Like its sister project Wikipedia Wiktionary is run by the Wikimedia Foundation. Because Wiktionary is not limited by print space considerations most of Wiktionary's language editions provide definitions and translations of words from many languages and some editions offer additional information typically found in thesauri and lexicons. Additionally the English Wiktionary includes Wikisaurus a category that serves as a thesaurus including lists of slang words and the Simple English Wiktionary compiled using the Basic English subset of the English language.

The goal of Wiktionary is to eventually define all words in all languages.2 Contents 1 History and development 2 Accuracy 3 Critical reception 4 See also 5 References 6 External links History and development

Wiktionary was brought online on December 12 20023 following a proposal by Daniel Alston and an idea by Larry Sanger previous co-founder of Wikipedia.4 On March 28 2004 the first non-English Wiktionaries were initiated in French and Polish. Wiktionaries in numerous other languages have since been started. Wiktionary was hosted on a temporary URL (wiktionary.wikipedia.org) until May 1 2004 when it switched to the current full URL.5 As of May 2009ref Wiktionary features well over 5 million entries across its 272 language editions. The largest of the language editions is the English Wiktionary with over 2.2 million entries. The French Wiktionary is the second largest with over 1.9 million entries. Nineteen Wiktionary language editions now contain over 100000 entries each.6 The use of bots to generate large numbers of articles is visible as "growth spurts" in this graph of article counts at the largest eight Wiktionary editions. (Data as of December 2009update)

Most of the entries and many of the definitions at the project's largest language editions were created by bots that found creative ways to generate entries or (rarely) automatically imported thousands of entries from previously published dictionaries. Seven of the 18 bots registered at the English Wiktionary7 created 163000 of the entries there.8 Only 259 entries remain (each containing many definitions) on Wiktionary from the original import by Websterbot from public domain sources; the majority of those imports have been split out to thousands of proper entries manually. Another one of these bots "ThirdPersBot" was responsible for the addition of a number of third-person conjugations that would not receive their own entries in standard dictionaries; for instance it defined "smoulders" as the "third-person singular simple present form of smoulder." Excluding these 163000 entries the English Wiktionary would have about 137000 entries including terms unique to languages other than English making it smaller than most monolingual print dictionaries. The Oxford English Dictionary for instance has 615000 headwords while Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged has 475000 entries (with many additional embedded headwords). It should be noted though that more detailed statistics now exist to distinguish more clearly the main entries from sub-entries.

The English Wiktionary however does not rely on bots to the extent that newer editions do. The French and Vietnamese Wiktionaries for example imported large sections of the Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project (FVDP) which provides free content bilingual dictionaries to and from Vietnamese.9 These imported entries make up virtually all of the Vietnamese edition's offering. Like the English edition the French Wiktionary has imported the approximately 20000 entries in the Unihan database of Chinese Japanese and Korean characters. The French Wiktionary grew rapidly in 2006 thanks in large part to bots copying many entries from old freely licensed dictionaries such as the eighth edition of the Dictionnaire de l'Acadmie franaise (1935 around 35000 words) and using bots to add words from other Wiktionary editions with French translations. The Russian edition grew by nearly 80000 entries as "LXbot" added boilerplate entries (with headings but without definitions) for words in English and German.10

Most of Wiktionary currently uses a textual logo designed by Brion Vibber a MediaWiki developer.11 Despite frequent discussion of modifying or replacing the logo a four-phase contest held at the Wikimedia Meta-Wiki from September to October 200612 did not see as much participation from the Wiktionary community as some community members had hoped. The logo that won was designed by "Smurrayinchester". As of December 2009 23 of the Wiktionary editions containing about half of Wiktionary's entries have switched to the contest-chosen logo or variations of it.13 The remaining editions use either their language-specific version of the textual logo or in the case of the Galician Wiktionary a logo that depicts a dictionary bearing the Galician coat of arms. In April 2009 the issue was resurrected and a poll to decide on a new project-wide logo is underway.14 Accuracy

To ensure accuracy Wiktionary has a policy2 stating that entries should be attested that is verified through either: Clearly widespread use Usage in a well-known work or Usage in permanently recorded media conveying meaning in at least three independent instances spanning at least a year. Critical reception

Critical reception of Wiktionary has been mixed. Jill Lepore wrote in the article "Noahs Ark" for The New Yorker (November 6 2006)15 Theres no show of hands at Wiktionary. Theres not even an editorial staff. "Be your own lexicographer!" might be Wiktionarys motto. Who needs experts Why pay good money for a dictionary written by lexicographers when we can cobble one together ourselves Wiktionary isnt so much republican or democratic as Maoist. And its only as good as the copyright-expired books from which it pilfers. If you look up the word "Webster" in the Wiktionary you will be redirected to this handy tip: Noah Websters New International Dictionary of the English Language 1911 (published by Merriam-Webster Springfield MA) is a public domain dictionary as is a 1913 edition that can be used to empower Wiktionary with more definitions. But hey at least they got his first name right. Keir Graffs review for Booklist was less critical: Is there a place for Wiktionary Undoubtedly. The industry and enthusiasm of its many creators are proof that theres a market. And its wonderful to have another strong source to use when searching the odd terms that pop up in todays fast-changing world and the online environment. But as with so many Web sources (including this column) its best used by sophisticated users in conjunction with more reputable sources.citation needed References in other publications are fleeting and part of larger discussions of Wikipedia not progressing beyond a definition although David Brooks in The Nashua Telegraph described it as wild and woolly.16 (Wooly is defined as "confused" and "unrestrained."17) One of the impediments to independent coverage of Wiktionary is the continuing confusion that it is merely an extension of Wikipedia.18 In 2005 PC Magazine rated Wiktionary as one of the Internet's "Top 101 Web Sites"19 although little information was given about the site. See also Wiktionary API References "Alexa rank". Alexa.com. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2011-06-04.  a b "Wiktionary:Criteria for inclusion Wiktionary". En.wiktionary.org. 2011-02-06. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Criteriaforinclusion. Retrieved 2011-02-13.  Wikipedia mailing list archive discussion announcing the opening of the Wiktionary project Retrieved May 3 2011 Wikipedia mailing list archive discussion from Larry Sanger giving the idea on Wiktionary Retrieved May 3 2011 Wiktionary's current URL is www.wiktionary.org. Wiktionary total article counts are here. Detailed statistics by word type are available here 1. The user list at the English Wiktionary identifies accounts that have been given "bot status". TheDaveBot TheCheatBot Websterbot PastBot NanshuBot H Ngc c Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project. Details at the Vietnamese Wiktionary. LXbot "Wiktionary talk:Wiktionary Logo" English Wiktionary Wikimedia Foundation. "Wiktionary/logo" Meta-Wiki Wikimedia Foundation. "Wiktionary/logo" Wikimedia Meta-Wiki Wikimedia Foundation. "Wiktionary/logo/refresh/voting" Meta-Wiki Wikimedia Foundation. The full article is not available on-line. Jill Lepore (November 6 2006). "Noah's Ark" (Abstract). The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/06/061106fafactlepore. Retrieved April 21 2007.  David Brooks "Online interactive encyclopedia not just for geeks anymore because everyone seems to need it now more than ever!" The Nashua Telegraph (August 4 2004) "wooly". Wiktionary. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wooly.  In this citation the author refers to Wiktionary as part of the Wikipedia site: Adapted from an article by Naomi DeTullio (2006 (1st Quarter)). "Wikis for Librarians" (PDF newsletter). NETLS News #142 (Northeast Texas Library System): p. 15. Archived from the original on 2007-06-05. http://web.archive.org/web/20070605203652/http://www.netls.org/NewContent/NewsAndPictures/NEWSLETTERS/NEWS2006/142final.pdf. Retrieved April 21 2007.  "Wiktionary". Top 101 Web Sites. PC Magazine. April 6 2005. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/01895178620700.asp. Retrieved December 16 2005.  External links English edition of Wiktionary the free dictionary/thesaurus Simple English edition of Wiktionary the free dictionary/thesaurus List of all Wiktionary editions Wiktionary front page English Wiktionary Wiktionary's Multilingual Statistics Wikimedia's page on Wiktionary (including list of all existing Wiktionaries) Pages about Wiktionary in Meta. Meta:Main Page  OmegaWiki v d eProjects of the Wikimedia Foundation Wikibooks  Wikimedia Commons  Wikinews  Wikipedia  Wikiquote  Wikisource  Wikispecies  Wikiversity  Wiktionary v d eWiki websites Wikipedia  Wikia  TV Tropes  WikiLeaks  Encyclopedia Dramatica  Wiktionary  Uncyclopedia  Wikispecies  Wikisource  Wookieepedia  Memory Alpha  Jurispedia  Conservapedia  Metapedia  Pilkipedia  Stupidedia  SourceWatch  Lostpedia  LyricWiki  wikiHow  Citizendium  WoWWiki  Wikibooks  Wikinews  Wikitravel  Appropedia  Heroes Wiki  Congresspedia