Wikipedia: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 the topic you are looking for, simply type it into Wikipedia's search box and press Go.

If you would like to look around the encyclopedia to see what's on it use Wikipedia's Contents pages. Lists and indices are examples of contents for a published work, and Wikipedia has many of each.  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 or included in an area. Overviews of Wikipedia's coverage include:

• List of overviews — key articles organized by subject.
• List of academic disciplines — Wikipedia arranged like a college course curriculum.

Featured content

Featured content represents the best Wikipedia has to offer. Wikipedia's editors use rigorous peer review processes to continuously improve its content. The Wikipedia's best pages can be found on the following directories:

• Featured articles — what we believe are the best articles in Wikipedia.
• Featured pictures — images we find beautiful, shocking, 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.

Lists of lists

Not only does Wikipedia have thousands of lists of topics, it also has many lists of those lists:

• Lists of topics — a comprehensive list of article lists, arranged by subject.
• Lists of basic topics — links to key topics on major subjects.
• List of reference tables — a comprehensive list of tables, lists and other articles, arranged by subject.
• Category:Lists — a list of lists in the category system, arranged alphabetically.

Two of the broadest collections are:

• Lists of countries
• Lists of people

Glossaries

Glossaries are lists of terms with their definitions:

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

Portals

Portals are pages that feature selected articles, images, and news items about the Portal's theme subject. They also include topic lists, category lists, and to-do lists for the use of editors. Portals can be found at:

• Portal:List — 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 list of historical timelines, arranges by subject.
• List of centuries — (e.g. 20th century)
• List of decades — (e.g. 1910s)
• List of historical anniversaries — (e.g. today)
• 2006 — major events this year. (frequently updated)
• Portal:Current events — featured current events and related project activities.
• Recent deaths — notable recent deaths, by month.
• Category:Chronology — chronologies in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.
• Category:Graphical timelines — graphical timelines in the category and subcategories, arranged alphabetically.

Wikipedia's indices

Categorical indices

Wikipedia's main categorical index, autogenerates from mark-up information (category tags) placed at the end of each article. The pages at the top of the category system hierarchy are:

• Wikipedia:Categorical index — an index of all categories, plus a list of high-level categories, arranged by subject.
• Category:Categories — the highest level or "root" category in Wikipedia.
• Category:Fundamental — the category into which all other article categories are classified.

Wikipedia's other categorical indices are:

• Wikipedia:Outline of Roget's Thesaurus — articles organised into a system based on six classes, with thousands of branches. (under construction)
• Library of Congress Classification — this article provides a reflection of its own deep, link structure. (under construction)

Alphabetical indices

• Complete alphabetical index — Sorted by the first 2 letters of the title, e.g. "Aa Ab Ac ..."