---
title: Not a dictionary
author: Issa Rice
created: 2015-01-02
date: 2015-01-02
---

The phrase "*X* is not a dictionary" has been used in at least two contexts with distinct meanings.

WikiWikiWeb uses the phrase in the sense of "we shouldn't try to have an entry for *everything*".
From "[Wiki Is Nota Dictionary](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiIsNotaDictionary)":

> Please, do not make pages for the words you use unless you are confident
> such a page would be valuable to this audience.

In addition, [WardCunningham](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WardCunningham) adds:

> Wiki can be driven to pointless tangents by careless formation of
> hyperlinks. For example, say I use the phrase "Big Mac" in a
> contribution, alluding to the heavily marketed hamburger. Does Wiki need
> a definition of Big Mac? No way. Although some readers might benefit
> from a definition, in light of our
> [AmericanCulturalAssumption](http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AmericanCulturalAssumption)(s),
> such a definition would be better included within the prose as above
> than as a footnote or hyperlink. Ask yourself: if the page you cite were
> to be created, would it serve Wiki well as a point of entry in this web
> of knowledge?

Wikipedia, on the other hand, uses the phrase in the sense of "a Wikipedia entry should say *different things* from what a dictionary entry says".
From "[Wikipedia is not a dictionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_is_not_a_dictionary)":

> Wikipedia articles should begin with a [good definition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GOODDEF "Wikipedia:GOODDEF"),
> but they should provide other types of information about that topic as
> well. The full articles that Wikipedia's stubs grow into are very
> different from dictionary entries.
>
> Each article in an encyclopedia is about a person, a people, a concept,
> a place, an event, a thing etc., whereas a dictionary entry is primarily
> about a word, an idiom, or a term and its meaning*s*, usage and history.


# For this site

For this site, "not a dictionary" means more closely to how WikiWikiWeb uses the term; in other words, this site is not meant to have an entry for every single idea in existence.
Instead, I want to collect here my thoughts on some topics that interest me, and that I think would interest others as well.