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 and press Go, or you can search for information on a topic by typing it in the box and selecting Search.

• 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: An index is a detailed list, usually arranged alphabetically, of the specific information in a publication, whether a book, periodical, database or multimedia collection. ... Contents:  Outline of knowledge Overviews Topics Glossaries Portals Featured content Categories A–Z Index The MediaWiki software is case sensitive; pages under AA will correspond to different pages compared with Aa. ...

• Outline of knowledge — a set of outlines combined to provide a guide to Wikipedia's content. Each outline shows the structure of its subject and serves as a table of contents to its coverage on Wikipedia.
• Overviews — a one-page summary of the contents of Wikipedia, presenting an overview of 12 major subjects, providing links to key articles in each.
• List of academic disciplines — Wikipedia arranged like a college course curriculum.

Featured content

Featured content represents the best Wikipedia has to offer, and undergoes vigorous peer review.
It can be found on the following directories: // An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge which is taught or researched at the college or university level. ... Contents Outline of knowledge Overviews Topics Glossaries Portals Featured content Categories A–Z Index ‎ Featured content: ← Featured articles Featured lists Featured pictures Featured sounds Featured portals Featured topics See full list. ...

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

Lists

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

• Lists of topics — a selective collection of article lists, arranged by subject.
• Category:Lists — a list of lists in the category system, arranged alphabetically.

Two of the broadest collections are:

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

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. A country is a geographical territory, both in the sense of nation (a cultural entity) and state (a political entity). ... This is are a series of lists by country. ... People denotes a group of humans, either with unspecified traits, or specific characteristics (e. ... There are a variety of articles listing people of a particular nationality. ... People whose articles appear in the variety of lists given below should in some way be noteworthy for their occupation. ...

Portals can be found at:

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

Glossaries

Glossaries are lists of terms with definitions: Contents:  Outline of knowledge Overviews Topics Glossaries Portals Featured content Categories A–Z Index About portals · Featured portals · Portal directory · Portals category A portal is an introductory page for a given topic. ... Look up glossary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• List of glossaries — a list of glossaries arranged by subject.
• Category:Glossaries — glossaries 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: For the novel by Michael Crichton, see Timeline (novel). ...

• 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).
• 2009 — 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 categorical index system is automatically generated from information (category tags) at the bottom of each article. The top-end pages of the category system are: For other uses of Timeline, see Timeline (disambiguation). ... These pages contain the trends of millennia and centuries. ... This is a list of decades which have articles with more information about them. ... Condensed list of historical anniversaries. ... is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2009 (MMIX) will be a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... // The following is a list of notable deaths in 2007. ... Look up category in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

• Categorical index – 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: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:Articles — the category in which all article category systems are located.
• Special:Categories — every category listed alphabetically.

Wikipedia's other broad categorical indices are: Contents:  Outline of knowledge Overviews Topics Glossaries Portals Featured content Categories A–Z Index Categories (along with other features like cross-references, lists, and infoboxes) help you to find information, even if you dont know what exists or what its called. ...

• 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.
• Wikipedia: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.