Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section

The lead section (also known as the lead, introduction or intro) of a Wikipedia article is the section before the table of contents and the first heading. The lead serves as an introduction to the article and a summary of its most important aspects. (The news-journalism jargon term lede is sometimes used, but can be misleading, because Wikipedia leads are not written in news style, and journalistic ledes serve different purposes from encyclopedic leads.)

The lead should be able to stand alone as a concise overview. It should define the topic, establish context, explain why the topic is notable, and summarize the most important points—including any prominent controversies. The emphasis given to material in the lead should roughly reflect its importance to the topic, according to reliable, published sources, and the notability of the article's subject is usually established in the first few sentences. Significant information should not appear in the lead if it is not covered in the remainder of the article.

While consideration should be given to creating interest in reading more of the article, the lead should not "tease" the reader by hinting at—but not explaining—important facts that will appear later in the article. The lead should normally contain no more than four paragraphs, be carefully sourced as appropriate, and be written in a clear, accessible style with a neutral point of view to invite a reading of the full article.

Elements of the lead

As explained in more detail below, the lead section may contain optional elements presented in the following order: disambiguation links (dablinks), maintenance tags, infoboxes, foreign character warning boxes, images, navigational boxes (navigational templates), introductory text, and table of contents, moving to the heading of the first section.

Correct Structure of Lead Section:

{{Hatnote}}
{{Copy edit}}
{{Infobox rocket|name=...}}
{{Contains Korean text}}
[[File:TypicalRocket.gif|...|A typical rocket]] or {{Rocket Navigation}}
A '''rocket''' is a ...
[table of contents]

== First section ==

• Disambiguation links should be the first elements of the page, before any maintenance tags, infobox or image; if a reader has reached the wrong page, they will want to know that first. Text-only browsers and screen readers present the page sequentially. A "for topics of the same name ..." disambiguation link is sometimes put at the beginning of an article to link to another article discussing another meaning of the article title. Do not make this initial link a section. In such cases, the line should be italicized and indented using templates. See also Wikipedia:Hatnote.
• The maintenance tags should be below the disambiguation links. These tags inform the reader about the general quality of the article, and should be presented to the user before the article itself.
• Infoboxes contain summary information or an overview relating to the subject of the article, and therefore should be put before any text (though in actuality they will generally appear to the side of the text of the lead). The primary difference between an infobox and a navigational box is the presence of parameters: a navigational box is exactly the same in all articles of the same topic, while an infobox has different contents in each article.
• Foreign character warning boxes let readers know that foreign characters which may not be supported by their platform or browser appear in the article. If required, they should come adjacent to, or near, any text that has the foreign characters in question, such that scrolling is not required to see the box. This is generally after short infoboxes, but before long ones.
• Images. An image's caption is part of the article text. If the article has disambiguation links (dablinks), then the introductory image should appear just before the introductory text. Otherwise a screen reader would first read the image's caption, which is part of the article's contents, then "jump" outside the article to read the dablink, and then return to the lead section, which is an illogical sequence.
• Sidebars are a collection of links used in multiple related articles to facilitate navigation between those articles. Sidebars are sometimes placed in the lead, especially when no infobox is present. If an infobox is present, the navigation sidebar may be moved to either the top or bottom of any other section in the article.
• Introductory text. As explained in more detail at § Introductory text, all but the shortest articles should start with introductory text (the "lead"). The lead should establish significance, include mention of consequential or significant criticism or controversies, and be written in a way that makes readers want to know more. The appropriate length of the lead depends on that of the article, but should normally be no more than four paragraphs. The lead itself has no heading and, on pages with more than three headings, automatically appears above the table of contents, if present. See also Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles#Lead section.
• The table of contents (TOC) automatically appears on pages with more than three headings. Avoid floating the table of contents if possible, as it breaks the standard look of pages. If you must use a floated TOC, put it below the lead section in the wiki markup for consistency. Users of screen readers expect the table of contents to follow the introductory text; they will also miss any text placed between the TOC and the first heading.

Citations

Further information: Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Citing sources

The lead must conform to verifiability and other policies. The verifiability policy advises that material that is challenged or likely to be challenged, and quotations, should be supported by an inline citation. Because the lead will usually repeat information that is in the body, editors should balance the desire to avoid redundant citations in the lead with the desire to aid readers in locating sources for challengeable material. Leads are usually written at a greater level of generality than the body, and information in the lead section of non-controversial subjects is less likely to be challenged and less likely to require a source; there is not, however, an exception to citation requirements specific to leads. The necessity for citations in a lead should be determined on a case-by-case basis by editorial consensus. Complex, current, or controversial subjects may require many citations; others, few or none. The presence of citations in the introduction is neither required in every article nor prohibited in any article.

Some material, including direct quotations and contentious material about living persons must be provided with an inline citation every time it is mentioned, regardless of the level of generality or the location of the statement.

Introductory text

Provide an accessible overview

See also: news style and summary style.

The lead section should briefly summarize the most important points covered in an article in such a way that it can stand on its own as a concise version of the article. The reason for a topic's noteworthiness should be established, or at least introduced, in the lead (but not by using "peacock terms" such as "acclaimed" or "award-winning"). It is even more important here than in the rest of the article that the text be accessible. Consideration should be given to creating interest in the article. This allows editors to avoid lengthy paragraphs and over-specific descriptions, since greater detail is saved for the body of the article.

In general, specialized terminology and symbols should be avoided in an introduction. Mathematical equations and formulas should be avoided when they conflict with the goal of making the lead section accessible to as broad an audience as possible. Where uncommon terms are essential, they should be placed in context, linked and briefly defined. The subject should be placed in a context familiar to a normal reader. For example, it is better to describe the location of a town with reference to an area or larger place than with coordinates. Readers should not be dropped into the middle of the subject from the first word; they should be eased into it.

Relative emphasis

In general, the emphasis given to material in the lead should reflect its relative importance to the subject, according to reliable sources. Do not hint at startling facts without describing them. Significant information should not appear in the lead if it is not covered in the remainder of the article, although not everything in the lead must be repeated in the body of the text. This includes specific facts such as quotations, examples, birth dates, and titles. This should not be taken to exclude information from the lead, but to include it in both the lead and body.

Opening paragraph

The first paragraph should define the topic with a neutral point of view, but without being overly specific. It should establish the context in which the topic is being considered by supplying the set of circumstances or facts that surround it. If appropriate, it should give the location and time. It should also establish the boundaries of the topic; for example, the lead for the article List of environmental issues succinctly states the limits of that list.

First sentence

The first sentence should tell the nonspecialist reader what (or who) the subject is.

• If possible, the page title should be the subject of the first sentence. However, if the article title is merely descriptive—such as Electrical characteristics of dynamic loudspeakers—the title does not need to appear verbatim in the main text.
• Similarly, if the page is a list, do not introduce the list as "This is a list of X" or "This list of Xs...". A clearer and more informative introduction to the list is better than verbatim repetition of the title. (See Format of the first sentence below).
• When the page title is used as the subject of the first sentence, it may appear in a slightly different form, and it may include variations, including synonyms. Similarly, if the title has a parenthetical disambiguator, the disambiguator should be omitted in the text.
• If its subject is definable, then the first sentence should give a concise definition: where possible, one that puts the article in context for the nonspecialist. Similarly, if the title is a specialised term, provide the context as early as possible.
• Redundancy must be kept to a minimum in the first sentence. Use the first sentence of the article to provide relevant information which is not already given by the title of the article. Remember that the title of the article need not appear verbatim in the lead.
• For topics notable for only one reason, this reason should usually be given in the first sentence.
• If the article is about a fictional character or place, say so.

Format of the first sentence

See also: Wikipedia:Superfluous bolding explained

If an article's title is a formal or widely accepted name for the subject, display it in bold as early as possible in the first sentence:

The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. (Electron)

Otherwise, include the title if it can be accommodated in normal English:

The inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre were held in AD 80. (Inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre)

Only the first occurrence of the title and significant alternative titles are placed in bold:

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra.

If the article's title does not lend itself to being used easily and naturally in the opening sentence, the wording should not be distorted in an effort to include it:

The 2011 Mississippi River floods were a series of floods affecting the Mississippi River in April and May 2011, which were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century. (2011 Mississippi River floods)

Instead, simply describe the subject in normal English, avoiding unnecessary redundancy:

The Mississippi River floods in April and May 2011 were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century. (2011 Mississippi River floods)

If the article's exact title is absent from the first sentence, do not apply the bold style to related text that does appear:

The Beatles' rise to prominence in the United States on February 7, 1964 was a significant development in the history of the band's commercial success. (The Beatles in the United States)

Proper names and titles

If the title of the page is normally italicized (for example, a work of art, literature, album, or ship) then its first mention should be both bold and italic text; if it is usually surrounded by quotation marks, the title should be bold but the quotation marks should not be:

Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, ...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) is a 1966 Italian epic Spaghetti western film ...

"Yesterday" is a pop song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!

Abbreviations and synonyms

If the subject of the page has a common abbreviation or more than one name, the abbreviation (in parentheses) and each additional name should be in boldface on its first appearance.

Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as lye and caustic soda, is ...

Foreign language

Do not boldface foreign names not normally used in English, or variations included only to show etymology. However, some foreign terms should be italicized. These cases are described in the Manual of Style for text formatting.

Chernivtsi Oblast ([Чернівецька область, Chernivets’ka oblast’] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is an oblast (province) in western Ukraine, bordering on Romania and Moldova.

Inuit (plural; the singular Inuk means "man" or "person") is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions ...

In any case, consider footnoting equivalents in non-roman scripts and their transliterations rather than placing them at the opening of an article.

Pronunciation

If the name of the article has a pronunciation that's not apparent from its spelling, include its pronunciation in parentheses after the first occurrence of the name. Most such terms are foreign words or phrases (mate, coup d'état), proper nouns (Ralph Fiennes, Tuolumne River, Tao Te Ching), or very unusual English words (synecdoche, atlatl). Do not include pronunciations for names of foreign countries whose pronunciations are well known in English (France, Poland) or common English words that violate ordinary English orthography (laughter, sword). If the name of the article is more than one word, include pronunciation only for the words that need it unless all are foreign (all of Jean van Heijenoort but only Cholmondeley in Thomas P. G. Cholmondeley). A fuller discussion of pronunciation can come later in the article.

Contextual links

The opening sentence should provide links to the broader or more elementary topics that define the article's topic or place it into the context where it is notable.

For example, an article about a building or location should include a link to the broader geographical area of which it is a part.

Arugam Bay is a bay on the Indian Ocean in the dry zone of Sri Lanka's southeast coast.

In an article about a technical or jargon term, the opening sentence or paragraph should normally contain a link to the field of study that the term comes from.

In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms.

The first sentence of an article about a person should link to the page or pages about the topic where the person achieved prominence.

Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn, Jr. (born July 12, 1934), is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War.

Exactly what provides the context needed to understand a given topic varies greatly from topic to topic.

The Gemara is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah.

Do not, however, add contextual links that don't relate directly to the topic's definition or reason for notability. For example, Van Cliburn's opening sentence links to Cold War because his fame came partly from his Tchaikovsky Competition victory being used as a Cold War symbol. The first sentence of a page about someone who rose to fame in the 1950s for reasons unrelated to the Cold War should not mention the Cold War at all, even though the Cold War is part of the broader historical context of that person's life. By the same token, do not link to years unless the year has some special salience to the topic.

Links appearing ahead of the bolded term distract from the topic if not necessary to establish context, and should be omitted even if they might be appropriate elsewhere in the text. For example, a person's title or office, such as colonel, naturally appears ahead of their name, but the word "Colonel" should not have a link, since it doesn't establish context. Do not, however, reword a sentence awkwardly just to keep a needed contextual link from getting ahead of the bolded term.

Colonel Charles Hotham (d. 1738) was a special British envoy entrusted by George II with the task of negotiating a double marriage between the Hanover and Hohenzollern dynasties.

Do not place a link within the bolded title, even if that seems to provide a graceful way to link to an appropriate context-setting topic. Bolded links look neither like bolded text nor ordinary links, and appear jarring.

Biographies

Further information: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biographies and the formatting of the first sentence of biographical articles

Organisms

See also WP:Manual of Style#Animals, plants, and other organisms for capitalization rules, and WP:Naming conventions (fauna) and WP:Naming conventions (flora) for article title guidelines.

When a common (vernacular) name is used as the article title, the boldfaced common name is followed by the italic un-boldfaced scientific name in round parentheses in the opening sentence of the lead. Alternative names should be mentioned and reliably sourced in the text where applicable, with bold type in the lead if they are in wide use, or elsewhere in the article (with or without the bold type, per editorial discretion) if they are less used. It is not necessary to include non-English common names, unless they are also commonly used in English, e.g. regionally; if included, they should be italicized as non-English.

• Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii) is the most common gazelle of East Africa ...
• Grunters or tigerperches are fishes in the family Terapontidae ...
• The rove beetles are a large family (Staphylinidae) of beetles ...

When the article title is the scientific name, reverse the order of the scientific and common name(s) (if any of the latter are given), and boldface as well as italicize the scientific name.

• Vitis vinifera (common grape vine) is a species of Vitis, native to the Mediterranean region, central Europe, and southwestern Asia ...

Brassica oleracea is the species of plant that includes many common foods as cultivars, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, savoy, and Chinese kale ...

Biographies of living persons

Main page: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons

When writing about controversies in the lead of the biography of a living person, notable material should neither be suppressed nor allowed to overwhelm: always pay scrupulous attention to reliable sources. Write clinically, and let the facts speak for themselves.

Well-publicized recent events affecting a subject, whether controversial or not, should be kept in historical perspective. What is most recent is not necessarily what is most notable: new information should be carefully balanced against old, with due weight accorded to each. When a subject dies, the lead need not be radically reworked. Unless the cause of death is itself a reason for notability, a single sentence describing it is usually sufficient.

Alternative names

The article title appears at the top of a reader's browser window and as a large level 1 heading above the editable text of an article, circled here in dark red. The name or names given in the first sentence does not always match the article title. This page gives advice on the contents of the first sentence, not the article title.

By the design of Wikipedia's software, an article can have only one title. When this title is a name, significant alternative names for the topic should be mentioned in the article, usually in the first sentence or paragraph. These may include alternative spellings, longer or shorter forms, historical names, and significant names in other languages. Indeed, alternative names can be used in article text in contexts where they are more appropriate than the name used as the title of the article. For example, the city now called "Gdańsk" can be referred to as "Danzig" in suited historical contexts. The editor needs to balance the desire to maximize the information available to the reader with the need to maintain readability.

Non-English titles

Although Wikipedia's naming convention guidelines recommend the use of English, there are instances where the subject of an article is best known in English-speaking sources by its non-English name. In this case, the non-English title may be appropriate for the article.

Usage in first sentence

In articles about people, literary and artistic works, scientific principles and concepts, and other subjects, the title can be followed in the first line by one or two alternative names in parentheses. The following are examples of names that may be included parenthetically, although inclusion should reflect consensus. The guideline for place names differs in this regard.

• Archaic names, including names used before the standardization of English orthography should be clearly marked as such, i.e., (archaic: name).
• Relevant foreign-language names, such as in an article on a person who does not themselves write their name in English, are encouraged. Separate languages should be divided by semicolons, and romanizations of non-Latin scripts by commas.

The name of a person is presented in full if known, including any given names that are not included in the article's title or are abbreviated there. For example, the article on Calvin Coolidge gives his name as John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. If a person has a commonly known nickname, used in lieu of a given name, it is presented between quote marks following the last given name or initial, as for John F. Kennedy, which has John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy. The quotation marks are not put in bold. A nickname that comes in place of the whole name should be presented after the full name, in parentheses. Also acceptable are formulations like "Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli", when applicable.

Consider footnoting foreign-language and archaic names if they would otherwise clutter the opening sentence.

Separate section usage

See also: Wikipedia:Naming conventions (geographic names)

Alternatively, if there are more than two alternative names, these names can be moved to and explained in a "Names" or "Etymology" section; it is recommended that this be done if there are at least three alternate names, or there is something notable about the names themselves. Once such a section or paragraph is created, the alternative English or foreign names should not be moved back to the first line. As an exception, a local official name different from a widely accepted English name should be retained in the lead.

Stubs

Where the article is a stub, a lead may not be necessary at all. Wikipedia encourages expanding stubs, but if reliably sourced information is not available, this may not be possible. Once an article has been sufficiently expanded, generally to around 400 or 500 words, editors should consider introducing section headings.

Length

The appropriate length of the lead section depends on the total length of the article. As a general guideline—not an absolute rule—the lead should normally be no longer than four paragraphs. The following suggestion may be useful:

Article length	Lead length
Fewer than 15,000 characters	One or two paragraphs
15,000–30,000 characters	Two or three paragraphs
More than 30,000 characters	Three or four paragraphs

Lead sections that reflect or expand on sections in other articles are discussed at Summary style. Journalistic conventions for lead sections are discussed at News style.

Clutter

The lead often becomes cluttered with parenthetical details (often to the point of absurdity) and should be reduced. For example, the lead from Genghis Khan read:

Genghis Khan (English pronunciation:/ˈɡɛŋɡɪs ˈkɑːn/ or /ˈdʒɛŋɡɪs ˈkɑːn/;^[1][2]; Cyrillic: Чингис Хаан, Chingis Khaan, IPA: [tʃiŋɡɪs xaːŋ] ; Mongol script: , Činggis Qaɣan; Chinese: 成吉思汗; pinyin: Chéng Jí Sī Hán; probably May 31, 1162^[3] – August 25, 1227), born Temujin (English pronunciation: /təˈmuːdʒɪn/; Mongolian: Тэмүжин, Temüjin IPA: [tʰemutʃiŋ] ; [Temüjin] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help);^[4] traditional Chinese: 鐵木真; simplified Chinese: 铁木真; pinyin: Tiě mù zhēn) and also known by the temple name Taizu (Chinese: 元太祖; pinyin: Yuán Tàizǔ; Wade–Giles: T'ai-Tsu), was the founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death.

Some parenthetical material may be notable enough to be among the first information presented, but much of it can be moved to footnotes, infoboxes, or into the body of the article. If this results in extensive footnotes which themselves contain references, notes and references can be split, as explained at WP:REFNOTE.

Editing the lead section

Editing the lead section can be cumbersome in long articles, because by default there is no edit link. The primary option is to open the entire article in the editing window by clicking on the "Edit" or "edit this page" tab at the top. However, this method increases the risk of edit conflicts in popular articles, and may cause problems if the page being edited is too large.

Registered users can override this default via:

• a checkbox on Special:Preferences > Gadgets > Appearance called "Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page".
• a checkbox on Special:Preferences > Editing called "Enable section editing by right clicking on section titles" (requires JavaScript)
• some user-written scripts that enable you to edit section 0.

All users can use the following:

• Click "edit" for any section and, in the resulting URL, replace the trailing &section=n with &section=0 before re-loading the page.

Cleanup

For a list of template messages related to the clean-up of lead sections, see Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup#Introduction. Editors are encouraged to improve leads rather than simply tag them.

See also

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility
• Wikipedia:Lead section TT first sentence content
• Wikipedia:Lead section TT first sentence format
• Wikipedia:Lead section TT text
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Introductions
• Wikipedia:Writing better articles
• Wikipedia's Good definition policy
• Help:Section