation DEC DEC s later LAN products were Do not use capitals in the full version merely because capitals are used in the abbreviation an early Local Area Network LAN Except in special circumstances common abbreviations such as PhD DNA USSR need not be expanded even on first use Plural forms Pluralize acronyms by adding s or es Three CD ROMs and two BIOSes were released Do not use apostrophes to form plurals Three CD ROM s and two BIOS s were released Punctuation and spacing An abbreviation may or may not be terminated with a full point also called a period or full stop A consistent style should be maintained within an article North American usage is typically to end all abbreviations with a period point Dr Smith of 42 Drummond St but in common British and Australian usage no period point is used if the abbreviation contraction ends in the last letter of the unabbreviated form Dr Smith of 42 Drummond St unless confusion could result This is also common practice in scientific writing Regardless of punctuation words that are abbreviated to more than one letter are spaced op cit not op cit or opcit There are some exceptions PhD see above for Philosophiae Doctor BVetMed for Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine In most situations Wikipedia uses no such punctuation inside acronyms and initialisms GDP not G D P US and U S ShortcutsMOS USMOS USAMOS NOTUSA US is a commonly used abbreviation for United States although U S with periods and without a space remains common in North American publications including in news journalism Multiple American style guides including The Chicago Manual of Style since 2010 now deprecate U S and recommend US For commonality reasons use US by default when abbreviating but retain U S in American or Canadian English articles in which it is already established unless there is a good reason to change it Because use of periods for abbreviations and acronyms should be consistent within any given article use US in an article with other country abbreviations and especially avoid constructions like the U S and the UK In longer abbreviations that incorporate the country s initials USN USAF never use periods When the United States is mentioned with one or more other countries in the same sentence US or U S may be too informal especially at the first mention or as a noun instead of an adjective France and the United States not France and the US Do not use the spaced U S or the archaic U S of A except when quoting Do not use U S A or USA except in a quotation as part of a proper name Team USA or in certain technical and formal uses e g the ISO 3166 1 alpha 3 FIFA and IOC country codes Circa To indicate approximately the use of a href wiki Template Circa title Template Circa circa a showing as c is preferred over circa c ca or approx Avoid unwarranted use Avoid abbreviations when they might confuse the reader interrupt the flow or appear informal For example Do not use approx for approximate ly except in an infobox or table in which case use a href wiki Template Abbr title Template Abbr abbr a approx approximately at first occurrence approx Do not use the legalism Smith J for Justice Smith Do not invent Avoid devising new abbreviations especially acronyms For example World Union of Billiards is good as a translation of Union Mondiale de Billard but neither it nor the reduction WUB is used by the organization or by independent sources use the original name and its official abbreviation UMB If it is necessary to abbreviate in a tight space such as a column header in a table use widely recognized abbreviations For example for New Zealand gross national product use NZ and GNP with a link if the term has not already been written out in the article NZ GNP Do not make up initialisms such as NZGNP HTML tags and templates Either lt abbr gt or a href wiki Template Abbr title Template Abbr abbr a can be used for abbreviations and acronyms lt abbr title World Health Organization gt WHO lt abbr gt or a href wiki Template Abbr title Template Abbr abbr a WHO World Health Organization will generate WHO hovering over the rendered text causes a tooltip of the long form to pop up Ampersand ShortcutsMOS AMPMOS amp In normal text and headings use and instead of the ampersand amp January 1 and 2 not January 1 amp 2 But retain an ampersand when it is a legitimate part of the style of a proper noun the title of a work or a trademark such as in Up amp Down or AT amp T Elsewhere ampersands may be used with consistency and discretion where space is extremely limited e g tables and infoboxes Quotations may be cautiously modified especially for consistency where different editions are quoted as modern editions of old texts routinely replace ampersands with and just as they replace other disused glyphs ligatures and abbreviations Another frequent permissible but not required use is in short bibliographic references to works by multiple authors e g lt ref gt Lubbers amp Scheepers 2002 Van Hiel amp Mervielde 2002 Swyngedouw amp Giles 2007 Van Hiel 2012 lt ref gt ItalicsShortcutsMOS ITMOS ITAL Emphasis Italics are used for emphasis rather than boldface or capitals But overuse diminishes its effect consider rewriting instead Use lt em gt lt em gt or a href wiki Template Em title Template Em em a for emphasis This allows user style sheets to handle emphasis in a customized way and helps reusers and translators Correct span class example monospaced example mono style font family monospace monospace color var color content added 006400 The meerkat is lt em gt not lt em gt actually a cat span Correct span class example monospaced example mono style font family monospace monospace color var color content added 006400 The meerkat is em not actually a cat span Titles ShortcutMOS NOITALIC Use italics for the titles of works such as books films television series named exhibitions computer games music albums and artworks The titles of articles chapters songs episodes storylines research papers and other short works instead take double quotation marks Italics are not used for major religious works the Bible the Quran the Talmud Many of these titles should also be in title case Words as words Use italics when mentioning a word or character see Use mention distinction or a string of words up to one sentence the term panning is derived from panorama the most common letter in English is e When a whole sentence is mentioned double quotation marks may be used instead with consistency The preposition in She sat on the chair is on or The preposition in She sat on the chair is on Quotation marks may also be used for shorter material to avoid confusion such as when italics are already heavily used in the page for another purpose e g for many non English words and phrases Mentioning to discuss grammar wording punctuation etc is different from quoting in which something is usually expressed on behalf of a quoted source Quotation is done with quotation marks never italics nor both at once see Quotations for details A closely related use of italics is when introducing or distinguishing terms The natural numbers are the integers greater than 0 Non English words Italics are indicated for non English phrases and isolated non English words that are not commonly used in everyday English However proper names such as place names in other languages are not usually italicized nor are terms in non Latin scripts The a href wiki Template Lang title Template Lang lang a template and its variants support all ISO 639 language codes correctly identifying the language and automatically italicizing for you Please use these templates rather than just manually italicizing non English material See WP Manual of Style Accessibility Other languages for more information Scientific names Use italics for the scientific names of plants animals and all other organisms except viruses at the genus level and below italicize Panthera leo and Retroviridae but not Felidae The hybrid sign is not italicized Rosa damascena nor is the connecting term required in three part botanical names Rosa gallica subsp officinalis Quotations in italics ShortcutsMOS NOITALQUOTEMOS ITALQUOTE Do not put quotations in italics Quotation marks or block quoting alone are sufficient and the correct ways to denote quotations Italics should only be used if the quoted material would otherwise call for italics See below Italics within quotations Use italics within quotations to reproduce emphasis that exists in the source material or to indicate the use of non English words The emphasis is better done with a href wiki Template Em title Template Em em a If it is not clear that the source already included italics or some other styling for emphasis or to indicate when emphasis was not used in the original text but was editorially added later add the editorial note emphasis in original or emphasis added respectively after the quotation For example Now cracks a noble heart Good night sweet prince And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest emphasis in original Effect on nearby punctuation ShortcutMOS ITALPUNCT Italicize only the elements of the sentence affected by the emphasis Do not italicize surrounding punctuation Incorrect What are we to make of that The question mark applies to the whole sentence not just to the emphasized that so it should not be italicized Correct What are we to make of that Correct Four of Patrick White s most famous novels are A Fringe of Leaves The Aunt s Story Voss and The Tree of Man The commas the period and the word and are not italicized QuotationsShortcutsMOS QUOTMOS QUOTEMOS QUOTATIONS Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point establish context or attribute a point of view or idea While quotations are an indispensable part of Wikipedia excessive use of them is incompatible with an encyclopedic writing style and may be copyright infringement so most of the content should be in the editor s own words Consider paraphrasing quotations into plain and concise text when appropriate while being aware that close paraphrasing can still violate copyright Do not put quotations in italics unless the material would be italicized for some other reason Per the verifiability policy direct quotations must be accompanied by an inline citation from a reliable source that supports the material This is especially important in articles that are about or contain material about living or recently deceased people BLPs Original wording ShortcutsMOS PMCMOS SICMOS TYPOFIXWP QUOTETYPO Quotations must be verifiably attributed and the wording of the quoted text must be faithfully reproduced This is referred to as the principle of minimal change Where there is good reason to change the wording square bracket the changed text for example Ocyrhoe told him his fate might be quoted as Ocyrhoe told her father his fate If there is a significant error in the original follow it with a href wiki Template Sic title Template Sic sic a producing sic to show that the error was not made by Wikipedia for example his interview with the Dolly Llama sic However insignificant spelling and typographic errors should simply be silently corrected for example correct basicly to basically When applied to text that is linked the syntax of the template may be adjusted to a href wiki Template Sic title Template Sic sic a nolink y producing sic in the resulting linked text for example in the link sic template For the sake of accuracy and indexing the titles of referenced sources should not be corrected for spelling but minor typographic adjustments like changing curly quotes to straight may be made silently Inline citations in the quoted text to sources not used in the Wikipedia article should be silently removed Use ellipses to indicate omissions from quoted text Legitimate omissions include extraneous irrelevant or parenthetical words and unintelligible speech umm and hmm but do not omit text where doing so would remove important context or alter the meaning of the text Vulgarities and obscenities should be shown exactly as they appear in the quoted source Wikipedians should never bowdlerize words G d d m it but if the text being quoted itself does so copy the text verbatim and use a href wiki Template Sic title Template Sic sic a to indicate that the text is quoted as shown in the source In direct quotations retain dialectal and archaic spellings including capitalization but not archaic glyphs and ligatures as detailed below in Typographic conformity Point of view ShortcutMOS QUOTEPOV Quotation should be used with attribution to present emotive opinions that cannot be expressed in Wikipedia s own voice but never to present cultural norms as simply opinional Acceptable Siskel and Ebert called the film unforgettable Unacceptable The site is considered sacred by the religion s scriptures Concise opinions that are not overly emotive can often be reported with attribution instead of direct quotation Use of quotation marks around simple descriptive terms can imply something doubtful regarding the material being quoted sarcasm or weasel words such as supposedly or so called might be inferred Permissible Siskel and Ebert called the film interesting Unnecessary and may imply doubt Siskel and Ebert called the film interesting Should be quoted Siskel and Ebert called the film interesting but heart wrenching Typographic conformity ShortcutMOS CONFORM A quotation is not a facsimile and in most cases it is not a requirement that the original formatting be preserved Formatting and other purely typographical elements of quoted text should be adapted to English Wikipedia s conventions without comment provided that doing so will not change or obscure meaning or intent of the text These are alterations which make no difference when the text is read aloud for example Normalize dashes and hyphens see Dashes Use the style chosen for the article unspaced em dash or spaced en dash Convert apostrophes and quotation marks to Wikipedia s style These should be straight not curly or slanted See Quotation marks When quoting a quotation that itself contains a quotation alternate between using double and single quotes for each quotation See For a quotation within a quotation for details When quoting text from non English languages the outer punctuation should follow the Manual of Style for English quote marks If there are nested quotations follow the rules for correct punctuation in that language If there are multiple styles for a language the one used by the Wikipedia for that language is preferred unless the punctuation itself is under discussion The cynical response L auteur aurait du demander a quoi sert il d ecrire ceci mais ne l a pas fait was all he wrote Remove spaces before punctuation such as periods and colons Generally preserve bold and italics see Italics but most other styling should be altered Underlining spac ing within words color s ALL CAPS small caps etc should generally be normalized to plain text If it clearly indicates emphasis use italic emphasis a href wiki Template Em title Template Em em a or in an already italic passage boldface with a href wiki Template Strong title Template Strong strong a For titles of books articles poems and so forth use italics or quotation marks following the guidance for titles Italics can also be added to mark up non English terms with the a href wiki Template Lang title Template Lang lang a template for an organism s scientific name and to indicate a words as words usage Expand an abbreviation not already used in the content before the quotation as a square bracketed change or explain it using a href wiki Template Abbr title Template Abbr abbr a Normalize archaic glyphs and ligatures in English that are unnecessary to the meaning Examples include ae ae œ oe ſ s and the the See also Ampersand See Wikipedia Manual of Style Titles Typographic conformity for special considerations in normalizing the typography of titles of works However national varieties should not be changed as these may involve changes in vocabulary For example a quotation from a British source should retain British spelling even in an article that otherwise uses American spelling See Consistency within articles Numbers also usually should not be reformatted Direct quotation should not be used to preserve the formatting preferred by an external publisher especially when the material would otherwise be unchanged as this tends to have the effect of scare quoting Acceptable The animal is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Unacceptable The animal is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Italics can be used to mark a particular usage as a term of art a case of words as words especially when it is unfamiliar or should not be reworded by a non expert Permissible The animal is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species When quoting a complete sentence it is usually recommended to keep the first word capitalized However if the quoted passage has been integrated into the surrounding sentence for example with an introduction such as X said that the original capital letter may be lower cased LaVesque s report stated The equipment was selected for its low price This is the primary reason for criticism of the program LaVesque s report said that the equipment was selected for its low price The program was criticized primarily because the equipment was selected for its low price according to LaVesque It is normally unnecessary to explicitly note changes in capitalization However for more precision the altered letter may be put inside square brackets The t he The program was criticized primarily because t he equipment was selected for its low price according to LaVesque Attribution The reader must be able to determine the source of any quotation at the very least via a footnote The source must be named in article text if the quotation is an opinion see Wikipedia Neutral point of view Attributing and specifying biased statements When attributing a quotation avoid characterizing it in a biased manner Quotations within quotations See For a quotation within a quotation Linking ShortcutsMOS LINKQUOTEMOS LWQ Be conservative when linking within quotations link only to targets that correspond to the meaning clearly intended by the quote s author Where possible link from text outside of the quotation instead either before it or soon after If quoting hypertext add an editorial note link in original or link added as appropriate to avoid ambiguity as to whether the link was made by the original author Block quotations ShortcutsMOS BQMOS BLOCKQUOTE Format a long quote more than about forty words or a few hundred characters or consisting of more than one paragraph regardless of length as a block quotation indented on both sides Block quotations should be enclosed in a href wiki Template Blockquote title Template Blockquote blockquote a Do not enclose block quotations in quotation marks and especially avoid large decorative quotation marks those provided by the a href wiki Template Cquote title Template Cquote cquote a template have been disabled in mainspace Block quotations using a colored background are also discouraged Use blockquote and so on only for actual quotations indentation for other purposes is done differently It is conventional to precede a block quotation with an introductory sentence or sentence fragment and append the source citation to that line Alternatively the blockquote template provides parameters for attribution and citation which will appear below the quotation For use of dashes with attributions see Other uses for em dashes This below quotation attribution style is intended for famous quotations and is unusual in articles because it may strike an inappropriate tone A quotation with no cited source should be flagged with a href wiki Template Quote without source title Template Quote without source quote without source a or deleted Line breaks and indentation inside a blockquote or lt blockquote gt are generally ignored use lt poem gt or a href wiki Template Poem quote title Template Poem quote poem quote a for poetry lyrics and similar material blockquote lt poem gt What this grim ungainly ghastly gaunt and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking Nevermore lt poem gt This gives What this grim ungainly ghastly gaunt and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking Nevermore Or quote such material inline with line breaks indicated by nbsp and paragraph or stanza breaks by nbsp ShortcutsMOS PQMOS PULLQUOTE Pull quotes do not belong in Wikipedia articles These are the news and magazine style of pulling material already in the article to reuse it in attention grabbing decorative quotations This unencyclopedic approach is a form of editorializing produces out of context and undue emphasis and may lead the reader to conclusions not supported in the material Note that although this section does not provide a maximum limit of quotation length extensive quotation of copyrighted text is prohibited See WP COPYQUOTE Non English quotations ShortcutsMOS FOREIGNQUOTEMOS QUOTEFOREIGN Quotations from non English language sources should appear with a translation into English preferably a modern one Quotations that are translations should be explicitly distinguished from those that are not Indicate the original source of a translation if it is available and not first published within Wikipedia and the original language if that is not clear from the context If the original untranslated text is available provide a reference for it or include it as appropriate When editors themselves translate text into English care must always be taken to include the original text in italics except for non Latin based writing systems and best done with the a href wiki Template Lang title Template Lang lang a template which both italicizes as appropriate and provides language metadata and to use actual and if at all possible common English words in the translation Unless you are certain of your competency to translate something see Wikipedia Translation for assistance PunctuationShortcutMOS PUNCT Apostrophes ShortcutsMOS MOS APOSTROPHE Use straight apostrophes not curly apostrophes Do not use accent marks or backticks as apostrophes Templates such as a href wiki Template 27 class mw redirect title Template a and a href wiki Template 27s title Template s s a are helpful when an apostrophe or single quote appears at the beginning or end of text in italics or bold because italics and bold are themselves indicated by sequences of single quotes Example Dynasty s first season markup Dynasty s first season Letters resembling apostrophes such as the ʻokina ʻ inserted using a href wiki Template Okina title Template Okina okina a saltillo ꞌ a href wiki Template Saltillo title Template Saltillo saltillo a Hebrew ayin or Arabic ʿayn ʽ a href wiki Template Ayin title Template Ayin ayin a and Arabic hamza ʼ a href wiki Template Hamza title Template Hamza hamza a should be represented by those templates or by their respective Unicode values Templates cannot be used in article titles if necessary use the corresponding Unicode character directly Per WP TITLESPECIALCHARACTERS also make a redirect from the ASCII form to aid searches Forms without apostrophe like characters are sometimes preferred by WP COMMONNAME e g Hawaii but not Kealiʻi Reichel See also Wikipedia Manual of Style Hawaii related articles Orthography spelling and formatting For Wade Giles romanizations of Mandarin Chinese use a href wiki Template Wg apos title Template Wg apos wg apos a For languages with ejective consonants and the like use a href wiki Template Hamza title Template Hamza hamza a For the Cyrillic soft sign when indicated at all use a href wiki Template Softsign title Template Softsign softsign a or a href wiki Template Hamza title Template Hamza hamza a For usage of the possessive apostrophe see Possessives For further treatment of apostrophe usage possessive elision formation of certain plurals non English language issues see the article Apostrophe Quotation marks ShortcutsMOS QUOTEMARKSMOS SPEECHMARKSMOS In the material below the term quotation includes conventional uses of quotation marks such as for titles of songs chapters episodes and so on Quotation marks are also used in other contexts such as in cultivar names Quotation characters ShortcutsMOS CURLYMOS CQMOS STRAIGHT Use straight quotation marks not curly ones For single apostrophe quotes straight not curly Do not use accent marks backticks text low high or guillemet marks as quotation marks except when such marks are internal to quoted non English text see Typographic conformity The symbols and seen in edit window dropdowns are prime and double prime these are used to designate units of angular measurement and not as apostrophes or quote marks Quotation marks and apostrophes in imported material should be changed if necessary to comply with the above Double or single ShortcutsMOS DOUBLEMOS SINGLEMOS SIMPLEGLOSS Most quotations take double quotation marks Bob said Jim ate the apple Exceptions Plant cultivars take single quotation marks Malus domestica Golden Delicious see Wikipedia Naming conventions flora Glosses that translate or define unfamiliar terms take single quotes simple glosses require no comma before the definition Turkic qazaq freebooter is the root of Cossack republic comes from Latin res publica loosely meaning public affair The Gloss template can be used for this e g a href wiki Template Lang title Template Lang lang a es casa a href wiki Template Gloss title Template Gloss gloss a house yields casa house For a quotation within a quotation ShortcutsMOS QWQMOS QINQ Use single quotes Darwin wrote in his introduction that the maxim de minimis lex non curat does not apply to science For deeper nesting alternate between single and double quotes He said That book asserts Confucius said Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it For quote marks in immediate succession add a sliver of space by using or as in the example just given He announced The answer was Yes Markup He announced The answer was Yes span class nowrap span a href wiki Template 27 22 class mw redirect title Template a span class nowrap span He announced The answer was Yes simply jamming things together looks awful in most fonts He announced The answer was Yes a regular space is too much Article openings ShortcutMOS BOLDQUOTE In the bolded text typically appearing at the opening of an article Any quotation marks that are part of the title should be in bold just like the rest of the title From A Is for Alibi A Is for Alibi is a mystery novel Quotation marks not part of the article title should not be bolded From Jabberwocky Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem From Babe Ruth George Herman Babe Ruth was an American baseball player See also Wikipedia Manual of Style Biography Nicknames Punctuation before quotations ShortcutMOS QUOTEPUNCT If a non quoted but otherwise identical construction would work grammatically without a comma using a comma before a quotation embedded within a sentence is optional The report stated There was a 45 reduction in transmission rate Cf the non quotation The report stated there was a 45 reduction in transmission rate The report stated There was a 45 reduction in transmission rate The comma free approach is often used with partial quotations The report observed a 45 reduction in transmission rate A comma is required when it would be present in the same construction if none of the material were a quotation In Margaret Mead s view we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities to enrich our culture Do not insert a comma if it would confuse or alter the meaning Caitlyn Jenner expressed concerns about children who are coming to terms with being true to who they are Accurate quote of a statement about some children specifically those children who are coming to terms Caitlyn Jenner expressed concerns about children who are coming to terms with being true to who they are Changes the meaning to imply Jenner was expressing concern about all children while separately observing that children in general are coming to terms It is clearer to use a colon to introduce a quotation if it forms a complete sentence and this should always be done for multi sentence quotations The report stated There was a 45 reduction in transmission rate In a letter to his son Albert Einstein wrote Life is like riding a bicycle To keep your balance you must keep moving No additional punctuation is necessary for an explicit words as words scenario The message was unintelligible except for the fragments help soon and how much longer before Names and titles Quotation marks should be used for the following names and titles Articles and chapters books and periodicals italicized Short stories books and periodicals italicized Sections of musical pieces pieces italicized Individual strips from comics and webcomics comics italicized Poems long or epic poems italicized Songs albums song cycles operas operettas and oratorios italicized Individual episodes of television and radio series and serials series title italicized Correct The Beatles wrote Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds for their album Sgt Pepper s Lonely Hearts Club Band Do not use quotation marks or italics for Ancient writings Concert tours Locations Myths and epics Prayers Many but not all of the above items should also be in title case Punctuation inside or outside ShortcutsMOS LQMOS LQUOTEMOS INOROUTMOS LOGICAL Use the logical quotation style in all articles regardless of the variety of English in which they are written Include terminal punctuation within the quotation marks only if it was present in the original material and otherwise place it after the closing quotation mark For the most part this means treating periods and commas in the same way as question marks keep them inside the quotation marks if they apply only to the quoted material and outside if they apply to the whole sentence Examples are given below Correct Did Darla say Here I am question mark applies to whole sentence Incorrect Did Darla say Here I am incorrect to apply the question mark to the quotation Correct Darla said Where am I question mark applies to quoted material only If the quotation is a single word or a sentence fragment place the terminal punctuation outside the closing quotation mark When quoting a full sentence the end of which coincides with the end of the sentence containing it place terminal punctuation inside the closing quotation mark Miller wanted he said to create something timeless Miller said I wanted to create something timeless If the quoted sentence is followed by a clause that should be preceded by a comma omit the full stop period and do not replace it with a comma inside the quotation Other terminal punctuation such as a question mark or exclamation mark may be retained Livingston then said It is done and turned to the people Livingston then exclaimed It is done and turned to the people If the quoted sentence is followed by a clause identifying the speaker use a comma outside the quotation mark instead of a full stop inside it but retain any other terminal punctuation such as a question mark There is no strife no prejudice no national conflict in outer space as yet said Kennedy By asking Who are you da Gama prompts Adamastor to tell his story Do not follow quoted words or fragments with commas inside the quotation marks except where a longer quotation has been broken up and the comma is part of the full quotation Correct I began to change opening the way to confidence and courage said Turner Correct I began to change said Turner opening the way to confidence and courage Correct I began to change opening the way said Turner to confidence and courage Incorrect I began to change opening the way said Turner to confidence and courage Quotation marks and external links External links to article titles should have the title in quotes inside the link The CS1 and CS2 citation templates do this automatically and untemplated references should do the same Correct Kiefer Francine May 29 1998 Clinton The Early Years The Christian Science Monitor Using cite news Correct Kiefer Francine May 29 1998 Clinton The Early Years The Christian Science Monitor Untemplated Incorrect Kiefer Francine May 29 1998 Clinton The Early Years The Christian Science Monitor Untemplated Quotation marks and internal links Internal links wikilinks accompanied by quotation marks should usually have the quotes outside the link This applies to titles of works in quotation marks songs episodes etc Correct Play it Sam Play As Time Goes By Using Incorrect Play it Sam Play As Time Goes By Using However quotation marks are needed inside wikilinks when the quotation mark is part of the link or where the linked display text includes quotation marks indicating slang nicknames common names or similar usage Correct The term soccer comes from Oxford er slang which was prevalent at the University of Oxford in England from about 1875 Correct A Cockney accent drops the r after a vowel Correct The Proletarian Sports Society Dynamo was established in Moscow in 1923 Correct President Suharto s New Order administration received US support for its economic policies Correct Japan s Lost Decades began in 1991 Brackets and parentheses ShortcutsMOS B amp PMOS BRACKETMOS PAREN This section applies to both round brackets often called parentheses and square brackets If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets as shown here However where one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets place their punctuation inside the brackets There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket An opening bracket should usually be preceded by a space This may not be the case if it is preceded by an opening quotation mark another opening bracket or a portion of a word He rose to address the meeting Ahem Ladies and gentlemen welcome Only the royal characters in the play Prince Hamlet and his family habitually speak in blank verse We journeyed on the Inter continental Most people are right handed Some people are left handed but that does not make right handed people better than left handed people There should be a space after a closing bracket except where a punctuation mark follows though a spaced dash would still be spaced after a closing bracket and in unusual cases similar to those listed for opening brackets Avoid adjacent sets of brackets Either put the parenthetical phrases in one set separated by semicolons or rewrite Avoid Nikifor Grigoriev c 1885 1919 also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv was a Ukrainian insurgent leader Better Nikifor Grigoriev c 1885 1919 also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv was a Ukrainian insurgent leader Better Nikifor Grigoriev c 1885 1919 was a Ukrainian insurgent leader He was also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv Square brackets are used to indicate editorial replacements and insertions within quotations though this should never alter the intended meaning They serve three main purposes To clarify She attended secondary school where this was the intended meaning but the type of school was unstated in the original sentence To reduce the size of a quotation X contains Y and under certain circumstances X may contain Z as well may be reduced to X contains Y and sometimes Z When an ellipsis is used to indicate that material is removed from a direct quotation it should not normally be bracketed See Ellipses for an exceptional case To make the grammar work Referring to someone s statement I hate to do laundry one could properly write She hate s to do laundry If a sentence includes subsidiary material enclosed in square or round brackets it must still carry terminal punctuation after those brackets regardless of any punctuation within the brackets She refused all requests except for basics such as food medicine etc However if the entire sentence is within brackets the closing punctuation falls within the brackets This sentence is an example Brackets and linking Square brackets inside of links must be escaped He said span class example monospaced example mono style font family monospace monospace color var color content added 006400 John Doe John amp 91 Doe amp 93 span answered He said John Doe answered He said span class example monospaced example mono style font family monospace monospace color var color content added 006400 John Doe John bracket Doe span answered He said John Doe answered span class example monospaced example mono style font family monospace monospace color var color content added 006400 https example com On the first day amp 91 etc amp 93 span On the first day etc span class example monospaced example mono style font family monospace monospace color var color content added 006400 https example com On the first day bracket etc span On the first day etc The lt a href wiki Help Wikitext Nowiki title Help Wikitext nowiki a gt markup can also be used lt nowiki gt Doe lt nowiki gt or lt nowiki gt etc lt nowiki gt If a URL itself contains square brackets the wiki text should use the URL encoded form https example com foo php query span class example example bold style font weight bold color var color content added 006400 5B span xxx span class example example bold style font weight bold color var color content added 006400 5D span yyy rather than query span class example deprecated content example bad example bold style font weight bold color var color content removed 8B0000 span xxx span class example deprecated content example bad example bold style font weight bold color var color content removed 8B0000 span yyy This will avoid truncation of the link after xxx Ellipses ShortcutsMOS ELLIPSISMOS ELLIPSESMOS DOTDOTDOTMOS Use an ellipsis plural ellipses if material is omitted in the course of a quotation unless square brackets are used to gloss the quotation see Brackets and parentheses and the points below Wikipedia s style for an ellipsis is three unspaced dots do not use the precomposed ellipsis character or three dots separated by spaces Generally use a non breaking space before an ellipsis and a regular space after it Alpha Bravo nbsp Zulu But where an ellipsis is immediately followed by any of or by a closing quotation mark single or double use a non breaking space before the ellipsis and no space after it Jones wrote These stories amaze me The facts suffer so frightfully nbsp But what of the other cities London Paris nbsp Place terminal punctuation after an ellipsis only if it is textually important as is often the case with exclamation marks and question marks but rarely with periods Or if the ellipsis immediately follows a quotation mark use no space before the ellipsis and a non breaking space after it He continued to pursue Smith nbsp to the ends of the earth he had sworn until his own death In mathematics formulas formatted using html or wikimarkup use three unspaced dots rather than the precomposed ellipsis character as above However in LaTeX formatted mathematics formulas use the proper LaTeX markup for lowered dots dots displaystyle dots rather than three dots Do not replace precomposed characters that have dots in other positions such as centered or diagonal or Pause or suspension of speech Three dots are occasionally used to represent a pause in or suspense of speech in which case the punctuation is retained in its original form Virginia s startled reply was Could he No I can t believe it When it indicates an incomplete word no space is used between the word fragment s and the ellipsis The garbled transmission ended with We are stranded near San L o interpreted as a reference to either San Leandro or San Lorenzo With square brackets Square brackets may be placed around an ellipsis that indicates omitted text to distinguish it from an ellipsis that is part of the quoted text She retorted How do I feel How do you think I This is too much Take me home In this example the first ellipsis is part of the quoted text and the second ellipsis in square brackets indicates omitted text Commas ShortcutsMOS COMMAMOS A pair of commas can bracket an appositive relative clause or parenthetical phrase as can brackets or dashes though with greater interruption of the sentence For example Correct John Smith Janet Cooper s son is a well known playwright Correct Janet Cooper s son John Smith is a well known playwright when Janet has multiple sons Correct Janet Cooper s son John Smith is a well known playwright when Janet has only one son Always use a pair of commas for this unless another punctuation mark takes the place of the second comma Incorrect The newest member John Smith was blunt Correct Blunt comments came from the newest member John Smith Correct The newest member John Smith a retired teacher was blunt Don t let other punctuation distract you from the need for a comma especially when the comma collides with a bracket or parenthesis Correct Burke and Wills fed by locals on beans fish and ngardu survived for a few months Incorrect Burke and Wills fed by locals on beans fish and ngardu survived for a few months Modern writing uses fewer commas there are usually ways to simplify a sentence so that fewer are needed Clear Schubert s heroes included Mozart Beethoven and Joseph and Michael Haydn Awkward Mozart was along with the Haydns both Joseph and Michael and also Beethoven one of Schubert s heroes ShortcutMOS GEOCOMMA In geographical references that include multiple levels of subordinate divisions e g city state province country a comma separates each element and follows the last element unless followed by terminal punctuation or a closing parenthesis The last element is treated as parenthetical Correct He traveled through North Carolina before staying in Chattanooga Tennessee for the night Incorrect He traveled through North Carolina before staying in Chattanooga Tennessee for the night Also include commas when the geographical element is used as a disambiguator Correct Hantratty received a PhD from the University of California Irvine in 1977 Incorrect Hantratty received a PhD from the University of California Irvine in 1977 ShortcutsMOS DATECOMMAMOS YEARCOMMA Dates in month day year format require a comma after the day as well as after the year unless followed by other punctuation The last element is treated as parenthetical Correct He set October 1 2011 as the deadline for Patterson to meet his demands Incorrect He set October 1 2011 as the deadline for Patterson to meet his demands ShortcutMOS QUOTECOMMA Place quotation marks by following Punctuation inside or outside This is known as logical quotation Correct She said The weather changes too often and made other complaints Incorrect She said The weather changes too often and made other complaints A comma may be included before a quotation embedded within a sentence see Quotation marks Serial commas ShortcutsWP OCOMMAMOS SERIALMOS OXFORDMOS HARVARD A serial comma sometimes also known as an Oxford comma or Harvard comma is a comma used immediately before a conjunction and or nor in a list of three or more items ham chips and eggs serial comma ham chips and eggs no serial comma Editors may use either convention so long as each article is internally consistent Serial commas are more helpful when article text is complex such as a list with multi word items especially if one contains its own and or a series of probably unfamiliar terms However there are cases in which either omitting or including the serial comma results in ambiguity The author thanked her friends Sinead O Connor and Bob Marley which may list either four or more people the friends and the two people named or two people O Connor and Marley who are the friends The author thanked a friend Sinead O Connor and Bob Marley which may list either two people O Connor who is the friend and Marley or three people the first being the friend the second O Connor and the third Marley In such cases of ambiguity clarify one of four ways Add or remove the serial comma Use separate sentences bullet lists or some other structural change to clarify Recast the sentence friends case To list two people The author thanked her friends Sinead O Connor and Bob Marley Clearer The author thanked two friends Sinead O Connor and Bob Marley To list several people The author thanked Sinead O Connor Bob Marley and her friends or The author thanked Sinead O Connor Bob Marley and her friends But not The author thanked Bob Marley Sinead O Connor and her friends introduces ambiguity about her Recast the sentence friend case To list two people The author thanked Bob Marley and her friend Sinead O Connor Or be more specific when possible the commas here set off non restrictive appositives The author thanked her childhood friend Sinead O Connor and her mentor Bob Marley To list three people The author thanked Bob Marley Sinead O Connor and a friend Clarity with gender specific terms such as mother can be tricky The author thanked her mother Kim Thayil and Sinead O Connor is unclear because readers may not know Kim Thayil is male and wouldn t be the same person as the mother Clearer The author thanked Kim Thayil Sinead O Connor and her own mother or The author thanked her mother and musicians Kim Thayil and Sinead O Connor Colons ShortcutMOS COLON A colon introduces something that demonstrates explains or modifies what has come before or is a list of items that has just been introduced The items in such a list may be separated by commas or if they are more complex and perhaps themselves contain commas the items should be separated by semicolons or arranged in a bulleted list We visited several tourist attractions the Leaning Tower of Pisa which I thought could fall at any moment the Bridge of Sighs the supposed birthplace of Petrarch or at least the first known house in which he lived and so many more A colon may also be used to introduce direct speech enclosed within quotation marks See Quotation marks In most cases a colon works best with a complete grammatical sentence before it When what follows the colon is also a complete sentence start it with a capital letter but otherwise do not capitalize after a colon except where doing so is needed for another reason such as for a proper name When a colon is being used as a separator in an article title section heading or list item editors may choose whether to capitalize what follows taking into consideration the existing practice and consistency with related articles Except in technical usage a 3 1 ratio no sentence should contain multiple colons no space should precede a colon and a space but never a hyphen or dash should follow the colon Semicolons ShortcutsMOS SEMICOLONMOS COMMASPLICEMOS A semicolon is sometimes an alternative to a full stop period enabling related material to be kept in the same sentence it marks a more decisive division in a sentence than a comma If the semicolon separates clauses normally each clause must be independent meaning that it could stand on its own as a sentence In many cases only a comma or only a semicolon will be correct in a given sentence Correct Though he had been here before I did not recognize him Incorrect Though he had been here before I did not recognize him Above Though he had been here before cannot stand on its own as a sentence and therefore is not an independent clause Correct Oranges are an acidic fruit bananas are classified as alkaline Incorrect Oranges are an acidic fruit bananas are classified as alkaline This incorrect use of a comma between two independent clauses is known as a comma splice however in certain kinds of cases a comma may be used where a semicolon would seem to be called for Accepted Life is short art is long two brief clauses in an aphorism see Ars longa vita brevis Accepted I have studied it you have not reporting brisk conversation such as this reply of Newton s A sentence may contain several semicolons especially when the clauses are parallel in construction and meaning multiple unrelated semicolons are often signs that the sentence should be divided into shorter sentences or otherwise refashioned Unwieldy Oranges are an acidic fruit bananas are classified as alkaline pears are close to neutral these distinctions are rarely discussed Better Oranges are an acidic fruit bananas are alkaline and pears are close to neutral these distinctions are rarely discussed Semicolons are used in addition to commas to separate items in a listing when commas alone would result in confusion Confusing Sales offices are located in Boston Massachusetts San Francisco California Singapore and Millbank London England Clear Sales offices are located in Boston Massachusetts San Francisco California Singapore and Millbank London England Semicolon before however ShortcutMOS HOWEVER The meaning of a sentence containing a trailing clause that starts with the word however depends on the punctuation preceding that word A common error is to use the wrong punctuation thereby changing the meaning to one not intended When the word however is an adverb meaning nevertheless it should be preceded by a semicolon and followed by a comma Example It was obvious they could not convert these people however they tried Meaning It was obvious they could not convert these people nevertheless they tried When the word however is a conjunction meaning in whatever manner or regardless of how it may be preceded by a comma but not by a semicolon and should not be followed by punctuation Example It was obvious they could not convert these people however they tried Meaning It was obvious they could not convert these people regardless of how they tried In the first case the clause that starts with however cannot be swapped with the first clause in the second case this can be done without change of meaning However they tried it was obvious they could not convert these people Meaning Regardless of how they tried it was obvious they could not convert these people If the two clauses cannot be swapped a semicolon is required A sentence or clause can also contain the word however in the middle if it is an adverb meaning although that could have been placed at the beginning but does not start a new clause in mid sentence In this use the word may be enclosed between commas Example He did not know however that the venue had been changed at the last minute Meaning However he did not know that the venue had been changed at the last minute Hyphens ShortcutMOS HYPHEN Hyphens indicate conjunction There are three main uses Four year old childrenFour year old childrenFour year old children A man eating fishA man eating fish Officials help dog bite victim Officials help dog bite victim A sign exhibiting over eager hy phen a tion not to mention cap it al i za tion the second hyphen belongs but the first does not In hyphenated personal names John Lennard Jones Omar al Bashir To link prefixes with their main terms in certain constructions quasi scientific pseudo Apollodorus ultra nationalistic A hyphen may be used to distinguish between homographs re dress means dress again but redress means remedy or set right There is a clear trend to join both elements in all varieties of English subsection nonlinear Hyphenation clarifies when the letters brought into contact are the same non negotiable sub basement or are vowels pre industrial or where a word is uncommon co proposed re target or may be misread sub era not subera Some words of these sorts are nevertheless common without the hyphen e g cooperation is more frequently attested than co operation in contemporary English To link related terms in compound modifiers Hyphens can aid ease of reading that is they can be ease of reading aids and are particularly useful in long noun phrases gas phase reaction dynamics But never insert a hyphen into a proper name Middle Eastern cuisine not Middle Eastern cuisine A hyphen can help to disambiguate some short story writers are quite tall a government monitoring program is a program that monitors the government whereas a government monitoring program is a government program that monitors Compounds that are hyphenated when used attributively adjectives before the nouns they qualify a light blue handbag a 34 year old woman or substantively as a noun she is a 34 year old are usually not hyphenated when used predicatively descriptive phrase separated from the noun the handbag was light blue the woman is 34 years old Where there would otherwise be a loss of clarity however a hyphen may be used in the predicative form as well hand fed turkeys the turkeys were hand fed Awkward attributive hyphenation can sometimes be avoided with a simple rewording Hawaiian native species native Hawaiian species Avoid using a hyphen after a standard ly adverb a newly available home a wholly owned subsidiary unless part of a larger compound a slowly but surely strategy In rare cases a hyphen can improve clarity if a rewritten alternative is awkward but rewording is usually preferable The idea was clearly stated enough can be disambiguated as The idea clearly was stated often enough or The idea was stated with enough clarity A few words ending in ly function as both adjectives and adverbs a kindly looking teacher a kindly provided facility Some such dual purpose words like early only northerly are not standard ly adverbs because they are not formed by addition of ly to an independent current English adjective These need careful treatment Early flowering plants appeared around 130 million years ago but Early flowering plants risk damage from winter frosts only child actors no adult actors but only child actors actors without siblings A hyphen is normally used when the adverb well precedes a participle used attributively a well meaning gesture but normally a very well managed firm because well itself is modified and even predicatively if well is necessary to or alters the sense of the adjective rather than simply intensifying it the gesture was well meaning the child was well behaved but the floor was well polished In some cases such as diode transistor logic the independent status of the linked elements requires an en dash instead of a hyphen See Dashes ShortcutsMOS SUSPENDEDMOS HANGINGUse a suspended hyphen also called a hanging hyphen when two compound modifiers are separated two and three digit numbers a ten car or truck convoy sloping right or leftward Values and units used as compound modifiers are hyphenated only where the unit is given as a whole word when using the unit symbol separate it from the number with a non breaking space amp nbsp Incorrect 9 mm gapCorrect 9 mm gap markup 9 amp nbsp mm gap Incorrect 9 millimetre gapCorrect 9 millimetre gapCorrect 12 hour shiftCorrect 12 h shift markup 12 amp nbsp h shift Multi word hyphenated items It is often possible to avoid multi word hyphenated modifiers by rewording a four CD soundtrack album may be easier to read as a soundtrack album of four CDs This is particularly important where converted units are involved the 6 hectare limit 14 8 acre limit rule might be possible as the rule imposing a limit of six hectares 14 8 acres and the ungainly 4 9 mile 7 9 km long tributary as simply 4 9 mile 7 9 km tributary For optional hyphenation of compound points of the compass such as southwest south west see Compass points Do not use a capital letter after a hyphen except for a proper name following the hyphen Graeco Roman and Mediterranean style but not Gandhi Like In titles of published works when given in title case follow the capitalization rule for each part independently The Out of Towners unless reliable sources consistently do otherwise in a particular case The History of Middle earth Hyphenation rules in other languages may be different Thus in French a place name such as Trois Rivieres Three Rivers is hyphenated when it would not be in English Follow reliable sources in such cases Spacing A hyphen is never followed or preceded by a space except when hanging see above or when used to display parts of words independently such as the prefix sub and the suffix less Image filenames and redirects Image filenames are not part of the encyclopedic content they are tools They are most useful if they can be readily typed so they usually use hyphens instead of dashes Similarly article titles with dashes should also have a corresponding redirect from a copy of the title with hyphens for example Michelson Morley experiment redirects to Michelson Morley experiment Non breaking A non breaking hyphen a href wiki Template Nbhyph class mw redirect title Template Nbhyph nbhyph a will not be used as a point of line wrap ShortcutsMOS SHYMOS SOFTHYPHEN Soft hyphens Use soft hyphens to mark locations where a word will be broken and hyphenated if necessary at the end of a line of text usually in very long words or narrow spaces such as captions narrow table columns or text adjacent to a very wide image for example a href wiki Template Shy class mw redirect title Template Shy shy a Penn syl va nia and Mass a chu setts style themselves com mon wealths Use sparingly to avoid making wikitext difficult to read and edit For more information see Help Line break handling Encoding The hyphen is represented by the ASCII UNICODE HYPHEN MINUS character which is entered by the hyphen or minus key on all standard keyboards Do not use the UNICODE HYPHEN character Hyphenation involves many subtleties that cannot be covered here the rules and examples presented above illustrate the broad principles Dashes ShortcutsMOS DASHMOS EMDASHMOS ENDASH Two forms of dash are used on Wikipedia en dash and em dash To enter them click on them in the CharInsert toolbar or on a Windows keyboard enter them manually as amp ndash or amp mdash a href wiki Template Endash class mw redirect title Template Endash endash a or a href wiki Template Emdash class mw redirect title Template Emdash emdash a On a Mac keyboard the en dash is entered as Opt and the em dash as Shift Opt Do not use a double hyphen to stand in for a dash See also Wikipedia How to make dashes Sources use dashes in varying ways For consistency and clarity Wikipedia adopts the following principles In article titles In article titles do not use a hyphen as a substitute for an en dash for example in eye hand span since eye does not modify hand Nonetheless to aid searching and linking provide a redirect with hyphens replacing the en dash es as in eye hand span Similarly provide category redirects for categories containing dashes When an en dash is being used as a separator in an article title or section heading editors may choose whether to capitalize what follows taking into consideration the existing practice and consistency with related articles In running text Dashes are often used to mark divisions within a sentence in pairs parenthetical dashes instead of parentheses or pairs of commas or singly perhaps instead of a colon They may also indicate an abrupt stop or interruption in reporting quoted speech In all such cases either unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes can be used with consistency maintained throughout a given article An em dash is unspaced on both sides Another planet was detected but it was later found to be a moon of Saturn An en dash is spaced on both sides Another planet was detected but it was later found to be a moon of Saturn Ideally an en dash should be preceded by a non breaking space this prevents the dash from appearing at the beginning of a line The a href wiki Template Snd class mw redirect title Template Snd snd a template may be used for this Another planet was detected snd but it was later found to be a moon of Saturn Do not insert any spaces where an en dash should be unspaced see Other uses for en dashes Dashes can clarify a sentence s structure when commas parentheses or both are also being used The book summarizes works of some major philosophers in chronological order Descartes Locke Hume but not his Treatise deemed too complex for the target audience and Kant ShortcutsMOS SPARETHEDASHMOS NOTRIPLEDASH Use dashes sparingly More than two in a single sentence makes the structure unclear it takes time for the reader to see which dashes form a pair if any The birds at least the ones Darwin collected had red and blue feathers We have run aground at was the final incomplete message received from the ship Avoid First at a marshy site leveled with landfill came the workshop then administrative and other buildings Better First at a marshy site leveled with landfill came the workshop administrative and other buildings were erected later In ranges that might otherwise be expressed with to or through ShortcutsMOS ENTOMOS ENFROMMOS RANGEMOS RANGES For ranges between numbers dates or times use an en dash pp 7 19 64 75 Henry VIII reigned 1509 1547 Do not change hyphens to dashes in filenames URLs or templates such as a href wiki Template Bibleverse title Template Bibleverse Bibleverse a which formats verse ranges into URLs even if a range is embedded in them Do not mix en dashes with between or from 450 500 people between 450 and 500 people not between 450 500 people from 450 to 500 people not from 450 500 people from 1961 to 1964 not from 1961 1964 between the 1961 1962 and 1967 1968 seasons ticket sales dropped substantially or between the 1961 62 and 1967 68 seasons The en dash in a range is always unspaced except when either or both elements of the range include at least one space hyphen or en dash in such cases snd between them will provide the proper formatting July 23 1790 December 1 1791 not July 23 1790 December 1 1791 14 May 2 August 2011 not 14 May 2 August 2011 1 17 September and note in this case that the second element of the range is 17 not 17 September February October 2009 1492 7 April 1556 Christmas Day New Year s Eve Christmas 2001 Easter 2002 10 30 pm Tuesday 1 25 am Wednesday 6 00 p m 9 30 p m but 6 00 9 30 p m wavelengths in the range 28 mm 17 m pages 5 7 5 9 If negative values are involved an unspaced en dash might be confusing 10 to 10 not 10 10 though 10 10 might work in a table consistently formatted with x y constructions In compounds when the connection might otherwise be expressed with to versus and or between ShortcutMOS ENBETWEEN Here the relationship is thought of as parallel symmetric equal oppositional or at least involving separate or independent elements The components may be nouns adjectives verbs or any other independent part of speech Often if the components are reversed there would be little change of meaning boyfriend girlfriend problems the Paris Montpellier route a New York Los Angeles flight iron cobalt interactions the components are parallel and reversible iron and cobalt retain their identity Wrong an iron roof shed iron modifies roof so use a hyphen an iron roof shed Wrong a singer songwriter not separate persons so use a hyphen a singer songwriter red green colorblind red and green are separate independent colors not mixed Wrong blue green algae a blended intermediate color so use a hyphen blue green algae a 51 30 win a 12 0 perfect season a 22 17 majority vote but prefer spelling out when using words instead of numerals a six to two majority decision not with the awkward six two avoid confusingly reversed order a 17 22 majority vote a 50 50 joint venture a 60 40 split avoid using a slash stroke here which indicates division the Uganda Tanzania War the Roman Syrian War the east west runway the Lincoln Douglas debates a carbon carbon bond diode transistor logic the analog digital distinction push pull output on off switch a pro establishment anti intellectual alliance Singapore Sumatra Java shipping lanes the ballerina s rapid walk dance transitions a male female height ratio of 1 14 Generally use a hyphen in compounded proper names of single entities Guinea Bissau Bissau is its capital and this name distinguishes the country from neighboring Guinea Wilkes Barre a single city named after two people but Minneapolis Saint Paul an area encompassing two cities John Lennard Jones an individual named after two families ShortcutMOS DUALNATIONALITIES Use an en dash between the names of nations or nationalities when referring to an association between them For people and things identifying with multiple nationalities use a hyphen when using the combination adjectivally and a space when they are used as nouns with the first used attributively to modify the second an Italian Swiss border crossing but an Italian Swiss newspaper for Italian speaking Swiss France Britain rivalry French British rivalry an Indian American scientist was especially popular with Indian Americans Wrong Franco British rivalry Franco is a combining form not an independent word so use a hyphen Franco British rivalry A slash or some other alternative may occasionally be better to express a ratio especially in technical contexts see Slashes the protein fat ratio the protein fat ratio the protein to fat ratio Colons are often used for strictly numeric ratios to avoid confusion with subtraction and division a 3 1 ratio a three to one ratio see Wikipedia Manual of Style Dates and numbers Ratios Use an en dash for the names of two or more entities in an attributive compound the Seifert van Kampen theorem the Alpher Bethe Gamow theory the Seeliger Donker Voet scheme developed by Seeliger and Donker Voet Comet Hale Bopp or just Hale Bopp discovered by Hale and Bopp Do not use an en dash for hyphenated personal names even when they are used as adjectives Lennard Jones potential with a hyphen named after John Lennard Jones Do not use spaces around the en dash in any of the compounds above Instead of a hyphen use an en dash when applying a prefix or suffix to a compound that itself includes a space dash or hyphen ShortcutsMOS AFFIXDASHMOS PREFIXDASHMOS SUFFIXDASH ex prime minister Thatcher consider recasting former prime minister Thatcher pre World War II aircraft consider recasting aircraft from before World War II post September 11 anti war movement Trans New Guinea languages post Hartree Fock Afro Puerto Rican Turks and Caicos based company a Rodgers and Hammerstein esque musical number The form of category names follows the corresponding main articles e g Category Trans New Guinea languages However the principle is not extended when compounding other words in category names e g Category Tennis related lists and Category Table tennis related lists both use hyphens To separate parts of an item in a list ShortcutMOS LISTDASH Spaced en dashes are sometimes used between parts of list items For example James Galway flute Anne Sophie Mutter violin Maurizio Pollini piano or The Future 7 21 Ain t No Cure for Love 6 17 Bird on the Wire 6 14 Editors may choose whether to capitalize what follows taking into consideration the existing practice and consistency with related articles Other uses for en dashes The en dash has several common functions beyond its use in lists and running text It is used to join components less strongly than a hyphen would see Hyphens conversely it may also separate components less strongly than a slash would see Slashes Consider the relationship that exists between two components when deciding what punctuation to place between them Other uses for em dashes An indented em dash may be used when attributing the source of a passage such as a block quotation or poem This dash should not be fully spaced however for reasons related to metadata and accessibility it is best to place a hair space between the dash and the name Most of Wikipedia s quotation templates provide this formatting automatically For example in5 hair space Charlotte Bronte will produce Charlotte Bronte Other dashes ShortcutMOS NEGATIVE Do not use typewriter approximations or other substitutes such as two hyphens for em or en dashes For a negative sign or subtraction operator use U 2212 MINUS SIGN amp minus which can also be generated by clicking on the following the in the Insert toolbar beneath the edit window Do not use U 2212 MINUS SIGN inside a lt math gt tag as the character gives a syntax error instead use a normal hyphen U 002D HYPHEN MINUS Slashes strokes ShortcutsMOS SLASHMOS STROKEMOS Generally avoid joining two words with a slash also called a forward slash stroke or solidus because it suggests that the words are related without specifying how Replace with clearer wording An example The parent instructor must be present at all times Must both be present Then write the parent and the instructor Must at least one be present Then write the parent or the instructor Are they the same person Use a hyphen the parent instructor In circumstances involving a distinction or disjunction the en dash see above is usually preferable to the slash the digital analog distinction An unspaced slash may be used to indicate phonemic pronunciations rivet is pronounced ˈrɪvet in a fraction 7 8 but see other techniques at Wikipedia Manual of Style Dates and numbers Fractions and ratios to indicate regular defined yearly periods that do not coincide with calendar years e g the 2009 2010 fiscal year if that is the convention used in reliable sources see Wikipedia Manual of Style Dates and numbers Long periods of time for further explanation to express a ratio in a form in which a slash is conventionally used e g the price to earnings ratio or P E ratio for short in an expression or abbreviation widely used outside Wikipedia e g n a or N A for not applicable A spaced slash may be used to separate run on lines in quoted poetry or song To be or not to be that is the question Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or rarely in quoted prose where careful marking of a paragraph break is textually important to separate items that include at least one internal space the NY 31 east NY 370 exit where for some reason use of a slash is unavoidable To avoid awkward linebreaks code spaced slashes and fraction slashes with a non breaking space on the left and a normal space on the right as in My mama told me amp nbsp You better shop around For short constructions both spaces should be non breaking x amp nbsp amp nbsp y On the other hand if two long words are connected by an unspaced slash an wbr added after the slash will allow a linebreak at that point Do not use the backslash character in place of a slash Prefer the division operator to slash or fraction slash when representing elementary arithmetic in general text 10 2 5 In more advanced mathematical formulas a vinculum or slash is preferred xnn displaystyle textstyle frac x n n or xn n see Wikipedia Manual of Style Dates and numbers Common mathematical symbols and Help Displaying a formula And or ShortcutMOS ANDOR Avoid writing and or unless other constructions would be lengthy or awkward Instead of Most had trauma and or smoke inhalation write simply trauma or smoke inhalation which would normally be interpreted as an inclusive or to imply or both or for emphasis or precision or both write trauma or smoke inhalation or both Where more than two possibilities are present instead of x y and or z write one or more of x y and z or some or all of x y and z Symbols Unicode symbols are preferred over composed ASCII symbols for improved readability and accessibility Be mindful of presentations that may require ASCII like sourcecode Keys for these symbols can be found at the bottom of the Source Editor Symbol Composed ASCII symbol Preferred replacement gt lt lt gt or lt gt gt lt Number pound hash sign and numero ShortcutsMOS NUMBERSIGNMOS NUMEROMOS HASHMOS POUND Avoid using the symbol known as the number sign hash sign pound sign or octothorpe when referring to numbers or rankings Instead write number No or Nos do not use the symbol For example Incorrect Her album reached 1 in the UK albums chart Correct Her album reached number one in the UK albums chart Correct Her album reached No 1 in the UK albums chart Correct Her albums Foo and Bar reached Nos 1 and 3 Correct Her albums Foo and Bar reached numbers one and three in the UK albums chart An exception is issue numbers of comic books which unlike for other periodicals are conventionally given in general text in the form 1 unless a volume is also given in which case write volume two number seven or Vol 2 No 7 Another exception are periodical publications carrying both issue and number designations typically one being a year relative and the other an absolute value they should be given in the form 2 143 in citations or be spelt out as Iss 2 No 143 in text When using the abbreviations write abbr Vol Volume abbr Iss Issue abbr No Number or abbr Nos Numbers at first occurrence Terminal punctuation ShortcutsMOS FULLSTOPMOS EXCLAMATIONMOS PERIOD Exclamation and question marks have almost no application in encyclopedic writing For the use of three periods in succession see Ellipses In some contexts no terminal punctuation is necessary In such cases the sentence often does not start with a capital letter See Quotations and Quotation marks Sentence fragments in captions or lists should in most cases not end with a period See Formatting of captions and Bulleted and numbered lists Spacing ShortcutsMOS DOUBLESPACEMOS PUNCTSPACE In normal text never put a space before a comma semicolon colon period full stop question mark or exclamation mark even in quoted material see Typographic conformity Some editors place two spaces after a period full stop see Sentence spacing these are condensed to one space when the page is rendered so it does not affect what readers see Consecutive punctuation marks ShortcutMOS CONSECUTIVE Where a word or phrase that includes terminal punctuation ends a sentence do not add a second terminal punctuation mark If a quoted phrase or title ends in a question mark or exclamation mark it may confuse readers as to the nature of the article sentence containing it and so is usually better reworded to be mid sentence Where such a word or phrase occurs mid sentence new terminal punctuation usually a period must be added at the end Incorrect Slovak returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985 after growing tired of What Is This Acceptable Slovak returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985 after growing tired of What Is This Better Slovak having grown tired of What Is This returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1985 Incorrect He made several films with Sammy Davis Jr Correct He made several films with Sammy Davis Jr Punctuation and footnotes ShortcutsMOS CITEPUNCTMOS PUNCTFOOTMOS REFPUNCTMOS PUNCTREFMOS REFSPACEMOS PF Reference tags lt ref gt lt ref gt are used to create footnotes also called endnotes or simply notes as citation footnotes and sometimes explanatory notes All reference tags should immediately follow the text to which the footnote applies with no intervening space Apart from the exceptions listed below references are placed after adjacent punctuation not before Adjacent reference tags should have no space between them nor should there be any between tags and inline dispute and cleanup templates When reference tags are used a footnote list must be added and this is usually placed in the References section near the end of the article in the standard appendices and footers Example Flightless birds have a reduced keel 10 and they also have smaller wing bones than flying birds of similar size 11 12 Exceptions Reference tags are placed before dashes not after If a footnote applies only to material within parentheses the tags belong just before the closing parenthesis Example Paris is not the capital city of England the capital of which is London 10 but that of France 11 Example Kim Jong un Korean 김정은 Hanja 金正恩 10 is the Supreme Leader of North Korea 11 Punctuation after formulae Sentences should place punctuation after mathematical formulae as if they were normal body text See Wikipedia Manual of Style Mathematics Punctuation after formulae Dates and timeDates should be linked only when they are germane and topical to the subject as discussed at Wikipedia Manual of Style Linking Chronological items For ranges of dates and times see Other uses for en dashes Time of day Times of day are normally expressed in figures rather than words Context determines whether the 12 or the 24 hour format is more appropriate Twelve hour clock times are written in one of two forms 11 15 a m and 2 30 p m or 11 15 am and 2 30 pm wherein the spaces should be non breaking Use noon and midnight rather than 12 pm and 12 am it may need to be specified whether midnight refers to the start or end of a date Twenty four hour clock times are written in the form 08 15 and 22 55 with no suffix Midnight written as 00 00 begins the day 24 00 ends it Dates Full dates are formatted 10 June 1921 or June 10 1921 or where the year is omitted use 10 June or June 10 The dates in the text of any one article should all have the same format day first or month first For date formats in citations see Wikipedia Citing sources Citation style Dates in quotations and titles are always left as is If a numerical format is required e g for conciseness in lists and tables use the YYYY MM DD format 2005 04 03 Articles on topics with strong ties to a particular English speaking country should generally use the more common date format for that country month first for the US except in military usage day first for most others articles related to Canada may use either consistently Otherwise do not change an article from one date format to the other without good reason Months For month and year write June 1921 with no comma Abbreviations for months such as Feb are used only where space is extremely limited Such abbreviations should use three letters only and should not be followed by a period full point except at the end of a sentence Seasons Avoid ambiguous references to seasons which are different in the southern and northern hemispheres Names of seasons may be used when there is a logical connection to the event being described the autumn harvest or when referring to a phase of a natural yearly cycle migration typically starts in mid spring Otherwise neutral wording is usually preferable He was elected in November 1992 not He was elected in the fall of 1992 Journals and other publications that are issued seasonally e g Summer 2005 should be dated as such in citations for more information see Wikipedia Citing sources Seasonal publication dates and differing calendar systems Years and longer periods Do not use the year before the digits 1995 not the year 1995 unless the meaning would otherwise be unclear Decades are written in the format the 1980s with no apostrophe Use the two digit form 80s only with an established social or cultural meaning Avoid forms such as the 1700s that could refer to ten or a hundred years Years are denoted by AD and BC or equivalently CE and BCE Use only one system within an article and do not change from one system to the other without good reason The abbreviations are written without periods and with a non breaking space as in 5 BC Omit AD or CE unless omitting it would cause ambiguity More information on all the above topics can be found at Wikipedia Manual of Style Dates and numbers Chronological items including the handling of dates expressed in different calendars and times corresponding to different time zones Current Terms such as current now and recent should be avoided What is current today may not be tomorrow situations change over time Instead use date and time specific text To help keep information updated use a href wiki Template As of title Template As of As of a which will allow editors to catalog and update dated statements Incorrect He is the current ambassador to Correct As of March 2011 he is the ambassador to NumbersIntegers from zero to nine are spelled out in words Integers greater than nine expressible in one or two words may be expressed either in numerals or in words Other numbers are given in numerals or in forms such as 21 million See MOS NUM Numbers as figures or words In general in numbers with five or more digits to the left of the decimal point use commas to group those digits Numbers with four digits are at the editor s discretion 12 345 but either 1 000 or 1000 See MOS NUM Grouping of digits In general use decimals rather than fractions for measurements but fractions are sometimes used with imperial and US customary units Keep articles internally consistent Scientific notation e g 5 8 107 kg is preferred in scientific contexts Markup val 5 8 e 7 u kg Write out million and billion on the first use After that unspaced M can be used for millions and bn for billions 70M and 25bn See MOS NUM Numbers as figures or words for similar words Write 3 three percent or three per cent but not 3 with a space or three Percent is American usage and per cent is British usage see National varieties of English In ranges of percentages written with an en dash write only a single percent sign 3 14 Indicate uncertainties as e g 1 534 0 35 1023 m Markup val 1 534 0 35 e 23 u m See MOS NUM Uncertainty and rounding for other formats CurrenciesUse the full abbreviation on first use US for the US dollar and A for the Australian dollar unless the currency is already clear from context For example the government of the United States always spends money in American dollars and never in Canadian or Australian dollars Use only one symbol with ranges as in 250 300 In articles that are not specific to a country express amounts of money in United States dollars euros or pounds sterling Do not link the names or symbols of currencies that are commonly known to English speakers unless there is a particular reason to do so do not use potentially ambiguous currency symbols unless the meaning is clear in the context In country specific articles use the currency of the country On first occurrence consider including conversion to US dollars euros or pounds sterling at a rate appropriate to the context For example Since 2001 the grant has been 10 000 000 Swedish kronor 1 0M as of August 2009 Wording such as approx is not appropriate for simple rounding off of the converted amount Generally use the full name of a currency and link it on its first appearance if English speakers are likely to be unfamiliar with it 52 Nepalese rupees subsequent occurrences can use the currency sign just 88 Rs Most currency symbols are placed before the number and unspaced 123 not 123 Units of measurementThe main unit in which a quantity is expressed should generally be an SI unit or non SI unit officially accepted for use with the SI However Scientific articles may also use specialist units appropriate for the branch of science in question In non scientific articles with strong ties to the United States the main unit is generally a US customary unit 22 pounds 10 kg In non scientific articles with strong ties to the United Kingdom although the main unit is generally a metric unit 10 kilograms 22 lb imperial units are still used as the main units in some contexts 7 miles 11 km by road Where English speaking countries use different units for the same measurement provide a conversion in parentheses Examples the Mississippi River is 2 320 miles 3 734 km long the Murray River is 2 375 kilometres 1 476 mi long See a href wiki Template Convert title Template Convert convert a In a direct quotation always retain the source s units Any conversion should follow in square brackets or an obscure use of units can be explained in the article text or a footnote Where space is limited such as tables infoboxes parenthetical notes and mathematical formulas unit symbols are preferred In prose unit names should be given in full if used only a few times but symbols may be used when a unit especially one with a long name is used repeatedly after spelling out the first use e g Up to 15 kilograms of filler is used for a batch of 250 kg except for unit names that are hardly ever spelled out C rather than degrees Celsius Most unit names are not capitalized see National varieties of English for spelling differences Use per when writing out a unit rather than a slash metre per second not metre second Units unfamiliar to general readers should be presented as a name symbol pair on first use linking the unit name Energies were originally 2 3 megaelectronvolts MeV but were eventually 6 MeV For ranges see En dashes other uses and MOS NUM at Date ranges Percentages Unit names and symbols and Formatting of monetary values Unit symbols are preceded by figures not by spelled out numbers Values and unit symbols are separated by a non breaking space For example 5 min The percent sign and units of degrees minutes and seconds for angles and coordinates are unspaced Common mathematical symbolsShortcutMOS COMMONMATH For a negative sign or subtraction operator use a minus sign Unicode character U 2212 MINUS SIGN Input by clicking on it in the insert box beneath the edit window or by typing amp minus For multiplication use a multiplication sign U 00D7 MULTIPLICATION SIGN or a dot U 22C5 DOT OPERATOR which are input by clicking on them in the edit toolbox under the edit window or by entering amp times or amp sdot Care should be taken not to confuse the dot operator in the Math and logic section of the edit toolbox with an interpunct in the Insert section of the edit toolbox or a bullet The letter x should not be used to indicate multiplication but it is used unspaced as the substitute for by in terms such as 4x4 Exponentiation is indicated by a superscript an typed as a lt sup gt n lt sup gt Do not use programming language notation outside computer program text In most programming languages subtraction multiplication and exponentiation are represented by the hyphen minus the asterisk and either the caret or the double asterisk respectively scientific notation is replaced by E notation Symbols for binary operators and relations are usually spaced on both sides plus minus and plus or minus as binary operators as in 5 3 multiplication and division equals does not equal equals approximately is less than is less than or equal to is greater than is greater than or equal to lt gt Symbols for unary operators are closed up to their operand positive negative and positive or negative signs as in 3 other unary operators such as the exclamation mark as a factorial sign as in 5 Variables are italicized but digits and punctuation are not only x and y are italicized in 2 5x y 2 a href wiki Template Math title Template Math math a can be used to style formulas to distinguish them from surrounding text For single variables a href wiki Template Mvar title Template Mvar mvar a is handy Grammar and usageShortcutMOS GRAMMAR Possessives ShortcutsMOS POSSMOS S Singular nouns For the possessive of singular nouns including proper names and words ending in s add s my daughter s achievement my niece s wedding Cortez s men the boss s office Illinois s largest employer the US s partners Descartes s philosophy Verreaux s eagle Exception abstract nouns ending with an s sound when followed by sake for goodness sake for his conscience sake If a name ending in s or z would be difficult to pronounce with s added Jesus s teachings consider rewording the teachings of Jesus Plural nouns ShortcutMOS PLURALNOUN For a normal plural noun ending with a pronounced s form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe my sons wives my nieces weddings For a plural noun not ending with a pronounced s add s women s careers people s habits mice s whiskers The two Dumas s careers were controversial but where rewording is an option this may be better The career of each Dumas was controversial Official names Official names of companies organizations or places should not be altered St Thomas Hospital should therefore not be rendered as St Thomas s Hospital or St Thomas Hospital even for consistency Pronouns ShortcutMOS PRONOUN First person pronouns ShortcutsMOS IMOS OURMOS PERSONMOS WE To maintain an objective and impersonal encyclopedic voice an article should never refer to its editors or readers using I my we us our or similar words We note that some believe that bats are bugs But some of these words are acceptable in certain figurative uses For example In historical articles to mean the modern world as a whole Only portions of De re publica have come down to us The author s we found in scientific writing We construct S as follows though passive voice may be preferable S is constructed as follows Second person pronouns ShortcutsMOS YOUMOS YOURMOS BAITMOS PEDAGOGYMOS SOCRATIC Avoid addressing the reader using you or your which sets an inappropriate tone see also Instructional and presumptuous language Use a noun or a third person pronoun instead of When you move past Go you collect 200 use A player passing Go collects 200 or When a player passes Go they collect 200 If a person cannot be specified or when implying anyone as a subject the impersonal pronoun one may be used a sense that one is being watched Other constructions may be preferable if the pronoun one seems stilted a person s sense of being watched The passive voice may sometimes be used instead Impurities are removed before bottling Do not bait links e g Click here for more information let the browser s normal highlighting invite a click Click here also makes no sense to someone reading on paper Likewise See or Consider in reference to arguments principles facts etc are milder second person baits common in academic writing pedagogy This interactive personality is inconsistent with an encyclopedia s passive presentation of objective matter See and the like can be used to internally cross reference other Wikipedia material Do not italicize words like see Such a cross reference should be parenthetical so the article text stands alone if the parenthetical is removed a href wiki Template Crossref class mw redirect title Template Crossref Crossref a can be used for this a href wiki Template Crossref class mw redirect title Template Crossref Crossref a see Chicken a href wiki Template Crossref class mw redirect title Template Crossref Crossref a See Dacian language for details It is usually better to rewrite the material to integrate these links contextually rather than use explicit Wikipedia self references Do not address the reader with the Socratic method by asking and answering questions Did Bacon write Shakespeare Then who wrote Bacon Third person pronouns Refer to a person with pronouns and other gendered words that reflect their latest self identification in recent reliable sources Singular they them their are appropriate in reference to anyone who uses those as replacements for neopronouns and in generic reference to persons of unknown gender For considerably more detail see WP Manual of Style Biography Gender identity ShortcutsMOS SHIPPRONOUNMOS SHE4SHIPS Ships military or private sector may be referred to by either neuter pronouns it its or feminine pronouns she her Both usages are acceptable but each article should be internally consistent and exclusively employ only one style As with all optional styles articles should not be changed from one style to another without clear and substantial reason Try to avoid close successive uses of the same referent for a ship by using different referents in rotation for example it or she the ship and the ship s name The she her optional style does not apply to other vessel vehicle types such as trains See the next section Plurals for singular it or plural they in reference to organizations and other collective nouns Plurals ShortcutsMOS PLURALSMOS SINGULAR Use the appropriate plural allow for cases such as excursus or hanif in which a word is now listed in major English dictionaries and normally takes an s or es plural not its original plural two excursuses not two excursus as in Latin three hanifs not three hunafa as in Arabic Some collective nouns such as team and proper names of them army company crowd fleet government majority mess number pack and party may refer either to a single entity or to the members that compose it In British English such words are sometimes treated as singular but more often treated as plural according to context but singular is not actually incorrect In North American English these words are almost invariably treated as singular the major exception is that when a sports team is referred to by its short name plural verbs are commonly used e g the Heat are playing the Lakers tonight Names of towns and countries usually take singular verbs even when grammatically plural the United States is in North America the Netherlands is also known as Holland but exceptionally in British English typically when used to refer to a sports team named after a town or country or when discussing actions of a government plural is used For example in England are playing Germany tomorrow England refers to a football team but in England is in the Northern hemisphere it refers to the country See also National varieties of English including Opportunities for commonality Verb tense ShortcutsMOS TENSEMOS VERBMOS ISWASMOS WASMOS COMPNOW By default write articles in the present tense including those covering works of fiction see Wikipedia Writing better articles Tense in fiction and products or works that have been discontinued Generally use past tense only for past events and for subjects that are dead or no longer meaningfully exist Use past tense for articles about periodicals no longer produced with common sense exceptions The PDP 10 is a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from 1966 into the 1980s Earth Final Conflict is a Canadian science fiction television series that ran for five seasons between October 6 1997 and May 20 2002 The Gordon Riots of 1780 were several days of rioting in London motivated by anti Catholic sentiment The Beatles were an English rock band that formed in Liverpool in 1960 Barack Obama is a former president of the United States not Barack Obama was a president of the United States Jumbo Comics was an adventure anthology comic book published by Fiction House from 1938 to 1953 A Prairie Home Companion is a radio show that aired live from 1974 to 2016 not A Prairie Home Companion was a radio show Flappy Bird is a mobile game developed by Vietnamese video game artist and programmer Dong Nguyen not Flappy Bird was a mobile game Tense can be used to distinguish between current and former status of a subject Dun Aonghasa is the ruin of a prehistoric Irish cliff fort Its original shape was presumably oval or D shaped but parts of the cliff and fort have since collapsed into the sea Emphasis added to distinguish the different tense usages Dun Aonghasa is a structure that was later damaged by an event Always use present tense for verbs that describe genres types and classes even if the subject of the description e g program library device no longer exists is discontinued is unsupported or is unmaintained Present tense is also used for discontinued television shows VocabularyContractions ShortcutMOS CONTRACTIONS Avoid contractions which have little place in formal writing For example write do not instead of don t Use of o clock is an exception Contracted titles such as Dr and St generally should not be used but may apply in some contexts e g quoted material place names titles of works Gender neutral language ShortcutsMOS GNLMOS S HE Use gender neutral language avoiding the generic he for example if this can be done with clarity and precision This does not apply to direct quotations or the titles of works The Ascent of Man which should not be altered or to wording about one gender contexts such as an all female school When any student breaks that rule she loses privileges References to space programs past present and future should use gender neutral phrasing human spaceflight robotic probe uncrewed mission crewed spacecraft piloted unpiloted astronaut cosmonaut not manned or unmanned Direct quotations and proper nouns that use gendered words should not be changed like Manned Maneuvering Unit ShortcutMOS SHIP Ships may be referred to using either neuter forms it its or feminine forms she her hers Either usage is acceptable but each article should be internally consistent and employ one or the other exclusively As with all optional styles articles should not be changed from one style to another unless there is a substantial reason to do so See Wikipedia Manual of Style Military history Pronouns Contested vocabulary Avoid words and phrases that give the impression of straining for formality that are unnecessarily regional or that are not widely accepted See List of commonly misused English words see also Identity Instructional and presumptuous language ShortcutsMOS INSTRUCTMOS NOTEMOS NOTETHATMOS NOTEDMOS PRESUMEMOS QUESTION Avoid phrases such as remember that and note that which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone and lean toward instructional They are a subtle form of Wikipedia self reference breaking the fourth wall Similarly phrases such as of course naturally obviously clearly and actually make presumptions about readers knowledge may express a viewpoint and may call into question the reason for including the information in the first place Do not tell readers that something is interesting ironic surprising unexpected amusing coincidental etc Simply present sourced facts neutrally and let readers draw their own conclusions Such constructions can usually just be deleted leaving behind proper sentences with a more academic and less pushy tone Note that this was naturally subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers becomes This was subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers Similar variants which indirectly instruct readers such as It should be noted that or It is important to note that may be rewritten by leaving out those words It is important to note that the colloquial dialect of Portunol is similar to but different from Mirandese becomes just The colloquial dialect of Portunol is similar to but different from Mirandese Avoid rhetorical questions especially in headings Use a heading of Active listening and text such as The term active listening coined in not What is active listening For issues in the use of cross references e g see also Bulverism see Second person pronouns Subset terms ShortcutMOS SUBSET A subset term identifies a set of members of a larger class Common subset terms are including among and etc Avoid redundant subset terms e g mis constructions like Among the most well known members of the fraternity are included two members of the Onassis family or The elements in stars include hydrogen helium etc The word including does not introduce a complete list instead use consisting of or composed of Identity ShortcutsMOS IDENTITYMOS ID When there is a discrepancy between the term most commonly used by reliable sources for a person or group and the term that person or group uses for themselves use the term that is most commonly used by recent reliable sources If it is unclear which is most used use the term that the person or group uses Disputes over how to refer to a person or group are addressed by Wikipedia content policies such as those on verifiability and neutral point of view and article titles when the term appears in the title of an article Use specific terminology For example it is often more appropriate for people or things from Ethiopia a country in Africa to be described as Ethiopian not carelessly with the risk of stereotyping as African Gender identity Specific guidelines apply to any person whose gender might be questioned and any living transgender or non binary person In summary Use gendered words only if they reflect the person s latest self identification as reported in recent sources If the person is living and was not notable yet when a former name was in use that name should not be included in any Wikipedia page even in quotations as a privacy matter Exception Do not expunge or replace names in source citations whether as authors or mentioned in work titles Former names under which a living person was notable should be introduced with born or formerly in the lead sentence of their main biographical article Name and gender matters should be explained at first appearance in that article without overemphasis In articles on works or other activities of such a person use their current name by default and give another name associated with that context in a parenthetical or footnote only if they were notable under that name In other articles do not go into detail about such a person s name or gender except when directly relevant to the context Avoid confusing constructions by rewriting Paraphrase elide or use square brackets to replace portions of quotations as needed to avoid confusion former names and mismatching gendered words For examples and finer points see Wikipedia Manual of Style Biography Gender identity Non English terms ShortcutsMOS NON ENGWP ENMOS FOREIGN Terms without common usage in English Non English terms should be used sparingly In general use italics for phrases and words that are not current in English This is best done with the a href wiki Template Lang title Template Lang lang a template using the appropriate ISO language code e g a href wiki Template Lang title Template Lang lang a es casa There are alternatives to the lang template which also provide additional information about a non English word or phrase such as a link to the language name see Category Wikipedia multilingual support templates As Wikipedia does not apply italics to names of people places or organizations the alternative template a href wiki Template Langr class mw redirect title Template Langr langr a can be used to apply the language markup without italicizing Templates like a href wiki Template Lang title Template Lang lang a automatically italicize text written using the Latin alphabet so specifying italics is unnecessary Text written in non Latin scripts such as Greek Cyrillic and Chinese should not be italicized or put in bold as the difference in script is already sufficient to visually distinguish the text Generally any non Latin text should include an appropriate romanization Terms with common usage in English Loanwords and borrowed phrases that have common usage in English Gestapo samurai vice versa do not require italics A rule of thumb is to not italicize words that appear unitalicized in major general purpose English dictionaries Spelling and romanization ShortcutsMOS NMOS NOTLATINMOS ROMANIZATIONMOS ROMANISATIONMOS DIACRITICS Names and terms originally written using a non Latin script such as the Greek alphabet the Cyrillic alphabet or Chinese characters must be
