Wikipedia (/ˌwɪkɪˈpiːdiə/ ( listen), /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdiə/ ( listen) WIK-ih-PEE-dee-ə) is a multilingual, web-based, free-content encyclopediaproject supported by the Wikimedia Foundation and based on a model of openly editable content.[3] Wikipedia is the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet,[4][5][6] and is ranked the fifth-most popular website.[7] The project is owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit which "operates on whatever monies it receives from its annual fund drives".[8][9][10]
Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.[11] Sanger coined its name,[12][13] a portmanteau of wiki[notes 4] and encyclopedia. There was only the English-language version initially, but similar versions in other languages quickly developed, which differ in content and in editing practices. With 5,574,127 articles,[notes 5] the English Wikipedia is the largest of the more than 290 Wikipedia encyclopedias. Overall, Wikipedia comprises more than 40 million articles in 299 different languages[15] and, as of February 2014, it had 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors each month.[16]
As of March 2017, Wikipedia has about 40,000 high-quality articles, known as Featured Articles and Good Articles, that cover vital topics.[17][18] In 2005, Nature published a peer review comparing 42 science articles from Encyclopædia Britannica and Wikipedia, and found that Wikipedia's level of accuracy approached that of Encyclopædia Britannica.[19] Time magazine stated that the remarkably open-door policy of allowing anyone to edit had made Wikipedia the biggest and possibly the best encyclopedia in the world and it was testament to the vision of Jimmy Wales.[20]
Wikipedia has been criticized for allegedly exhibiting systemic bias, presenting a mixture of "truths, half truths, and some falsehoods",[21] and, in controversial topics, being subject to manipulation and spin.[22]
Wikipedia
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