Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Disambiguation pages

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.

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 on the Wikipedia:Disambiguation project page. 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.

Page naming

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

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

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

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.Y

instead of the more awkward:

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

Introductory line

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

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:

• Interval (mathematics), a certain subset of an ordered set
• Interval (music), the relationship between two notes
• ...

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.
• 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).
• 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:
  • "Dark Star" (song), by the Grateful Dead Y

  but not:

  • "Dark Star" (song), by the psychedelic rock band The Grateful Dead N
• Avoid descriptions that simply repeat information given in the link, e.g.:
  • "Dark Star" (song), a song N

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

  • "Dark Star" (song), a song by the Grateful Dead Y
• 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 foreign 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:

• 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

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 which 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

"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., Elvis, Shakespeare).

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

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.

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

Moss may also refer to:

• Moss (band), a UK extreme doom metal band
• Moss (surname)
• Moss, Monterey County, California
• Moss FK, a Norwegian football club
• Moss, a Korean webtoon by Yoon Tae-ho

See also

• MOSS (disambiguation)
• Spanish moss, a flowering bromeliad plant that grows hanging from tree branches

Grouping by subject area

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

• Thingamajig (biology), an invasive plant used as ground cover
• Thingamajig (chemistry), an isotope of chlorine
• Thingamajig (physics), a kind of pulsar

World music

• Thingamajig (Peru), a wind instrument similar to an aulos
• Thingamajig (Qatar), a seven-stringed musical instrument
• Thingamajig (UK), a wind instrument, similar to, but longer than the Peruvian one

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

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

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

Set index articles

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

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

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

• Wikipedia:Broad-concept article
• Wikipedia:Disambiguation dos and don'ts (information page summarizing key points of this guideline)
• Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links
• Wikipedia:Database reports § Disambiguations
• Wikipedia:Red links § Disambiguation pages
• Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and navigation templates
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Organizing disambiguation pages by subject area
• Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Building a stronger encyclopedia/Getting readers to the right article: Naming, redirects, and disambiguation

WikiProjects

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Disambiguation
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Disambiguations

Relevant categories

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

• Category:Disambiguation and redirection templates
• Category:Disambiguation pages in need of cleanup

Essays

• Wikipedia:Partially disambiguated page names
• Wikipedia:Primary topics in WP:TWODABS situations