Help:Namespaces

Namespaces are the types of pages that you can find on Wikipedia. These help separate the guidelines from the help documents, for example.

Namespaces

Main namespace

The most common namespace on Wikipedia is the main namespace. All pages that do not have any prefixes before their name will be part of this namespace.

Most of these pages are articles, but some of them are disambiguation pages or redirects.

Examples of pages in this namespace are the Main Page and Music.

Talk namespace

The Talk Namespace is used for discussion about a page. A talk page is made for every page that is made.

They are always prefixed with Talk:.

Examples of pages in this namespace are Talk:Main Page and Talk:Music.

User namespace

The User namespace contains pages for each user on Wikipedia. It is usually bad to change a user's page if that user isn't you. You can change your user page to say anything you want.

They are always prefixed with User:.

Examples of pages in this namespace are User:Jordanhatch and User:Archer7.

User talk namespace

The User talk namespace contains talk pages for each user.

They are always prefixed with User talk:.

Examples of pages in this namespace are User talk:Jordanhatch and User talk:Archer7.

Wikipedia namespace

The Wikipedia namespace contains pages that are related to Wikipedia. These are often guidelines, project pages or community pages.

They are always prefixed with Wikipedia:.

Examples of pages in this namespace are the Wikipedia:Community Portal and Wikipedia:Vandalism.

Wikipedia talk namespace

The Wikipedia talk namespace contains pages for discussing pages in the Wikipedia namespace.

They are always prefixed with Wikipedia talk:

Examples of pages in this namespace are Wikipedia talk:Twinkle and Wikipedia talk:Bots.

MediaWiki namespace

The MediaWiki namespace contains interface texts, such as the links and messages that appear on automatically generated pages and JavaScript gadgets. Pages in this namespace are permanently full-protected and may only be edited by administrators. For a list of these messages, see Special:AllMessages.

MediaWiki talk namespace

The MediaWiki talk namespace contains pages for discussing pages in the MediaWiki namespace.

They are always prefixed with MediaWiki:

Help namespace

The Help namespace contains help pages for members of Wikipedia.

They are always prefixed with Help:. A list of all help pages can be found at Help:Contents.

Examples of pages in this namespace are Help:Minor change and Help:How to change pages.

Help talk namespace

The Help talk namespace contains pages for discussing pages in the Help namespace.

They are always prefixed with Help talk:

Examples of pages in this namespace are Help talk:Minor change and Help talk:How to change pages.

Special namespace

The Special namespace contains scripts of the encyclopedia.

They are always prefixed with Special:.

All special pages are non-changeable, and it is impossible to create a special page. The most common page in this namespace is Special:UserLogin.

Gadgets

Pages with the prefixes Gadget:, Gadget talk:, Gadget definition:, and Gadget definition talk: are known as gadgets. Gadgets are currently unused and there are no pages in any of the given namespaces. You also cannot create pages in any of the given namespaces.

Programming

The 18 namespaces in Wikipedia are numbered for programming purposes:

Namespace variable	Result (namespace name)	Namespace variable	Result (talk namespace name)
{{ns:-2}}	Media
{{ns:-1}}	Special
{{ns:0}}	(main namespace, returns empty string)	{{ns:1}}	Talk
{{ns:2}}	User	{{ns:3}}	User talk
{{ns:4}}	Wikipedia	{{ns:5}}	Wikipedia talk
{{ns:6}}	File	{{ns:7}}	File talk
{{ns:8}}	MediaWiki	{{ns:9}}	MediaWiki talk
{{ns:10}}	Template	{{ns:11}}	Template talk
{{ns:12}}	Help	{{ns:13}}	Help talk
{{ns:14}}	Category	{{ns:15}}	Category talk
{{ns:710}}	TimedText	{{ns:711}}	TimedText talk
{{ns:828}}	Module	{{ns:829}}	Module talk

Related pages

• Help:How to change pages