Help:Namespaces

There are many namespaces in Wikidata; this page provides information on some of the key ones you might encounter as a contributor. For a full list, see the advanced search option at Special:Search which allows you to search Wikidata by namespace.

The main namespace is reserved for items only. Instead of following the convention of a name followed by a colon, for the URL of pages in this namespace, page titles immediately follow the forward slash after the word 'wiki'. Pages are titled according to their unique identifiers (Q###). They don't contain wiki code and their content is internally formatted in JSON.

Example page:

http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q142

This namespace is only for properties. It is similar to the main namespace in that it is for editing data. Pages are also titled according to unique identifiers—in this case, P###. For pages in the main and property namespaces, it is only possible to edit the respective parts of an item or a property through the various edit links. There is no main "edit" tab at the top right side of item or property pages and the pages contain no wiki code, like the main-space pages. For more information on editing items and properties, see Help:Items and Help:Properties.

Example page:

http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P31

The Wikidata namespace, or project namespace, is for pages with information or discussion about Wikidata itself, such as status updates by the development team. This is also where you can find task forces, groups of contributors who work together to improve a particular aspect of Wikidata.

Example page:

http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Glossary

This namespace is used for user pages. Each Wikidata user has a corresponding page in the User namespace, which is linked to from edit histories and wherever an individual user is uniquely identified.

Example page:

http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Lydia_Pintscher_(WMDE)

Talk namespaces exist for all of the above namespaces; a talk namespace is used for discussions related to its corresponding namespace. For example, the Help Talk namespace could be used for giving or receiving feedback on proposed changes to Help pages; the Property Talk namespace is where debate and discussion of a specific property and its appropriate usage takes place.

Example pages:

This namespace is used for special pages that are used for administrative purposes, like statistics, maintenance reports, and user accounts and permissions. The pages are not directly editable and it is not possible to create pages in this namespace except by modifying the MediaWiki software.

Example page:

http://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:Search

Yellow background color indicates data namespaces, while the others are meta namespaces available on the Wikidata server.

Underlined namespaces are aliases for the non-underlined namespace they are listed with.

Index	Prefix	Title example	Purpose	Associated discussion namespace
-2	Media:		Alias for direct links to media files. This is a virtual namespace. You cannot create or delete these.	No associated discussion namespace
-1	Special:	Special:SpecialPages	MediaWiki automatic generated content. This is a virtual namespace. Not directly editable.	No associated discussion namespace
0	(blank)	Q1	Main namespace, for items.	1	Talk:
2	User:	User:Example	User pages	3	User talk:
4	Wikidata: WD: Project:	Wikidata:Glossary	Policies, guidelines, portals, wikiproject pages.	5	Wikidata talk: WT: Project talk:
6	File:		Media description pages (currently not used)	7	File talk:
8	MediaWiki:	MediaWiki:Aboutsite	User interface customization. Protected by default.	9	MediaWiki talk:
10	Template:	Template:Welcome	Templates	11	Template talk:
12	Help:	Help:Contents	Help pages	13	Help talk:
14	Category:	Category:Contents	Category description pages	15	Category talk:
120	Property: P:	Property:P17	Property definition pages	121	Property talk:
122	Query:	Query:U1	Query definition pages (currently unused, reserved for later use for automated list generation and related uses)	123	Query talk:
146	Lexeme: L:	Lexeme:L1	Lexemes	147	Lexeme talk:
640	EntitySchema:	EntitySchema	Schemas	641	EntitySchema talk:
828	Module:	Module:Wikidata	Scribunto modules	829	Module talk:
1198	Translations:	Translations:Wikidata:Introduction/2/en	Used by the translation interface	1199	Translations talk:
2300	:		Not currently in use	2301	:
2302	:		Not currently in use	2303	:
2600	Topic:		Structured Discussions topics	No associated discussion namespace

For additional information and guidance, see: