Translating:MediaWiki/Basic glossary

This page is a list of the most common and basic technical terms that are necessary for using the MediaWiki software.

The list is designed to be conveniently translatable to all the languages in which people can use MediaWiki. It is not supposed to be an exhaustive glossary of all MediaWiki terms, but only of those that are the most necessary for all languages, and in particular, for starting up the adaptation of MediaWiki to a new language by translating the Most important messages (also known as "Most used").

More information about this glossary
Tips for translators
Tips for maintainers

This list should be translated to all languages, including those in which MediaWiki already has a well-established terminology.

It includes both terms that have particular meaning in MediaWiki, such as "category" and "template", and general computer terms, such as "file" and "upload". See the "More information about this glossary" page for an explanation about that.

Bold text is used for emphasizing information about words that are often translated incorrectly.

Next to many terms, there are icons. Clicking these icons may provide more information:

	A link to the relevant encyclopedic article in the English Wikipedia that describes the thing in question. Check the interlanguage links of this article to find articles in other languages you may know.
	A link to the relevant page in the English Wiktionary. Make sure to read the definitions carefully and pick the one that is closest to the meaning you need. Many words in the English Wiktionary have translations to other languages. To see them, scroll down, find the "Translations" list, find the translations list with the sense that interests you, and find your language. If your language is not listed, consider adding a translation to Wiktionary.
	A link to the relevant technical documentation page on the mediawiki.org website.

The glossary is sorted alphabetically by the English term.

A

account: A user account; a stored record of information about a user of a wiki, identified by a username.
administrator: A user that has more permissions than a regular user. Most often, this includes the permissions to block and unblock users, to edit protected pages, and to delete, undelete, protect, and unprotect pages. Also known in English as "admin" or "sysop".
anonymous: A user who didn't log in. Such a user is identified by an IP address in history, recent changes, logs, etc.
attribution: The process of giving credit.

B

beta: Short for "beta feature".
beta feature: A new function that is enabled on a wiki site for testing by users.
block: Verb: Disable a user's ability to edit. Noun: An instance of blocking. Administrators of wiki sites block users if they publish spam or nonsense or disrupt the wiki in other ways.
bot: Short for "robot". A computer program that makes fast automatic edits to wiki pages.
browser: Short for "web browser". A computer application that lets people read websites. Common web browsers are Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Samsung Internet, Opera, and Tor Browser.

C

cache: A family of computer technologies that store data in a location that allows faster access. It usually improves performance, but sometimes it may cause outdated information to be shown to users. "Cleaning" or "purging" the cache forces new data to be shown, but may also cause a temporary performance slowdown.
cancel: Verb: Stop an operation without saving the work that was done until now. This most often appears on buttons.
caption: A short text that explains an image, especially a thumbnail.
CAPTCHA: A test that checks whether a user is a human or a bot, for example, by requiring the user to type deformed characters when creating an account or adding an external link. This is a technical term, and it doesn't have to be translated.
case-insensitive: The opposite of case-sensitive: Not distinguishing uppercase and lowercase letters; treating "Cat" and "cat" as functionally the same string.
case-sensitive: Distinguishing uppercase and lowercase letters; treating "Cat" and "cat" as different strings.
category: A group of related wiki pages. For example, the articles "Dog", "Mouse", and "Horse" can all belong to the category "Animals". This word is also used as the namespace prefix for category pages.
category page: A wiki page in the Category namespace. A part of its content is generated automatically by creating a list of pages that are tagged as belonging to this category. It can also have more text that explains the category. A category page can itself belong to other categories, in which case it's called a subcategory of these categories.
category talk: Short for "category talk page". Used as the namespace prefix for category talk pages.
category talk page: A talk page associated with a category page.
change: When talking about wiki pages, same as edit.
character: A letter (a, b, c, ا, ب, ت, э, ю, я, क, च, ट, ⼈, ⼉, ⼊), a digit (1, 2, 3), a punctuation mark (., !, ?), an operator (+, -), etc.
client: A computer program that retrieves information from a server.
Commons: Short for "Wikimedia Commons". Not to be confused with Creative Commons.
content: Everything that is shown on wiki pages and that users can edit: text, images, templates, etc.
contents: Short for "table of contents".
content page: A wiki page in the main namespace of a wiki.
contribution: Any action that a user does to change the content of a wiki: editing, rollbacking, translating, uploading files, etc. Different from donation.
cookie: A small piece of information sent by a server to the browser and then returned by the browser each time it accesses that server. It is mostly used to identify the users and store information about them. Users usually don't deal with them directly, but they are mentioned in the interface because they may have privacy implications.
Creative Commons: An international network of organizations that write standardized licenses for free sharing of cultural works (text, images, video, etc.) and help people use these licenses. Most content on Wikimedia wikis is published under Creative Commons licenses.
credit: An explicit acknowledgment of a source of text or media using the name of an author or an organization, a link to a website from which the information was copied, etc.
CSS: A language for designing web pages. Short for "Cascading Style Sheets". This is a technical term, and it doesn't have to be translated.

D

delete: Verb: Remove a page from a wiki, done by an administrator. A deleted page can usually be restored.
desktop: Related to using a wiki in a browser on a desktop or a laptop computer, with a large screen and a physical keyboard. Different from mobile.
developer: A programmer who develops the code that runs a wiki: MediaWiki, templates, modules, gadgets, bots, tools, etc.
diff: A comparison between two versions of a wiki page.
discussion: Largely the same thing as talk, but this other word can be used in contexts that are more social and less technical.
donation: A gift of money or something else to the person or the organization that manages a wiki site. Different from contribution.
download: Verb: Copy a file from a website to a local device. The opposite of upload.

E

edit: Verb: Change the content of a wiki page. Noun: Any action of editing a wiki page.
editor (user): A user who edits a wiki page.
editor (program): A feature of MediaWiki or another program that allows editing wiki pages. For example: Visual editor, 2010 wikitext editor, 2017 wikitext editor, Android app editor, etc.
edit summary: A brief description of the changes the user has made in an edit.
export: Verb: Download the content of one or more wiki pages as a file that can be imported to another wiki.
external link: A link to a page on another website.

F

file: A piece of information stored on a computer storage device and identified by a name. In MediaWiki, files are usually images (JPG, PNG, SVG), audio clips (OGG), videos (WEBM), and documents (PDF, DjVu). This word is also used as the namespace prefix for file pages: If the filename is "Taj Mahal.jpg", the file page name is "File:Taj Mahal.jpg".
filename: The name of a file. Begins with a description of the file's content and ends with an extension (suffix) that identifies the file type. For example, ".jpg" is an extension for photograph files, and "Taj Mahal.jpg" is a good name for a file that includes a photograph of the Taj Mahal.
file page: A wiki page that displays a file and information about it: on which wiki pages this file is used, who uploaded it, the file's license, and so on.
file talk: A talk page associated with a file page. If the filename is "Taj Mahal.jpg", the file talk page's title is "File talk:Taj Mahal.jpg".
free: This doesn't mean "costing zero dollars". This refers to the freedom that the users have to read, copy, modify, and distribute the content of a wiki. It's a synonym of "liberated", "unconstrained", etc. See also Definition of Free Cultural Works.
free license: A license that allows free use text or media. Note that the word for "free" here must be the same as in the term free.
fuzzy: See outdated.

G

gadget: Gadgets are pieces of JavaScript code that editors can write on a wiki site to enhance the site's functionality. The gadgets' code is stored on wiki pages. This word is also used as the namespace prefix for gadget pages.
gadget page: A wiki page in the Gadget namespace. It stores the source code for a gadget.
gadget talk: Short for "gadget talk page". This word is also used as the namespace prefix for gadget talk pages.
gadget talk page: A talk page associated with a gadget page.
gender: When this word appears as {{GENDER:, it must not be translated. MediaWiki supports writing messages differently for users who defined that they should be described as "he", or "she", or didn't explicitly define it. See the page Gender.
global: Pertaining to all the wikis in a wiki family. For example, a usual block on the Spanish Wikipedia disallows the user to edit pages only on the Spanish Wikipedia, but a global block disallows editing all the wikis: Wikipedia in all languages, Wikivoyage in all languages, etc.

H

help: Technical documentation for using the wiki. This word is also used as the namespace prefix for help pages.
help page: A wiki page in the Help namespace.
help talk: Short for "help talk page". Used as the namespace prefix for help talk pages.
help talk page: A talk page associated with a help page.
history: Short for "page history" or "version history". A list of versions of a wiki page, showing the time, the user, the edit summary, and other information about each revision.
home: Short for "home page".
home page: Same as main page, especially on the mobile site.

I

ID: Short for "identifier". A number or a string that refers to something: a users, a page, a version, etc.
import: Verb: Add pages to a wiki from a file that was exported from another wiki, or directly from another wiki in the wiki family.
interlanguage link: A link to a page about the same topic in a wiki in another language.
internal link: A link to another page on the same wiki.
interwiki link: A link to a page on another wiki using specific syntax.
invalid: Technically unacceptable. For example, a page title is invalid if it includes the character {, which is forbidden in titles.
invoke: Verb: Call a module, run it, and insert the result of the call into a wiki page. A similar operation with templates is called transclusion.
IP address: A number that identifies a computer in a network. In MediaWiki, IP addresses are used to attribute edits and other actions to anonymous users.
item: On Wikidata, an entity that represents a thing in the world. It is identified by the letter Q followed by a unique number, and it may have labels in any language. Wikidata items have many uses, but their simplest and most common use is to connect Wikipedia articles in different languages in a way that allows the display of interlanguage links. See the Wikidata Glossary.

J

JavaScript: A programming language. In MediaWiki, it's used for gadgets and parts of MediaWiki itself.
JSON: A data file format. This is a technical term, and it doesn't have to be translated.

L

label: A name of a Wikidata item in a human language. See the Wikidata Glossary.
legend: A list of symbols, colors, or abbreviations that are used in a chart, table, etc.
link: A piece of text or an image that the user can click to go to another web page.
license: A legal document that specifies the terms of use for a text, an image, or a video, especially with regard to copyright law.
log: An automatically generated list of actions of a certain type, showing when and by which user they were performed, as well as other details, according to the type of action. Examples of logged actions are account creation, page deletion, and user blocking.
log in: Verb: Identify oneself to the wiki site as the owner of an account. A user who has logged in is not anonymous, and that user's edits and actions are attributed to the username in the page history and in the logs.
log out: Verb: Disconnect from the account and become anonymous.

M

main: When discussing namespaces: The namespace of a wiki, in which the content pages of a wiki are stored. Opposed to other namespaces, such as Talk, User, Category, Template, etc. Titles of pages in the main namespace don't have a prefix.
main page: A wiki page that is the first page shown to the visitors of a wiki site. May be called "home page" or "front page" in other publications.
media: This doesn't mean "journalism" or "mass communication". This is short for "multimedia". It is also used as a virtual namespace prefix for linking to files.
MediaWiki: A software package for running wiki sites. Originally developed for Wikipedia, and also used on many other websites, most of which are not related to Wikipedia. This word is also used as the namespace prefix for pages for local customization of user interface messages.
MediaWiki talk: Short for "MediaWiki talk page". Used as the namespace prefix for MediaWiki talk pages.
MediaWiki talk page: A talk page associated with a page in the MediaWiki namespace.
message: A string that appears in the user interface of a MediaWiki website. Messages can be translated on translatewiki. When needed, they can be customized locally in the MediaWiki namespace, and this will override the translation written on translatewiki.
MIME: A technology for identifying file types on the Internet, for example "application/pdf", "image/png", etc. This is a technical term, and it doesn't have to be translated.
mobile: Related to using a wiki on a mobile device, such as a phone or a tablet, with a small screen and no physical keyboard. Different from desktop.
module: A piece of code that can be invoked from wiki pages and adds some text to these pages. Modules are similar to templates, but templates are written in wikitext and modules are written in the Lua programming language. This word is also used as the namespace prefix for module pages.
module page: A wiki page in the Module namespace. It stores the source code for a module and the module's usage documentation.
module talk: Short for "module talk page". This word is also used as the namespace prefix for module talk pages.
module talk page: A talk page associated with a module page.
move: Verb: Rename a page or a file. Noun: An action of renaming a page or a file.
multimedia: This is a general name for various media files stored in a media repository. For example: image file, audio file, video file, etc. Often shortened to "media".

N

namespace: Every page on a wiki belongs to a namespace. The main content pages of a wiki are said to belong to the main namespace, and their titles have no prefix. Because of this, "main" is often written in parentheses "(main)". Pages in other namespaces have a prefix, such as "Talk:", "User:", "Special:", etc.

O

outdated: In translatewiki, an outdated translated message must be carefully reviewed and, in most cases, fixed by the translator. This condition is also known as "fuzzy". It appears with a yellow "outdated" mark in the translation interface. A message can become outdated for three reasons: 1. The source message was updated after it was translated; 2. It has technical mistakes, for example invalid link syntax; 3. Another translatewiki editor noticed a mistake in it and manually marked it as outdated.

P

page: Any page on a MediaWiki site. Can be an editable wiki page or a special page.
parameter (templates): In templates, modules, and parser functions: values that are sent to the template or the modules to tell it with which data to work.
parameter (translatewiki): When translating MediaWiki messages: pieces of messages that look like $1, $2, $3, and are replaced by something, such as numbers, usernames, or page titles. In translatable pages, the dollar sign can also be followed by words, e.g. $page. In some other projects, parameters can look differently, e.g. %d or %(page).
parser: A component of MediaWiki that reads wikitext and converts it to formatted text that is shown to readers.
parser function: A short wikitext function that can compute a value or make a simple decision based on data. Usually used in the wikitext of templates.
password: A secret string that the user writes to identify while logging in.
permission: Same as right.
pixel: A dot on a computer screen. Used for measuring size and resolution of images.
plural: When this word appears as {{PLURAL:, it must not be translated. MediaWiki supports writing messages according to different numbers. See the page Plural.
preferences: Every user's personal choices about how a wiki site works: how to show the preview, whether links should be underlined, which entries the watchlist shows and hides, etc.
prefix: The first characters of a string. In MediaWiki, prefixes are most often used for namespace names (Category: in "Category:Cities in Japan") and interlanguage links (fr: in fr:Pain au chocolat).
preview: Showing how the page will look before publishing it.
project: In MediaWiki, this is used to describe a wiki and the community of people editing it. For example, the French Wikipedia, the Russian Wikisource, Wikidata, Commons, and translatewiki are projects.
project namespace: "Project" is one of the namespaces on all wikis. Pages in this namespace are used for several purposes, for example project policies, discussions among projects participants, lists of suggested tasks to work on, and so on. When pages in this namespace are displayed, this word is replaced with the project name. For example, in the English Wikipedia, the page "Project:About" is the same as "Wikipedia:About". Both titles can be used as links, but "Wikipedia:About" is displayed to readers.
project talk: A project talk page is a talk page associated with a page in the project namespace. For example, if the project page title is "Wikipedia:About", the project talk page title is "Wikipedia talk:About".
protect: Verb: Allow only some users to edit a page, done by an administrator.
protection: The act of protecting a page.
proxy: An intermediary computer that allows people to connect to the Internet through it.
publish: Verb: Save a wiki page after creating or editing it and make it readable by everyone.

Q

query: A request for information that is sent by a user to a server. For example, a search string or a request for a list of pages that begin with certain letters. The software sending the query is also known as a "client".

R

raw: Adjective: In the most basic representation. For example, the raw watchlist is a list of pages on the watchlist in plain text.
recent changes: A special page at Special:RecentChanges, which shows all the recent edits that were made in a wiki.
redirect: Verb: Automatically transfer the user from one page to another; Create a redirect page. Noun: Short for "redirect page".
redirect page: A page that immediately takes the user to another specified page when the user tries to access it.
remix: Verb: Copy content from somewhere (for example, a website), and modify it.
resolution: The quality of an image, measured in pixel count.
restore: Verb: Bring a page that was deleted back into the wiki.
retrieve: Verb: Fetch information from a server.
revert: Verb: Change the page in a way that restores its content to an earlier revision.
revision: Usually the same as version.
right: A permission to perform an action, such as editing, deleting, or protecting a page, to view certain special pages or logs, to block users, etc.
rollback: Verb: Revert a page in one click. This action is usually available only to some users, for example administrators.

S

save: Verb: Store information persistently, but not necessarily make it public. Saving something in a way that is readable to others is called publishing, and these words should be different. For example, a user's preferences are saved, but not published.
search: Verb: Look for information, usually by writing one or more words in the wiki's internal search engine. Noun: the action of searching, and its results (what was found).
section: A part of a wiki page that begins with a heading, and may include one or more paragraphs, and possibly sub-sections.
semi-protected: Protected less strictly than the usual protection. Most often, fully protected pages can be edited only by administrators, and semi-protected pages can be edited by users who created their account a specific number of days ago or made a specific number of edits, but the actual configuration may be different on different wikis.
server: A computer that is connected to a network and that stores information that can be retrieved by users. The software users use to connect to a server is called a "client".
SITENAME: When this word appears as {{SITENAME}}, it must not be translated. This is automatically replaced with the name of the website. For example, on Wikipedia, "About {{SITENAME}}" is shown as "About Wikipedia".
source (content): When discussing the content of wikis: The source of information on a wiki page or of a file. For example, a book or another website.
source (wikitext): In MediaWiki user interface: The representation of a wiki page in wikitext, especially as opposed to the page as it shown to readers, or for visual editing.
special: Adjective: Used as the namespace prefix for special pages.
special page: A page on a wiki that cannot be edited by users. Special pages provide various services, such as display of information about the wiki, Recent Changes, Watchlist, Statistics, and special administration and editing interfaces such as blocking, managing user rights, translation, etc. They are called "Special" because they are different from usual wiki pages. It's translated as "service (page)" in some languages.
string: A sequence of characters of any length. It is usually a word or a sentence, but in some cases it may be one character long or even empty (zero length).
strong: When it appears as <strong> or </strong>, it must not be translated. This is HTML code that makes the text bold.
subcategory: A category within another category. For example, "Cities in Paraguay" is a subcategory of "Cities in South America".
summary: Short for "edit summary".

T

table of contents: An automatically-generated list of section headings on a page. Usually appears near the top of the page.
talk: Short for "talk page". This word is also used as the namespace prefix for talk pages associated with content pages (wiki pages in the main namespace).
talk page: A wiki page used for discussions between editors.
template: A piece of text or code that can be embedded ("transcluded") in other pages. Common examples of templates are infoboxes, formatted citations, maintenance notices at the top of an article, etc. Templates are similar to modules, but templates are written in wikitext and modules are written in the Lua programming language. This word is also used as the namespace prefix for template pages.
template page: A wiki page in the Template namespace. It stores the source code for a template and the template's usage documentation.
template talk: Short for "template talk page". This word is also used as the namespace prefix for template talk pages.
template talk page: A talk page associated with a template page.
thumbnail: A small image, used as a compact representation of a larger image. Usually shown with a frame with a caption under it. Clicking the thumbnail shows the full-size image.
title: The name of a page.
transclusion: Inclusion or embedding of one wiki page into another. Most often, this is done with templates. A similar operation with modules is called invocation.

U

undo: While reviewing page version: To revert a page, but possibly make some more changes and write a manual edit summary. Different from rollback, which is done in one click and restores everything. While editing a page: To erase the last change done to the content, reverting it to an older state. This action is available in web browsers and in many text editing applications.
unprotect: Verb: The opposite of protect: Remove the protection from a page and make it editable by all users.
unwatch: Verb: The opposite of watch: Unwatching a page means removing it from the user's watchlist.
upload: Verb: Copy a file from a local device to a website. The opposite of download.
URL: A technical term for a web address, such as https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aruba. Short for "Uniform Resource Locator".
user: Somebody who uses a wiki, usually reading the information on it, or editing (changing) it. This may refer to a human, and also to a computer program, usually a bot. The user may be anonymous or identified using an account. This word is also used as the namespace prefix for user pages.
username: The name of a user account. It may be the real name of a person or a nickname.
user page: A wiki page in the User namespace. If the username is "Alice", the user page's title is "User:Alice". Every user with an account has a user page, and can write things there, for example information about themselves or what they do on the wiki.
user talk: Short for "user talk page". Used as the namespace prefix for user talk pages.
user talk page: A talk page associated with a user page. If the username is "Alice", the user talk page's title is "User talk:Alice". The user talk page is used for sending messages to a user. These messages are not private, and can be read by everyone who can read the wiki.

V

version: The state of a wiki page's content after an edit. A wiki page that has just been created has one version. Every edit creates another version. A version has an author (user) and a time.
view: Look at something, such as a page, a file, a table, etc. Often contrasted with edit: for example, regular users can only view protected pages, but administrators can edit them.
visual editing: Editing while seeing the page similarly to how it's rendered to users: with images, headings, etc., and without seeing wiki syntax. This is similar to using a word processor, like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice, and also known by the jargon term "WYSIWYG" ("what you see is what you get"). Compare with wikitext editing.

W

watch: Verb: Add a page it to the user's watchlist.
watchlist: A special page that shows recent changes in a list of pages that the user selected.
wiki: A website that anyone can edit. A wiki contains many wiki pages. This is different from other websites, on which readers can read the content, but only a small group of people can edit it, or social networks on which users can write things about themselves and comment on other people's posts, but cannot change what other people write. When translating the word wiki by itself or as part of another name, its spelling can be changed, but it should still sound similarly to "wiki".
wiki page: One web page on a wiki site.
wiki syntax: The syntax of wikitext.
wikitext: The source code of wiki pages, and the language for formatting them. The language includes things like [[]] for links, # for numbered lists, etc. Often contrasted with visual editing.
Wikibooks: The open-content textbooks collection that anyone can edit. A wiki website on which people write long-form textbooks under a free license. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are editions of Wikibooks in many languages. The "wiki" part should not be changed much, but the word "books" can be translated to your language.
Wikidata: The free knowledge base that anyone can edit. A wiki website on which people curate structured machine-readable data for the use of other wikis under a free license. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There is one Wikidata site, and it can include information in any language. The "wiki" part should not be changed much, but the word "data" can be translated to your language.
Wikinews: The free news source you can write. A wiki website on which people write news articles under a free license. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are editions of Wikinews in many languages. The "wiki" part should not be changed much, but the word "news" can be translated to your language.
Wikimedia: The movement that operates Wikipedia and several other free knowledge wiki websites. Not to be confused with MediaWiki.
Wikimedia Commons: A collection of freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute. Media files that are stored on Wikimedia Commons can be used in any other Wikimedia wiki. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. This name is often shortened to "Commons" in English. The English word "commons" means "a public open area", and it can be translated. Into some languages, this name is translated as "wiki repository", "wiki sharing", etc. Not to be confused with Creative Commons.
Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. A wiki website on which people write an encyclopedia under a free license. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are editions of Wikipedia in many languages. The spelling of this name can be adapted to your language, but it should still be recognizable as "Wikipedia".
Wikiquote: The free quote compendium that anyone can edit. A wiki website on which people maintain wiki pages with lists of quotes by famous people, from famous books or films, or about various topics. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are editions of Wikiquote in many languages. The "wiki" part should not be changed much, but the word "quote" can be translated to your language.
Wikisource: The free library that anyone can improve. A wiki website on which people maintain wiki pages with books and documents that were published elsewhere, which can be copied under a free license, and which can be useful for reading or as source material for Wikipedia and other wikis. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are editions of Wikisource in many languages. The "wiki" part should not be changed much, but the word "source" can be adapted to your language. For example, it was translated as "wikilibrary" into Russian.
Wikivoyage: The free worldwide travel guide that you can edit. A wiki website on which people write a travel guide under a free license. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are editions of Wikivoyage in many languages. The "wiki" part should not be changed much, but the word "voyage" can be translated to your language.
Wiktionary: The free dictionary. A wiki website on which people write a dictionary with word definitions and translations under a free license. Managed by the Wikimedia Foundation. There are editions of Wiktionary in many languages. The name is based on the words "wiki" and "dictionary"; the "wiki" part should not be changed much, but the word "(dic)tionary" can be adapted to your language.