Help:Categories

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Categories are used in Wikipedia to link articles under a common topic and are found at the bottom of the article page. Clicking the category name displays a list of articles in that category, as well as any sub-categories. Categories allow readers to navigate through Wikipedia and find related articles.

Category tree

All of the categories form a hierarchy, although sub-categories may be a member of more than one category. An example of a small part of this hierarchical structure looks somewhat like this:

    Category:Main topic classificationsCategory:HistoryCategory:History by locationCategory:History by countryCategory:History of AustraliaCategory:History of Australia by locationCategory:History of Australia by state or territory
                      ↓
      New South Wales, Queensland, etc.

The actual relationship is more complex since a category may appear as a subcategory of several other categories. The actual relationship of part of the category structure looks like this:


Category-diagram.png


The uppermost category in the hierarchy is Category:Contents. From here all other categories branch out, including those that are used for the maintenance of Wikipedia.

If an entry in a category is shown in italics it is a redirect to an article of a different name or a section of an article that contains information about that particular subject.