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Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Disambiguation pages

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For a short introduction written for readers of Wikipedia, see Help:Disambiguation.
For the standards for when and how editors should disambiguate articles, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation.
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Disambiguation pages (abbreviated often as dab pages or simply DAB or DABs) are non-article pages designed to help a reader find the right Wikipedia article when different topics could be referred to by the same search term, as described in the guidelines at Wikipedia:Disambiguation. In other words, disambiguation pages help readers find the specific article they want when there is topic ambiguity.

Note that even though most disambiguation pages are kept in the Article namespace (mainspace), they are not articles. These pages are aids in searching for articles.

The style guidelines on this page aim to give disambiguation pages a consistent appearance and help the efficiency of searches by excluding extraneous information. Any page containing one of the disambiguation templates should contain only disambiguation content, whether or not the page title contains the parenthetical "(disambiguation)". For more information on these templates and identifying a disambiguation page, see § The disambiguation notice and categorization below.

Note that these style guidelines do not apply to article pages containing such sentence- or paragraph-level disambiguation techniques as having a hatnote at the top of an article pointing to a related subject. These guidelines only apply to pages correctly tagged with a disambiguation template.

Disambiguation

Page naming

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Further information: Wikipedia:Namespace and Wikipedia:Article titles § Disambiguation

In general, the title of a disambiguation page is the ambiguous term itself, provided there is no primary topic for that term. If there is already a primary topic, the "(disambiguation)" qualifier should be added to the title of the disambiguation page, such as Jupiter (disambiguation). For more on how to title a disambiguation page, see Wikipedia:Disambiguation § Naming the disambiguation page.

At the top of the page

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The first lines should consist of the following, in order:

  1. optionally: a link to Wiktionary (see § Linking to Wiktionary)
  2. if there is a primary topic: a link to the primary topic (see § Linking to a primary topic)
  3. the introductory line (see § Introductory line)

Each of these three should begin its own line (the Wiktionary template creates a box on the right side of the page).

Thus if there is no Wiktionary link and no primary topic link, the introductory line should be the first line.

Linking to Wiktionary

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When a dictionary definition should be included (see Wikipedia:Disambiguation § What not to include), rather than writing a text entry, create a cross-link to Wiktionary, one of the Wikimedia sister projects. To do this, use one of these Wiktionary link templates on the first line:

  • {{Wiktionary}} can be used with up to five optional parameters: {{wiktionary|WORD|WORD2|...|WORD5}}. This can be useful for linking dictionary entries with multiple capitalizations (e.g., star, Star, and STAR). With no parameters, the template defaults to using the current page's name with a lowercase first letter.
  • {{Wiktionary pipe}} will behave like a piped link: {{wiktionary pipe|WORD|optional display name}}.

Be sure to check the links created by these templates, as Wiktionary's case sensitivity sometimes differs from Wikipedia's. Most notably, Wiktionary uses proper capitalization for the first letter of its entries, unlike Wikipedia's use of an uppercase first letter for each page name.

Linking to a primary topic

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See also: Wikipedia:Disambiguation § Is there a primary topic?

It is recommended that a link back to the primary topic appear at the top, in a brief explanatory sentence. This link should be the primary topic set in bold. (This is opposite to the recommendation for primary topics in articles; that is, MOS:BOLDLINKAVOID does not apply to disambiguation pages.) The brief explanatory sentence is otherwise an individual entry per MOS:DABENTRY.

When the page has "(disambiguation)" in its title – i.e., it is the disambiguation page for a term for which a primary topic has been identified – users are most likely to arrive there by clicking on a top link from the primary topic article, generated by a template in the {{otheruses}} series. For example, the article School contains the hatnote:

For other uses, see School (disambiguation).

The primary topic is the one reached by using the disambiguation page title without the (disambiguation) qualifier. Capitalisation differences matter, so there will only be one primary topic for a title.

Since it is unlikely this primary topic is what readers are looking for if they have reached the disambiguation page, it should not be mixed in with the other links. As stated above, it is recommended that the link back to the primary topic appear at the top, in a brief explanatory sentence. For instance:

A school is an institution for learning.

School or the school may also refer to:

  • School of thought, a number of individuals with shared styles, approaches or aims
  • School (fish), a group of fish swimming in the same direction in a coordinated manner
  • . . .

When the primary topic article has a different title than the term being disambiguated, then the first line normally uses a redirect from the ambiguous term to link to that article:

A cosmonaut or astronaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft.

Similarly for an acronym, initialism or alphabetism:

CIA is the Central Intelligence Agency, a civilian agency of the United States government.

However, in some cases it may be clearer to link directly to the target of the redirect, such as with surnames that have a primary holder:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) was a famous composer during the Classical period.checkY

instead of the more awkward:

Mozart was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), a famous composer during the Classical period. ☒N

Introductory line

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See also: WP:Template messages/General § In introductory lines

The term being disambiguated should be in bold (not italics). It should begin a sentence fragment ending with a colon, introducing a bulleted list:

Interval may refer to:

John Smith may refer to:

or

John Smith is the name of:

ABC may refer to:

or

ABC may stand for:

Where several variants of a term are being disambiguated together, significant variants may be included in the lead sentence. For example:

Bang or bangs may refer to:

or

Bang(s) may refer to:

Arc or ARC may refer to:

Angus McKay, MacKay or Mackay may refer to:

However, it is not necessary to mention minor variations of capitalization, punctuation or diacritics. For example, AU may refer to: is preferable to AU, au, Au or A-U may refer to; and Saiyuki may refer to: is preferable to Saiyuki, Saiyūki or Saiyûki may refer to.

When the title being disambiguated has a primary topic (i.e. when the disambiguation page's title ends in "(disambiguation)"), the introductory line includes the word "also": see the "school" example in § Linking to a primary topic above.

Individual entries

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After the introductory line comes a list of individual entries – lines which direct the readers to Wikipedia articles on the various topics which might be referenced by the term being disambiguated. Keep in mind that the primary purpose of the disambiguation page is to help people find the specific article they want quickly and easily. For example:

Interval may refer to:

Apply the following rules when constructing entries:

  • Preface each entry with a bullet (an asterisk in wiki markup).
  • Start each entry with a capital letter (unless it begins with a link to an article marked with {{lowercase title}}, like eBay).
  • Insert a comma after an entry when a description is included.
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    If an entry link by itself is insufficiently descriptive for navigation, use a sentence fragment, with no closing punctuation unless it is part of the description (e.g., a description that ends in "etc." would end with the period).
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    Include exactly one navigable (blue) link to efficiently guide readers to the most relevant article for that use of the ambiguous term. Do not wikilink any other words in the line. For example:

    but not:

  • Avoid descriptions that simply repeat information given in the link, e.g.:

    However, this information may be repeated as part of a fuller description, if it adds value for the reader:

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    Keep the description associated with a link to a minimum, just sufficient to allow the reader to find the correct link. In many cases, the title of the article alone will be sufficient and no additional description is necessary. If the type of entry is identified in a header (e.g. songs, films), it usually does not need to be repeated verbatim in the description.
  • Do not emphasize the link with bolding or italics, although entries such as non-English words or titles of works may need to be italicized to conform with the style guidance on formatting text; in general, if the linked article for a topic applies formatting to the ambiguous term, duplicate it on the disambiguation page's entry for that topic. If the article's title contains both a title and a clarifier, quote or italicize only the part requiring such treatment, as opposed to the entire link, e.g.: Dark Star (film) (see § Piping and redirects). This can be accomplished by piping the link. The templates {{fti}} or {{ftq}} can also be used to put only the title, and not the qualifier, in italics or quotes, respectively.

In most cases the title of the target article will be an expansion or variation of the term being disambiguated (as in the example above). If this is the case:

  • The link should come at the start of the entry.
  • The article title should appear exactly as it is on the target page; the link should not be piped except to apply formatting (see § Where piping may be appropriate).

However, in some cases the target article title is not an expansion or variation of the term being disambiguated. For example, in the Maggie Anderson (disambiguation) page:

  • Maggie Anderson, character in the musical play Brigadoon

For the case where the link is not an expansion or variation see §§ Red links​ and Items appearing within other articles below.

Note also the following points when constructing lists of entries:

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  • An entry without a blue link is useless for further navigation. (See § Red links for cases in which no article yet exists.)
  • A disambiguation page should not be made up completely of red links or have only one blue link on the entire page, because the basic purpose of disambiguation is to refer users to other Wikipedia pages.
  • Never include external links, either as entries or in descriptions. Disambiguation pages disambiguate Wikipedia articles, not the World-Wide Web. To note URLs that might be helpful in the future, include them on the talk page.
  • References should not appear on disambiguation pages. Dab pages are not articles; instead, incorporate the references into the target articles.

Examples of individual entries that should not be created

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Further information: Wikipedia:Disambiguation § What not to include

Do not include entries for topics that are not ambiguous (according to the linked article) with the title. Use list articles for lists of related topics if needed.

On a page called Title, do not create entries merely because Title is part of the name (see Wikipedia:Disambiguation § Partial title matches). This does not apply if the subject is commonly referred to simply by Title. For instance, Oxford (disambiguation) should link to University of Oxford and Catalina might include Santa Catalina Island, California. If there is disagreement about whether this exception applies, it is often best to assume that it does. When multiple articles contain Title but are not referred to by it, {{look from}} and {{in title}} templates may be added in the "See also" section.

You may want to create entries on the same page for:

  • TITLE and Title
  • Title town and Title township
    • An example is Willow Valley, which lists a town of that name as well as "Willow Valley Township" in another state.

Do not include entries for topics that are not mentioned in any article, even if there is an article on a related topic, since linking to it would not help readers find information about the sought topic.

Given names or surnames

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"MOS:DABNAME" redirects here. For the guideline regarding how to name disambiguation pages, see WP:DABNAME.
Main page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Anthroponymy

People who have the ambiguous term as surname or given name should be listed in the main disambiguation list of the disambiguation page only if they are frequently referred to simply by the single name (e.g., Abraham Lincoln on Lincoln).

There are two options for listing name-holders. A list of name-holders can be included in a People section of the page. For longer lists (of 12 or more entries), and as an alternative for a short list, an anthroponymy list article can be created and linked from the disambiguation page. If it isn't clear that the article includes a list, consider mentioning that in the description, for example:

  • Marilyn (given name), a female given name (including a list of people with the name)
  • Dylan (name), a given name and a family name (including a list of people with the name)

Articles only listing persons with a certain given name or surname, known as anthroponymy articles, are not disambiguation pages, and this Manual of Style does not apply to them. Anthroponymy articles follow their own style standards. For those articles, do not use {{disambiguation}} or {{hndis}}, but {{given name}} or {{surname}} instead.

Misspellings

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Common misspellings should be listed only if there is a genuine risk of confusion or misspelling. These cross-links should be placed in a separate section entitled "Common misspellings" or "See also". For example, in a page called Kington (disambiguation), a link to Kingston (disambiguation) would appropriately be included in the "See also" section.

Piping and redirects

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Piping and redirects are two different mechanisms that allow the displayed text of a link to differ from the title of the page that the link points to.

  • Piping means concealing the title of a linked article by replacing it with other text. For example, instead of showing the full title Moment (physics), it may be presented as [[Moment (physics)|moment]], resulting in the link moment.
  • A redirect is a page used to "jump" readers from one page title to an article with a different title. For example, a redirect at the title 9/11 sends users who navigate there to the article September 11 attacks.

Apart from the exceptions listed below, piping and redirects should generally not be used on disambiguation pages. This is to make it clear to the reader which topic is the subject of an article title. For example, on the disambiguation page Moment, in the entry Moment (physics), the parenthetical disambiguator "(physics)" should be visible so that the reader sees which "moment" topic the entry is about, among others sharing the same base title. In many cases, what would be hidden by a pipe is exactly what the user would need in order to find their intended article. However, raw section and anchor points should not be displayed; see § Section and anchor point linking for those cases.

Though piping and redirects should generally not be used in disambiguation pages, there are certain cases in which they may be useful to the reader:

Where redirecting may be appropriate

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  • Redirecting may be appropriate where the primary topic is a redirect; see § Linking to a primary topic.
  • Redirecting may be appropriate when linking to another disambiguation page.
  • However, when the disambiguated term is an acronym or initialism (alphabetism), links should not use redirects to conceal the expanded version of that initialism. For example, on the disambiguation page BNL, linking to the full article title Banca Nazionale del Lavoro is preferable to linking to a redirect at BNL (bank).
  • A redirect should be used to link to a specific section of an article if only that section discusses the disambiguated topic. This also suggests that the topic may eventually have its own article. For example:

    Eon may refer to:

    • (correct) Eon (geology), a division of the geologic time scale
      [[Eon (geology)]], a division of the geologic time scalecheckY
    • (incorrect) Eon, a division of the geologic time scale
      [[Geologic time scale#Terminology|Eon]], a division of the geologic time scale ☒N
    • (incorrect) Eon, a division of the geologic time scale
      Eon, a [[Geologic time scale#Divisions of geologic time|division of the geologic time scale]] ☒N

    The above technique is used when the link is the subject of the line. For description sections, redirects or piped links may be used; follow the normal Wikipedia:Redirect and Wikipedia:Piped link guidelines.

  • Linking to a redirect can also be helpful when both:
    1. the redirect target article contains the disambiguated term; and
    2. the redirect could serve as an alternative name for the target article, meaning an alternative term that is already in the article's lead section. For example:

    James Cary may refer to:

    • (correct) James Carrey or Jim Carrey (born 1962), Canadian actor
      [[James Carrey]] or Jim Carrey (born 1962), Canadian actor checkY
    • (incorrect) James Carrey or Jim Carrey (born 1962), Canadian actor
      James Carrey or [[Jim Carrey]] (born 1962), Canadian actor ☒N

    The above example of a redirect is only appropriate because James Carrey is indicated as an alternative name in the lead section of the Jim Carrey article. If it were not, then the second example could have been used instead.

Where piping may be appropriate

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Section and anchor point linking
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"MOS:DABSECTION" redirects here. For guidance on how and when to create disambiguation page sections, see MOS:DABGROUPING.

Section and anchor points in links should not be visible to the reader (e.g., [[Galactic quadrant (Star Trek)#Delta Quadrant]]). If an anchor-point link is needed:

  • For linking the subject, link to a redirect to the anchor point (or leave the subject unlinked and move the link to the description).
  • For links in the description, link to a redirect or use an anchor-point link with piping to display text similar to the article title.

When creating a redirect to a section, add the template {{R to section}} on the redirect page within the {{Redirect category shell}}. When a redirect to an anchor is created, make sure the {{anchor}} template is placed at the targeted topic in the article, and tag the redirect with {{R to anchor}}.

Specific entry types

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External links should not be used on disambiguation pages.

Non-English languages

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For non-English language terms, be sure an article exists or could be written for the word or phrase in question. Usually this means that the term has been at least partially adopted into English or is used by specialists.

Tambo may refer to:

Avoid adding non-English words or phrases that are merely translations of an English term. For example, do not include:

  • Tambo (田んぼ), a Japanese word for rice paddy ☒N

Instead, consider linking to Wiktionary.

People

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For people, include their birth and death years (when known), and only enough descriptive information that the reader can distinguish between different people with the same name. Keep in mind the conventions for birth and death dates—see Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers § Dates of birth and death. Do not include a, an or the before the description of the person's occupation or role.

John Adams (1735–1826) was the second President of the United States (1797–1801).

John Adams may also refer to:

Title-and-name disambiguation pages
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It is common practice for sources to refer to holders of certain offices or stations by their title and surname. These references frequently make their way into articles, complete with links. Having disambiguation pages at these titles makes it easier for readers to find particular individuals who might be known by this combination, while also helping to eliminate incorrect links. These pages provide better results than Wikipedia's search function, which will sometimes return every article containing the title and the surname, even where the words have no relation to one another in the article. Jumbled results from the search function bury those most relevant to a search for people who might actually be called by that title and name. This is exacerbated by Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography#Titles of people, which generally prohibits referring to article subjects by their title in running text. These pages also provide a better result than merely redirecting the combination to a surname page, as the surname page will likely include many names of persons not associated with the title.

A title-and-name disambiguation page should only be created if there are multiple individuals who can be included on the page. Furthermore, an individual should only be included on a page if the subject was notably known by that title and name, and this is reflected in reliable sources. For example, there is no redirect from Lieutenant Kennedy to John F. Kennedy, even though Kennedy at one point in his military service held this rank. Although many notable people with the surname Kennedy may have at some point held the rank of lieutenant, none of them were notable for having held the rank, and it is therefore inappropriate to have a disambiguation page at that title. By contrast, William Howard Taft can be listed at both Governor Taft and Justice Taft (and can be the redirect target of President Taft) as he would have been notable even if any one of those was the only office he had held.

Having a title in some capacity is also not, by itself, sufficient to merit inclusion on the page. There must be a reasonable propensity for the subject to be referred to by the title and name in combination. Thus, people who are merely a sports team captain should not be listed with people titled "Captain", and people who are merely the president of a company should not be listed with people titled "President". In some cases, people have given names that in other contexts are a title (such as actor Justice Smith, politician Major Owens, and musician Earl Hines). Where this is the case, the person with such a name will often be considered the primary topic over any person with a corresponding title and name.

Places

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For places, it may only be necessary to write the name of the article.

Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida.

Jacksonville may also refer to:

It may be appropriate to add the country after the link. Leave the country unlinked.

Kimberley may refer to:

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A link to a non-existent article (a "red link") should be included on a disambiguation page only when a linked article (not just other disambiguation pages) also includes that red link. Do not create red links to articles that are unlikely ever to be written, or are likely to be removed as insufficiently notable topics. To find out if any article uses the red link, follow the link (from an edit preview, a Wikipedia search, or typing it into the Wikipedia URL), and then use the "What links here" link in the toolbox.

If the only pages that use the red link are disambiguation pages, do one of the following:

  • Unlink the entry word but still keep a blue link in the description. Red links should not be the only link in a given entry; link also to an existing article, so that a reader (as opposed to a contributing editor) will have somewhere to navigate to for additional information. The linked article should contain some meaningful information about the term.
  • Start a new article for the red link, according to Wikipedia:Article creation practices. Using the description on the disambiguation page as the lead sentence can be a start. Usually there should be a source in an existing article that mentions the topic which can be used.
  • Make a redirect to a page where the item is described (see § Piping and redirects above).
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In the following (made-up) examples, if the entry with the architectural motif is judged to be appropriate for a future article, and assuming that the fictitious "flibbygibby" is mentioned in its respectively linked article, it is considered a valid entry. If "flibbygibby" is not mentioned in the noodle article, or there is no linked article at all, as in the toy example, it is not a valid entry; therefore, only the entry for the architectural motif can include a red link.

Flibbygibby may refer to:

  • (correct) Flibbygibby (architecture), a flamingo motif used on cornices checkY ​—​ Note: This is just a made up example in which the word Flibbygibby is pretended to be mentioned in the article "cornice".
  • (incorrect) Flibbygibby, a type of noodle ☒N ​—​ The word "Flibbygibby" is not mentioned in the linked article, "noodle".
  • (incorrect) Flibbygibby, a type of toy ☒N ​—​ Entry does not contain a valid link to an encyclopedic article mentioning the term.
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If the article to be disambiguated does not have an article on the English Wikipedia, but has an article on a sister project in another language, the term may be linked to the sister project using the {{interlanguage link}} template.[a]

Árbol, Villalba [es; gl], a parish in Vilalba, Spain

Use of the {{interlanguage link}} template is not a substitute for the need to have a red link from an existing article for the disambiguating term (per MOS:DABRED), as well as a blue link to an existing article within the entry (per MOS:DABBLUE). Links should only be made to encyclopedia sister project, not to non-encyclopedia sister projects such as Wikidata or Wikivoyage.

Synonyms

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If the link is to a synonym (where the disambiguated title is mentioned as a synonym), simply use it as it is named:

Serving spoon may also refer to:

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If a topic is not mentioned in the other article, that article should not be linked to in the disambiguation page, since linking to it would not help readers find information about the sought topic.

If the topic does not have an article of its own, but is discussed within another article, then a link to that article may be included if it would provide value to the reader. In this case, the link may not start the line (unless it has a redirect that is devoted to it), but it should still be the only blue wikilink. For example:

Maggie Anderson may also refer to:

  • Maggie Anderson, a character in the musical play Brigadoon

It is often useful to link to the relevant section of the target page using anchors and conceal that by making it a piped link. For examples, see § Where piping may be appropriate, above.

Acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviations

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See also: WP:DABABBREV

Many pages serve primarily to disambiguate short letter combinations that can represent various acronyms and initialisms. When considering articles to include in the list, it is important that each individual entry is referred to by its respective abbreviation within its article. For example:

TLA may refer to:

The second entry is incorrect because the article that it refers to, Acronym, does not mention that "Two-letter acronym" is abbreviated "TLA", and therefore is unlikely to be searched for by that letter combination. The Three-letter acronym page, however, notes that the topic is abbreviated "TLA", and would thus be a likely candidate for someone searching that initialism. If an abbreviation is verifiable, but not mentioned in the target article, consider adding it to the target article. Similar to MOS:DABNOENTRY, if there is disagreement about whether this applies, it is often best to assume that it does.

Organization

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Ordering

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The following guidelines describe the appropriate order of entries on disambiguation pages:

  1. The primary topic, if there is one, should be placed at the top, above the introductory line, in a complete sentence.
  2. In cases where a small number of main topics (or just one) are significantly more likely to be the reader's target, the most common meanings may be placed above other entries, with their own introductory line or heading. See Mojave, Mercury, or Twister for examples of this.
  3. Long disambiguation pages should be grouped into subject sections, and even subsections as necessary, as described below. These sections (and any subsections) should typically be in alphabetical order.
  4. Within each section, entries should be ordered to best assist the reader in finding their intended article. This might mean in decreasing order of likelihood as the user's target, alphabetically, chronologically, or geographically, not to the exclusion of other methods. In some cases it is useful to order entries by similarity to the ambiguous title, as follows:
    1. Articles with a clarifier in parentheses: e.g., Moss (band)
    2. Articles with a clarifier following a comma: e.g., Moss, Monterey County, California
    3. Articles with the item as part of the name: e.g., Moss Bros (Only include articles whose subject might reasonably be called by the ambiguous title.)
    4. Synonyms: e.g., Tupolev Tu-126 (NATO reporting name: Moss)

See also section

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Some entries may belong in a See also section at the bottom of the page:

As with any See also section, the ordering should be logical.

The See also should always be separated from the other entries with a section header. Links to other disambiguation pages should use the "(disambiguation)" link per WP:INTDABLINK.

In the See also section of a disambiguation page, an intentional link to another disambiguation page that does not contain "(disambiguation)" in the title should be written as [[Foo (disambiguation)]] (then ensure that a redirect to [[Foo]] exists at that location).

When appropriate, place easily confused terms or commonly confused alternate spellings in a hatnote instead of a See also section. For example, Sydney (disambiguation) has a hatnote linking to Sidney (disambiguation).

Example ordering

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Moss is a small, soft, non-vascular plant that lacks both flowers and seeds.

Moss may also refer to:

See also

Grouping by subject area

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Main page: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Organizing disambiguation pages by subject area

A large number of entries can make it difficult for a reader to find a particular topic. On longer disambiguation pages, separate entries by subject sections. Subject areas should be chosen carefully to simplify navigation; see Organizing disambiguation pages by subject area for detailed guidance. Use subject areas that are well-defined, and that group the entries into similarly sized sections. Very small sections may impede navigation, and should usually be avoided. Section headings should be as simple as possible; Sports is preferred to Sports people or Sports figures, since the nature of the category (people, in this case) should be obvious.

Entries that do not fit neatly into any section should be placed in an "Other uses" section or subsection, at the bottom of the page or section (but above any "See also" section). The "Other uses" section should be relatively short; if it becomes excessively long, the page may need to be reorganized. Uncategorized entries should never be left at the top of the page or section, with the exception of one or two primary topics at the top of the page as stated above.

Keep in mind that a particular division scheme may not work equally well on all disambiguation pages. An example:

Thingamajig may refer to:

Science
World music

Use sections rather than bold text (see WP:PSEUDOHEAD). Using more than one level may be necessary, as on Aurora (disambiguation). Always use ==Level two== as the highest-level header. Section headings should not include links.

On longer lists, {{TOC right}} may be used to move the table of contents to the right-hand side of the page. This reduces the amount of white space and may improve the readability of the page. (For more information, see Help:Section § Floating the TOC.) If used, {{TOC right}} should be placed after the lead section of the wiki markup and immediately before the first section heading. Users of screen readers do not expect any text between the TOC and the first heading, and having no text above the TOC is confusing. (For more information, see Wikipedia:Accessibility § Article structure.)

Images and templates

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Including images and transcluding templates are discouraged unless they aid in selecting between articles on the particular search term in question. Examples of this are the images at Congo (disambiguation) and Mississippi Delta (disambiguation).

Icons, including flag icons, should not be used on disambiguation pages. Only if flag topics are being disambiguated and images are needed to do so, then flag icons or flag images might be added. See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Icons.

The disambiguation notice and categorization

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See also: Wikipedia:Disambiguation § Categories
See also: Wikipedia:Template messages/General § On disambiguation pages

After all of the disambiguation content (including the See also section, if present), but before any categories (see below) or interlanguage links, a template should be placed identifying the page as a disambiguation page. This generates a message to the reader explaining the purpose of the page, and also places the page in the appropriate category or categories.

The usual template to use is {{disambiguation}}, which produces a general disambiguation notice, and places the page in Category:Disambiguation pages. Parameters can be added to place the page additionally into other more specific disambiguation categories. For example, if a page includes multiple places and multiple people with the same surname (and possibly other items), use {{disambiguation|geo|surname}}. A full list of available parameters and their corresponding categories can be found in the {{disambiguation}} template documentation.

If a disambiguation page consists exclusively of items in one of the more specific classes, then a specific template should be used instead of {{disambiguation}}. For example, use {{place name disambiguation}} for locations, {{human name disambiguation}} for human names and so on. A full list can be found in the {{disambiguation}} template documentation.

If a disambiguation page needs cleaning up to bring it into conformance with this style manual, use {{disambiguation cleanup}}. This replaces both {{disambiguation}} and {{cleanup}}.

Do not use {{subst:disambiguation}} or {{subst:disambiguation cleanup}}, as the contents of this notice may change in the future (see Wikipedia:Transclusion costs and benefits). Also, the Wikipedia software relies on links to the templates to determine which pages are disambiguation pages, and subst'ing breaks this feature.

Most disambiguation pages do not need to be placed into any categories other than those generated by the template. If such cases do arise (for example, specific categories of personal names that do not have corresponding template parameters), then the additional categories should be placed after the template.

If new topical categories of disambiguation pages seem to be needed, please bring this up for discussion at Wikipedia talk:Disambiguation.

Exceptions

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Set index articles

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Shortcut

Set index articles are list articles about a set of items of a specific type that have similar or identical names. Set index articles are not disambiguation pages and do not have to follow the style outlined on this page. Note that the set index article exception was designed to be narrow: for pages that contain links to articles about different topics, please follow this style guide for disambiguation pages. An example of a set index article is a list of ships with the same name, such as HMS Albatross. For more information about such ship lists, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Ships/Guidelines § Index pages.

Disambiguation pages with only two entries

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Further information: Wikipedia:Disambiguation § Disambiguation page or hatnotes?

A disambiguation page with only two meanings is not necessary if one of them is the primary topic for that term. The recommended practice in these situations is to place a hatnote on the primary topic article to link directly to the secondary topic. The {{for}} and {{redirect}} templates are useful. A two-entry disambiguation page with a primary topic can be tagged with {{only-two-dabs}}.

If neither of the two meanings is primary, then a normal disambiguation page is still used at the base name.

When to ignore the guidelines

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See also: Wikipedia:Ignore all rules

Application of these guidelines will generally produce useful disambiguation pages that are consistent with each other and therefore easily usable by most readers. Usefulness to the readers is their principal goal. However, for every style recommendation above, there may be pages in which a good reason exists to use another way; so ignore these guidelines if doing so will be more helpful to readers than following them.

See also

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WikiProjects

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Relevant categories

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Also see the categories located, as usual, at the bottom of this page.

Essays

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Notes

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  1. ^ The {{interlanguage link}} template is one of several methods for linking to sister projects. It is the preferred method, because a bot exists that removes the tempate once the article is created on the English Wikipedia.
  2. ^ Note the {{self-reference tool}} is able to strip out the "(disambiguation)" part of the page name, so a Title argument is unnecessary and unsupported.
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