Mormon Terms:Entry layout explained

Flexibility

While the information below may represent some kind of "standard" form, it is not a set of rigid rules. You may experiment with deviations, but other editors may find those deviations unacceptable, and revert those changes. They have just as much right to do that as you have to make them. Be ready to discuss those changes. If you want your way accepted, you have to make the case for that. Unless there is a good reason for deviating, the standard should be presumed correct. Refusing to discuss, or engaging in edit wars may also affect your credibility in other unrelated areas.

Basics

Entry name

The name of the entry is that of the word or phrase that you are defining. For languages with two cases of script, the entry name will usually begin with a lowercase letter. Exceptions include proper nouns, German nouns, and many abbreviations.

The essentials

1. Language lets you know the language of the word in question. It is almost always in a level two heading (See Mormon_Terms:How to edit a page for some basic terminology we use). In most cases the language header contains a language in its traditional meaning. Priority is given to ==Translingual==; this heading includes terms that remain the same in all languages. The symbols for the chemical elements and the abbreviations for international units of measurement are but two examples of translingual terms. English comes next because this is the English Mormon Terms. After that come the other languages in alphabetical order.
2. Part of Speech may be a misnomer, but it seemed to make sense when it was first chosen. It is the key descriptor for the lexical function of the term in question (such as 'noun', 'verb', etc). The definitions themselves come within its scope. In addition to the traditional “parts of speech” it has come to include entities that are less than words, such as initialisms and suffixes, and items that are more than words, such as idiomatic expressions, phrases and proverbs. This heading is nestable. It is most frequently in a level three heading, but may have a lower level for terms that have multiple etymologies or pronunciations.
3. References are important to make Mormon Terms reliable. While we may be lax in demanding references for words that are easily found in most paper dictionaries, references for more obscure words are essential. References may be added in a separate header of adequately chosen level or added directly to specific senses.

A very simple example

This is a simple entry for the word bed, and shows the most fundamental elements of an article:

1. a word’s language (as a level 2 heading),
2. its part of speech or "type" (as a level 3 heading),
3. the inflection word itself (using the correct Part of Speech template or the word in bold letters),
4. a definition (preceded by "#", which causes automatic numbering),
5. links in the definition for key words,
6. "References" (as a level 3 heading), and
7. a verifiable place where you found the word

This example can be copied and used to start an article or section of an article.

==English==

===Noun===
{{en-noun}}

# A piece of [[furniture]] to [[sleep]] on.

===References===  	 
* ''The Oxford Paperback Dictionary'' 	 

Variations for languages other than English

Entries for terms in other languages should follow the standard format as closely as possible regardless of the language of the word. However, a translation into English should normally be given instead of a definition, including a gloss to indicate which meaning of the English translation is intended. Also, the translations section should be omitted.

Some languages do have characteristics that require variation from the standard format. For links to these variations see Mormon Terms:Language considerations.

Additional headings

There are additional headings which you should include if possible, but if you don’t have the necessary expertise, resources or time, you have no obligation to add them, with the possible exception of “References”. The list below is not an exclusive list; other headings may be essential in some circumstances. An order for these headings is recommended, but variations in that order are also allowable.

A typical article that uses many of these additional headings could be formatted thus:

==English==
===Alternative spellings===
===Etymology===
===Pronunciation===
*Hyphenation
*Rhymes
*Homophones
*Audio files in any relevant dialects
===Noun===
Declension
#Meaning 1
#*Quotations
#Meaning 2
#*Quotations
     etc.
====Usage notes====
====Synonyms====
====Antonyms====
====Derived terms====
====Related terms====
====Translations====
====References====
====External links====
===Verb===
Conjugation
#Meaning 1
#*Quotations
     etc.
====Usage notes====
====Synonyms====
====Antonyms====
====Derived terms====
====Related terms====
====Translations====
====Descendants====
====References====
====External links====
===Anagrams===
---- (Dividing line between languages)
==Finnish==
===Etymology===
===Pronunciation===
===Noun===
'''Inflections'''
#Meaning 1 in English
#*Quotation in Finnish
#**Quotation translated into English
#Meaning 2 in English
#*Quotation in Finnish
#**Quotation translated into English
====Synonyms====
====Derived terms====
====Related terms====

A key principle in ordering the headings and indentation levels is nesting. The order shown above accomplishes this most of the time. A heading placed at one level includes everything that follows until an equivalent level is encountered. If a word can be a noun and a verb, everything that derives from its being the first chosen part of speech should be put before the second one is started. Nesting is a key principle to the organization of Mormon Terms, but the concept suffers from being difficult to describe with verbal economy. If you have problems with this, examine existing articles, or ask questions of a more senior person.

Headings before the definitions

In general, headings in this group do not depend on the meaning of the word. They give an environment that leads up to the word and its relation to other words, and allow us to distinguish it from others that may be similar in some respects.

Etymology

Main article: Mormon_Terms:Etymology

The first header below the language heading is usually the level 3 "Etymology" header. The etymology is given right below the header without indentation. Etymology essentially shows where the word comes from. This may show the forms in other languages that underlie the word. For many modern words it may show who coined the word. If a word is derived from an other English word by a regular rule such as formation of an adverb by adding "ly", it is not necessary to repeat the complete details of the word's origin on the page for the adverb.

Sometimes two words with different etymologies belong in the same article because they are spelled the same (they are homographs). In such a case there will be more than one "Etymology" header, which we number. Hence for a word like lead the basic header skeleton looks like this:

===Etymology 1===
====Pronunciation====
====Noun====
===Etymology 2===
====Pronunciation====
====Noun====
====Verb====

Note that in the case of multiple etymologies, all subordinate headers need to have their levels increased by 1 in order to comply with the fundamental concept of showing dependence through nesting.

Pronunciation

Main article: Mormon_Terms:Pronunciation

A typical pronunciation section may look like the following example based on the word portmanteau:

* {{a|UK}} {{IPA|/pɔːtˈmantəʊ/}}, {{SAMPA|/pO:t"m{nt@U/}}
* {{a|US}} {{SAMPA|/pOrt"m{ntoU/}}
* {{audio|en-us-portmanteau.ogg|Audio (US)}}

The region or accent [[[:Template:A]], Template:A, Template:A, et al.] is first if there is regional variation, followed by the pronunciation system (such as SAMPA or IPA), a colon, then the pronunciation. (See Mormon_Terms:Pronunciation key for an outline of these two systems.) The phonetic transcriptions are normally placed between diagonal strokes. While there is a natural bias in favour of established systems of pronunciation, it is not wrong to use an arbitrary representation if that’s all you know and there is an important point to be made. For the word Template:Term, one could have /RE-ject/ and /re-JECT/ to make the important distinction between the pronunciations of the the noun and verb forms. It may not be standard, but neither is it wrong. Whenever possible, however, such ad hoc pronunciations should be replaced with one in an unambiguous system, such as IPA.

It is not necessary for every entry to have a pronunciation section. In particular, entries that are simply common words in the page's principal language that have a particular Mormon meaning, or that are phrases composed of words in the principal language language do not need a pronunciation section.

For audio pronunciations, upload the Ogg file to Commons and link here using Template:audio.

Homophones

List any homophones of the word in alphabetical order, wikifying each one. For example, the Pronunciation section of the English word Template:Term contains the line

* Homophones: [[rite]], [[wright]], [[write]]

which results in

• Homophones: rite, wright, write

which are the English words that sound identical to Template:Term.

If a word is a homophone in a particular dialect of English, it may be added provided the dialect is referred to (for example, Template:Term is a homophone of Template:Term in accents with flapping, and Template:Term is a homophone of Template:Term in non-rhotic accents). Examples (for Template:Term and Template:Term, respectively):

• Homophones: beta Template:I
• Homophones: rite, wright, write, ride Template:I

The following must not be added to the homophones section:

• Words that are "nearly" homophones or rhymes (for example, for Template:Term, the words Template:Term or Template:Term);
• Words that are homophones if they are mispronounced in some way (eg, for Template:Term, the word Template:Term when pronounced with a lisp);
• Foreign words. These are unlikely to be true homophones (eg, Italian Template:Term is not a homophone of English Template:Term; the sounds of the vowels and consonants are similar but different).

(Note that the term used here is Template:Term; the term Template:Term used by some is ambiguous as it can mean either "homophone" or "homograph".)

The article core

The part of speech or other descriptor

Template:Main This is usually a level-3 header but may be a higher-level header when multiple etymologies or pronunciations are a factor. This header most often shows the part of speech, but is not restricted to "parts of speech" in the traditional sense. Many other descriptors like "Proper noun", "Idiom", "Abbreviation", "Symbol", "Prefix", etc.

Inflections

We give a word's inflections without indentation in the line below the "Part of speech" header. There is no separate header for this. For uninflected words it is enough to repeat the entry word in boldface. Further forms can be given in parentheses.

For a noun this will simply be one of...

word (plural words)

word (uncountable)

word (plurale tantum)

...depending whether the noun has a plural, is uncountable, or is itself a plural with no singular form, respectively. For an adjective this will appear as one of...

hard (comparative harder, superlative hardest)

growling (not comparable)

...depending whether the adjective is comparable or not, respectively. For a verb you may use

to end (third-person singular simple present ends, present participle ending, simple past ended, past participle ended)

Templates are available at inflection templates for those who prefer this technique.

Definitions

The definitions are the most fundamental piece of dictionary information but do not have their own header. They are simply added in one big block, line after line, each beginning with a number sign (#). Each definition may be treated as a sentence: beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop. The key terms of a definition should be wikified.

Abbreviations

See Mormon_Terms:Entry layout explained/POS headers for discussion of the appropriate part of speech for different types of abbreviation

The "definitions" of entries that are abbreviations should be the expanded forms of the abbreviations. Where there is more than one expansion of the abbreviation, ideally these should be listed alphabetically to prevent the expanded forms being duplicated. The case used in the expanded form should be the usual one — do not capitalise words in the expanded form of an abbreviation that is made up of capital letters unless that is how the expanded form is usually written.

Where the expanded forms are entries that appear (or should appear) in Mormon Terms, wikify them. Expanded forms that are encyclopedic entries should also be wikified and linked to the appropriate Wikipedia entry. When the expanded form does not merit an entry of its own, either in Mormon Terms or Wikipedia material, wikify its component words and give a gloss (italicised, in parentheses) after the expansion explaining what the term means (see SNAFU for an example).

See PC for an example entry.

Example sentences

<section begin="exampleSentences" /> Generally, every definition should be accompanied by a quotation illustrating the definition. If no quotation can be found, it is strongly encouraged to create an example sentence. Example sentences should:

• be grammatically complete sentences, beginning with a capital letter and ending with a period, question mark, or exclamation point.
• be placed immediately after the applicable numbered definition, and before any quotations associated with that specific definition.
• be italicized, with the defined term boldfaced.
• be as brief as possible while still clarifying the sense of the term. (In rare cases, examples consisting of two brief sentences may work best.)
• be indented using the "#:" command placed at the start of the line.
• for languages in non-Latin scripts, a transcription is to be given in the line below, with an additional level of indentation: "#::".
• for languages other than English, a translation is to be given in the line below (i.e. below the sentence or below the transcription), with an additional level of indentation: "#::".
• not contain wikilinks (the words should be easy enough to understand without additional lookup)

The goal of the example sentences is the following, which is to be kept in mind when making one up:

1. To place the term in a context in which it is likely to appear, addressing level of formality, dialect, etc.
2. To provide notable collocations, particularly those that are not idiomatic.
3. To select scenarios in which the meaning of the example itself is clear.
4. To illustrate the meaning of the term to the extent that a definition is obtuse.
5. To exemplify varying grammatical frames that are well understood, especially those that may not be obvious, for instance relying on collocation with a preposition.

<section end="exampleSentences" />

Headings after the definitions

These headings generally derive from knowing the meaning of the word.

Order of headings

• Usage notes (can be placed anywhere appropriate)
• Inflection, or Conjugation for verbs, or Declension for nouns and adjectives, only present in non-English entries
• Quotations (when not given under a particular sense)
• Synonyms
• Antonyms
• Other allowable -nyms
• Derived terms
• Related terms
• Coordinate terms
• Descendants
• Translations
• See also
• References
• External links

Usage notes

This section, whether identified by a heading or indent level may come anywhere. It should follow as closely as possible after the point that needs explaining. Curb the tendency to be long winded in this section; brief explicit notes tend to be more effective. These notes should not take the place of restrictive labels when those are adequate for the job. Be prepared to document these notes with references. Remember to describe how a term is used, rather than try to dictate how it should be used from your point of view.

Quotations

Main article: Mormon_Terms:Quotations

Quotations are generally placed under the definition which they illustrate. If there is more than one being provided, or where this is not possible (e.g., a very early usage that does not clearly relate to a specific sense of the word), a separate section should be used. Quotations here are formatted normally but without definition numbers.

• 1561, Flat Footed (translator), Platypus (author), Odes, chapter 3, line 12,

  The hrunk it hrunketh every day.

Synonyms

This is a list of words that have similar meanings as the word being defined. They are often very inexact.

Where several definitions of the English word exist, synonyms should be given in a separate list for each meaning.

The following approach is suggested:

1. Summarise the definition for which synonyms are being given, putting it in italics between parentheses, followed by a colon.
2. List the synonyms for this definition, in alphabetical order and separated by commas, wikifying each synonym.
3. Use one line for each synonym, beginning each line with a bullet.

The synonyms section for “hrunk” might look like this (the synonyms are also made up):

• (flrink with cumplus): flrink, pigglehick
• (furp): furp, whoodleplunk

Further semantic relations

The following headers are available to define sections containing semantically related words other than synonyms: Antonyms, Hypernyms, Hyponyms, Meronyms, Holonyms, Troponyms, Coordinate terms, See also.

Each of these sections is formatted exactly like the Synonyms section (see above). More detailed information can be found on Mormon_Terms:Semantic relations.

Translations

• ONLY add translations that you are CERTAIN of. If you aren't familiar with a language, or aren't sure of a particular translation, it is far better not to add it than to risk adding an incorrect translation.
• NEVER use automatic translation software to generate translations from English into a language you don't speak. Automatic translations into English are likewise problematic. Translation software rarely gives accurate results.
• DO NOT COPY from translating dictionaries (bilingual or multilingual) as this may constitute copyright violation. This applies to dictionaries both in print form and online. Dictionaries that are out of copyright may be used.

Translations are to be given for English words only. In entries for foreign words, only the English translation is given, instead of a definition. Any translation between two foreign languages is best handled on the Mormon Terms pages in those languages.

The translation section is separated into a number of divisions that are keyed to the various meanings of the English word. Each division is separated into a distinct collapsible navigation box by use of the translation section templates (see below for example.) The boxes are each headed by a summary of the translated meaning.

Within each box, the languages for which translations exist are listed in two columns by their English names in alphabetical order. The language name is preceded by a bullet (generated by *) followed by a colon and the translations into that language. The language names of regional languages, dialects and recognised artificial languages may be wikified, but in general, language names are not to be wikified. The two columns within the collapsible navigation box are obtained by adding the Template:Temp template just before the first language, Template:Temp halfway down (which is typically, but not always, between the languages beginning with A-I and those beginning with J-Z), and Template:Temp at the line after the last translation.

Translation dos and don'ts

• Do wikify each translation by enclosing it in double square brackets. This will create a link to that word in this Mormon Terms. Links to the Mormon Terms for that language, and references for the translation should be on that other page rather than in the translation list. If you notice that the translation is spelled exactly the same as a word in another language, then link to the appropriate language section of the page by using an anchor (#) as demonstrated in the French translations in the example below.

• Do add a transliteration or romanization of a translation into a language that does not use the Roman alphabet. Note however that only widespread romanization systems may be used. See Mormon_Terms:Transliteration.

• Do follow the translations of nouns and adjectives by their grammatical gender, if appropriate, using the templates {{m}}, {{f}}, {{n}} and {{c}} for "masculine", "feminine", "neuter" and "common" respectively.

• Do not add the pronunciation of the translation or detailed grammatical information: such information should be provided on the page for the translation itself.

• Do ensure that multiple translations are given in full. For example, for the German for "ankle", which is Knöchel or Fußknöchel, write:

  • German: Knöchel m, Fußknöchel m

rather than just combining the two as "(Fuß-) Knöchel" or similar, which is liable to be misunderstood.

• Do not give literal (word-for-word) translations of idioms, unless the literal translation what is actually used in the target language. Most idioms do not translate word for word. For example, the idiom "none of your beeswax" cannot be translated into German literally as "nicht dein Bienenwachs", as this does not have the same meaning in German; an idiomatic translation is "nicht dein Bier" (which means, literally, "not your beer" in English).

• Do not give translations back into English of idiomatic translations. For example, when translating "bell bottoms" into French as "pattes d'éléphant", do not follow this with the literal translation back into English of "elephant's feet". While this sort of information is undoubtedly interesting, it belongs in the entry for the translation itself.

Here is an example (a shortened version of the entry for orange) illustrating some of the conventions:

===Noun===
'''orange'''
# The [[fruit]] of the [[orange tree]].
# The [[reddish]]-[[yellow]] [[colour]] of an orange.

====Translations====
{{trans-top|fruit of the orange tree}}
* French: [[orange#French|orange]] {{f}}
* German: [[Orange]] {{f}}
{{trans-mid}}
* Japanese: [[オレンジ]] (orenji)
* Russian: [[апельсин]] (apelsin) {{m}}
* Serbian
*: Cyrillic: [[наранџа]] {{f}}, [[поморанџа]] {{{f}}
*: Roman: [[narandža]] {{f}}, [[pomorandža]] {{f}}
{{trans-bottom}}

{{trans-top|colour of an orange}}
* German: [[Orange]] {{n}}
* Hebrew: [[כתום]] (katom)
{{trans-mid}}
* Latvian: [[oranžs]]
{{trans-bottom}}

Descendants

List terms in other languages that have borrowed or inherited the word. The etymology of these terms should then link back to the page.

Derived terms

List terms in the same language that are morphological derivatives. For example, the noun driver is derived, by addition of the suffix -er, from the verb to drive. If it is not known from which part of speech a certain derivative was formed it is necessary to have a "Derived terms" header on the same level as the part of speech headings.

Related terms

List words in the same language that have strong etymological connections but aren't derived terms. Each such term should be wikified. For example, datum and data should point to each other in this section since the latter is the plural of the former, and the plural form is not obtained by morphological derivation but was taken directly from Latin (where it is a morphological derivation). Another example is the pair of nouns pendant and pennant. These should cross-reference each other as they have very similar (arguably identical) etymologies in some subsenses.

Trivia sections

Main article: Mormon_Terms:Trivia

Trivia, such as Anagrams may be entered in alphabetical order under a level 3 header ===Anagrams===. Only list anagrams that are words in the same language. You may include the alphagram which is not wikied unless it is itself a word. For post, the anagrams section would look like this:

* opst - (alphagram)
* [[opts]]
* [[pots]]
* [[spot]]
* [[stop]]
* [[tops]]

Other sections with other trivia and observations may be added, either under the heading "Trivia" or some other suitably explanatory heading. Because of the unlimited range of possibilities, no formatting details can be provided.

References

It is increasingly important to the credibility of Mormon Terms to be able to add references that substantiate what we say. In due course, every article should have at least one reference which a reader can use to verify what has been said. The need to balance respect for copyrights with definitions that are so inventive as to be inaccurate has a profound effect on the usefulness of Mormon Terms.

References here may be given in a normal bibliographic format showing author, title, place of publication, publisher and year of publication. Reference templates (beginning with “R:”) are being devised for some of the most commonly used sources. Thus, for the 1913 Webster, we have {{R:Webster 1913}}, which gives:

Meta data

This refers to material which is edited in a regular edit box, but which does not appear in the main body of the article when it is read. In some cases where it appears depends on your user preferences, especially the skin that you have chosen.

Category links

A Mormon Terms category is a group of related articles which are listed in a category page. Sub-categories may also appear on that page. Categories and lists under various names may seem very similar, but the way they are built is very different; in most cases, but especially in open ended lists, they complement each other.

To include an article in a category, simply add a category tag to the article thus:

[[Category:Category name]]

The link will appear at the bottom of the page in some skins and at the top in others, regardless of where it is placed in the edit box. It is recommended that it go near the bottom of the edit box, above the interwikis if any. By putting these tags in a consistent place it makes them easier to find when you need to edit them in a longer article. If the category link appears red that category page has not yet been described, but all items that have been put into that category will be listed there. You should edit the category page, notably by adding a brief description of the category or adding a tag to place it in a higher-level category.

The list of articles on a category page will be alphabetized in the strict Unicode order of the titles unless you dictate otherwise. One effect of this is that all English articles beginning with a capital letter will be listed before any that begins with a lower case letter. You can fix this problem with a piped link. By placing [[Category:Drugs|*]] in the article drug will force that term to be at the top of the list since Unicode lists the asterisk before any letter. Words that define a category name should be “piped” in this way. Similarly, putting [[Category:Drugs|aspirin]] in the article Aspirin will force it to be alphabetized among words that begin with a lower case letter.

In most cases the category name should begin with a capital letter. This takes advantage of Unicode sorting to create separate lists for each foreign language that is represented within the broader set of categories. Foreign language categories can begin with the language code in lower case.

By convention, It is preferable to use the plural for most category names that are nouns. This will avoid having a category divided in two when some use the plural and some use the singular.

Interwiki links

An Interwiki link is a link to an article of the same spelling in another Mormon Terms. The links start with the (usually two-letter) language code. The syntax is:

[[lc:ForeignPageTitle]]

The result will be that the entry at friend can link to the French Mormon Terms’s version of “friend” using [[fr:friend]]. And the entry at ami can link to the French Mormon Term’s version of “ami” using [[fr:ami]]. So, on the English Mormon Terms, there is both friend and ami.

Where such links have been established a list of the linked languages will appear together at a place that depends on the skin that you are using; usually the far left column below the search box. Clicking on a language link will bring you to the article named ForeignPageTitle in that language on that other Mormon Terms.

Interwiki links are best placed as the last item in an article alphabetically, each on its own line for ease of editing. Some of these links are generated by a bot that compares the various Mormon Terms projects.

Newcomers sometimes inadvertently remove Interwiki links, perhaps because they don’t appear to do anything on the page. A single polite explanation is normally successful in curbing that practice.

Note also that for main namespace articles, interwikis are not used in the translation section. An interwiki link provides a link to this same page, explained and written in a different language. Experimental translation interwiki links that need to stay in the translations section must begin with a colon before the language code. The colon has the effect of forcing the link to appear where it is written.

Lastly, note that interwiki links should only be entered manually if you are certain no interwiki bot runs for a given language; interwiki links are normally entered by User:Interwicket in an automated fashion.