wiki
Americannoun
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(sometimes initial capital letter) a website that allows users to add, delete, or revise content by using a web browser: Students who contribute to the class review wiki may earn extra credit points on their exams.
The wiki has character descriptions and image galleries for every game in the franchise.
Students who contribute to the class review wiki may earn extra credit points on their exams.
Research and development team members should all have permission to edit the design wikis for all current projects.
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Also called wiki application. Also called wiki engine,. the software used to create a wiki.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of wiki
First recorded in 1990–95; shortening of WikiWikiWeb, a software program developed by Howard G. “Ward” Cunningham (born 1949), U.S. computer programmer; from Hawaiian wikiwiki “very quick,” emphatic reduplication of wiki “quick.” Cunningham coined the name WikiWikiWeb after recalling that a Honolulu International Airport counter employee advised him to take the Wiki Wiki Shuttle (a shuttle bus that runs between the terminals of the airport); his original idea was to make WikiWikiWeb's pages readily editable by its users and initially thought about calling his program QuickWeb but changed his mind and named it WikiWikiWeb
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Together with a team of more than 500 volunteers, Skinner built a wiki that combines incidents, agents, vehicles, and public data related to ICE.
From Slate • Jan. 28, 2026
There’s no need to delay changes until some distant future print run; the whole point of a wiki is that you can always make an edit.
From Slate • Apr. 12, 2025
In 2010, it became a moderated wiki and now is run by about 170 international volunteer editors who wrangle 50 or more new submissions a day.
From New York Times • May 21, 2023
The Wikimedia Foundation was established in 2003, two years after Wikipedia itself, as a nonprofit organization to fund the internet encyclopedia and other crowdsourced wiki projects.
From Slate • Dec. 2, 2022
“The online fandom would be in shambles. The wiki may crash.”
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
