Urban Dictionary

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**Urban Dictionary**

URL	http://www.urbandictionary.com/
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Slang Dictionary
Registration	optional
Owner	Aaron Peckham
Created by	Aaron Peckham

Urban Dictionary is an online Internet dictionary whose definitions are written by users. Most words and phrases featured on Urban Dictionary are slang, particularly new, urban, or ambiguous terms. With an Alexa ranking as one of the 2000 highest web traffic sites, Urban Dictionary is the "Internet's unofficial slang authority" for definitions.

The dictionary was founded by Aaron Peckham and went on-line in October 14 2001. As of December 2005, it had more than 300,000 definitions with new definitions coming in at a rate of 2000 per day.[1] Words with multiple definitions are listed in order of users' thumbs-up or -down votes. Votes, limited to one per user for each entry, are tallied simply by clicking a thumb next to the definition. Poor or unpopular definitions are effectively buried under higher ranked definitions. Often, thumbs-up votes are influenced as much by an entry's humor as by its accuracy. For most, the site is primarily a form of entertainment. Besides slang, Urban Dictionary also contains Internet jargon, neologisms, politicians, bands, school/town/state rivalries. According to the site's posted user profile, 75% of the users are under 25. Most of the entries are predictably about sex and many are short-lived.[2]

Urban Dictionary is built on user contributions. Unlike some dictionaries, it allows for many truths, rather than serving as an authoritative guide. Despite its low signal-to-noise ratio, Urban Dictionary is a valuable resource for anyone, even lexicographers, looking for information on cutting edge slang.[3]

1 Quality control
2 Publication
3 Criticisms
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Quality control

The quality control system reduces the number of hateful and personal, although Urban Dictionary makes no attempt to discourage racist, sexist, violent, or biased entries because such terms are a major part of slang.

Originally, a user that objected to a definition could submit a complaint. Deletion requests were added to a pool that was reviewed by users to choose whether "it stays", "it goes", or "don't know." However, this approach was abandoned because many volunteer reviewers approved definitions based on whether they agreed with the tone or opinions expressed.

Under the revised reviewing system, newly submitted definitions are entered into the editing queue before appearing on the site. Volunteer editors vote to accept or reject definitions in the queue based on the guidelines below. Words with no other definitions on the site go to the front of the queue. Conversely, words with many definitions (such as emo, which has over one thousand entries) wait longer before being reviewed by editors. This system allows new slang, such as the latest Bushism, to appear within a day or two.

Each submission is reviewed by a number of volunteers (the exact number varies, but lies between two and nine), with controversial definitions being viewed by more people. Definitions with more accept votes than reject votes appear on the site.

[edit] Publication

In October 2006 a selection of tame definitions from the Urban Dictionary was published in book form:

Urban Dictionary: Fularious Street Slang Defined (by Aaron Peckham, 320 pages, Andrews McMeel, 2006, ISBN 0740751433)

[edit] Criticisms

On the 30th March, the site was criticised by Malcolm Wicks, MP for Croydon North, when an article appeared on there calling him a "stupid Silverback Gorilla".