Outline of Wikipedia

The following outline is provided as an overview of and a topical guide to Wikipedia: Wikipedia[a] is a free-content online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki.

Wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history,[1][2] and is consistently ranked among the ten most visited websites; as of December 2024[update], it was ranked fifth by Semrush,[3] and seventh by Similarweb.

[4] Founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on January 15, 2001, Wikipedia has been hosted since 2003 by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American nonprofit organization funded mainly by donations from readers.

[5] History of Wikipedia – Wikipedia was formally launched on 15 January 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, using the concept and technology of a wiki pioneered by Ward Cunningham.

Initially, Wikipedia was created to complement Nupedia, an online encyclopedia project edited solely by experts, by providing additional draft articles and ideas for it.