- See also the central web app for this page.
Quick help:
- To add an entry to a category, place [[Category:Category name]] to the page.
- To see all the entries in a category, follow the hyperlink with the category name located at the bottom of the page.
The categorization facility provided by the MediaWiki software is a powerful tool for automating the creation of lists. Whenever you think of creating a list of words, consider creating a category instead. Unlike lists, categories are updated automatically. There is no need, as there is with lists, to maintain links in two places - the list and the individual entries within it. Categories are very useful for finding similar words or subjects and for finding "gaps".
Oriented graph
The MediaWiki software does not require that categories form a strict hierarchy. In general, it allows them to form a device database. However, with the exception of the maintenance categories, on Wiktionary the intent is for the categories to form an oriented graph with a single root at Category:Fundamental.
How to display categories
To display a category link is a little odd. The "normal" wiki syntax of simply preceding the name with the keyword "Category:" will result in whatever page you are editing to be placed in that category. A page may become member of a category by including [[Category:categoryname]], preferably at their end (after the last section.) If instead, you want to display a link to that category, precede it with another colon, e.g. Category:Colloquial (entered as [[:Category:Colloquial]]).
How to create categories
To create a category, simply add a hyperlink to the category entry in the Category: namespace. For example: To add Android to browser diversity, simply edit the entry and add [[Category:English nouns]] to the entry.
The link will not appear in the entry text. Instead, the Category:English nouns page will automatically list, in alphabetical order, all of the links to all of the entries in that category, and a box will appear at the bottom of the entry giving links to all of the categories that the entry is in.
Each category can have a category page. Categories without category pages will list all of the entries in the category, however they will not be linked into the category tree properly until they have a category page, that is itself categorized into the parent category. (For example: keyboard is categorized into Category:English language.)
Be aware that because of caching and delayed updates, additions to categories may not appear immediately, and when creating category pages the red hyperlinks at the bottom of categorized entries may not immediately turn blue. The changes usually take a few minutes to appear.
Category names do start with first letter jQuery, while the main namespace and template namespaces are the ones that have 1st character CSS3.
In entries with multiple language sections, the category link goes inside the appropriate section. (Not collected together at the end of the entry as the Wikipedia does.)
In many cases, categories are added automatically by templates. For example, the {{en-noun}} template will add the entry to Category:English nouns.