Portal:Contents

Wikipedia's contents

There are two ways to look things up in Wikipedia: by searching or by browsing.

• If you know the name of an article for which you are looking, simply type it into Wikipedia's search box.
• If you would like to look around the encyclopedia to see what is on it, use Wikipedia's Contents pages. Lists and indices are examples of contents for a published work, and Wikipedia has many of each, including a complete alphabetical index and indices by category.
  Links to all of Wikipedia's main contents pages are presented below, and they in turn link to the more specific pages.

Wikipedia's reference lists

Overviews of Wikipedia

An overview is a survey of what is covered in an area. Overviews of Wikipedia's coverage include:

• Overviews—a one-page outline of the contents of Wikipedia, covering 12 major subjects, providing links to key articles in each.
• List of academic disciplines—Wikipedia arranged like a college course curriculum.

Other topic lists

Wikipedia has thousands more topic lists; some are even lists of other lists.

• Lists—a selective collection of article lists, arranged by subject.
• Category:Lists—a list of lists in the category system, arranged alphabetically.
• Outlines—expanding on the overview above, this set of outlines (structured lists) shows the structure of knowledge and its various branches, and serves as a table of contents for those subjects and their coverage on Wikipedia.

Two of the broadest collections are:

• Lists of countries and territories and many lists by country.
• Lists of people including by nationality and by occupation.

Featured content

Featured content represents the best Wikipedia has to offer, and undergoes vigorous peer review.
It can be found on the following directories:

• Featured articles—what we believe to be the best articles in Wikipedia.
• Featured lists—what we believe to be the best lists in Wikipedia.
• Featured pictures—images we find beautiful, impressive, and informative.
• Featured portals—portals we regard as being particularly useful, attractive, and well maintained.
• Featured sounds—sounds we find beautiful, impressive, and informative.
• Featured topics—topics we believe have coverage which is both comprehensive and well written.

Books

Books are collections of Wikipedia articles, which can be viewed online, downloaded electronically, or be printed into a book.

• Category:Wikipedia books (community books)—a list of all books, in alphabetical order
• Category:Wikipedia books—a list of books, categorized by topic

Glossaries

Glossaries are lists of terms with definitions:

• Glossaries—a list of glossaries arranged by subject.
• Category:Glossaries—glossaries in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.

Portals

A portal is an introductory page for a given topic. It complements the main article of the subject by introducing the reader to key articles, images, and categories that further describe the subject. They also include to-do lists that are used mostly by Wikipedia's editors.

Portals can be found at:

• List of portals—a list of active portals.
• Category:Portals—portals in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.

Timelines

Timelines are lists of articles organized chronologically. These are the top-level timelines and lists of timelines:

• List of timelines—a selection of historical timelines, arranged by subject. More can be found in Category:Timelines.
• List of centuries—(e.g., 20th century)
• List of decades—(e.g., 1910s)
• List of historical anniversaries—(e.g., today).
• 2010—major events this year.
• Portal:Current events—featured current events and related project activities.
• Recent deaths—notable recent deaths, by month.
• Category:Graphical timelines—graphical timelines in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.

Wikipedia's indices

Alphabetical indices

• Complete alphabetical index—sorted by the first two letters of the title, e.g., "Aa Ab Ac Ad..."

Categorical indices

Wikipedia's main categorization index system is automatically generated from information (category tags) at the bottom of each article. The top-end pages of the category system are:

• Categories —an index of major categories, arranged by subject – that section of the page is an exception to the category autogeneration rule, as it is crafted by hand.
• Category:Articles—the category in which all article category systems are located.
• Category:Categories—the highest level or "root" category in Wikipedia – its autogenerated entries are listed at the bottom of the page.
• Category:Contents—the category equivalent to this page.
• Category:Fundamental categories— the category containing the most fundamental ontological categories such that every article category system can reasonably be expected to be within it.
• Special:Categories—every category listed alphabetically.

Wikipedia's other broad categorical indices are:

• List of Dewey Decimal classes—lists the top two levels of this library classification system.
• Library of Congress Classification—this article provides a reflection of its own deep linkage structure.
• Outline of Roget's Thesaurus—articles organised into a system based on six classes, with thousands of branches, following Roget's system.

Spoken articles

• Category:Spoken articles—articles that are available as spoken word recordings.