Disambiguation

A disambiguation is used to help users distinguish between entities that have identical or confusingly similar names. Disambiguation values are visible in search results and entity detail pages. When including a disambiguation, it should be written in English and kept fairly short.

When to use disambiguation

  1. If two or more entities of the same type contain an identical name.

  2. If two or more entities of the same type contain names where homonyms, grammatical articles, punctuation or plurality differ.

When not to use disambiguation

  1. To provide a description of an entity that is not ambiguous. Use annotations to provide such descriptions.

  2. To distinguish entities of different types. Existing cues in the user interface already address this.

Disambiguation content

For works

  1. Different authors. If the name of a work is ambiguous with the work of another author, the disambiguation should contain the name of the author and the work type. Examples:

    • Misery (Anton Chekov short story)
    • Misery (Stephen King novel)

  2. Translated work. If a work has been translated from its original language and is ambiguous with the work of the same author, the disambiguation should indicate the language of the translation. Examples:

    • Madame Bovary (French) ← original work
    • Madame Bovary (German translation) ← translated work

    If the work has been translated to the same language by different translators, indicate the language and translator in the disambiguation. Example:

    • Madame Bovary (English: Alan Russell)
    • Madame Bovary (English: Eleanor Marx)

  3. Identically named work and type by same author. If an author produces ambiguously named works of identical type, the disambiguation should contain the name of the author, work type and some descriptive text. Examples:

    • In Memoriam (Voltairine de Cleyre poem to Dyer D. Lum)
    • In Memoriam (Voltairine de Cleyre poem to Gen. M. M. Trumbull)

    If no descriptive information is apparent, quote the first words of the text. Examples:

    • Justice (Ambrose Bierce poem “Jack Doe met Dick Roe”)
    • Justice (Ambrose Bierce poem “She jilted me”)

  4. Combinations. For scenarios where more than one type of ambiguity occurs for a work, combine methods above, shorten wherever practical and separate with commas. Examples:

    • Esau (Philip Kerr novel, English)
    • Esau (Philip Kerr novel, German translation)
    • Esau (Poul Anderson short story)

For editions and edition groups

If an edition or edition group requires disambiguation by author, the author name(s) should be listed. Examples:

  • Short Fiction (Philip K. Dick)
  • Short Fiction (P. K. Wodehouse)

If an edition or edition group for the same author requires disambiguation by language, append the language to the disambiguation. Example:

  • Hamlet (William Shakespeare, English)
  • Hamlet (William Shakespeare, German)

If editions are issued by multiple publishers, or multiple editions are issued by the same publisher, no further disambiguation is applicable.

For authors

For an ambiguous author, provide a brief description including: genre, language, occupation, nationality, era, etc.

For publishers

For an ambiguous publisher, provide a brief descriptions such as nationality, speciality, language, era, etc.