Jump to content

Main Page

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Welcome to Wikipedia,

Search the 285,448 articles in the Simple English Wikipedia
How to write Simple English pages · Useful pages · Simple talk · Categories · Help
Schools Gateway (for users who want to make changes from a school)

About Wikipedia

This is the front page of the Simple English Wikipedia. Wikipedias are places where people work together to write encyclopedias in different languages. We use Simple English words and grammar here. The Simple English Wikipedia is for everyone, such as children and adults who are learning English. There are 285,448 articles on the Simple English Wikipedia. All of the pages are free to use. They have all been published under both the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 4.0 International License and the GNU Free Documentation License. You can help here! You may change these pages and make new pages. Read the help pages and other good pages to learn how to write pages here. If you need help, you may ask questions at Simple talk.

When writing articles here:

  • Use Basic English words and shorter sentences. This allows people to understand complex terms or phrases.
  • Write good pages. The best encyclopedia pages have useful, well-written information.
  • Use the pages to learn and teach. These pages can help people learn English. You can also use them to make a new Wikipedia to help other people.
  • Simple does not mean short. Writing in Simple English means that simple words are used. It does not mean readers want basic information. Articles do not have to be short to be simple; expand articles, add details, but use basic vocabulary.
  • Be bold! Your article does not have to be perfect because other editors will fix it and make it better. And most importantly, do not be afraid to start and make articles better yourself.

Selected Very Good Article

Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. It is an ice giant. It is the fourth-largest planet in the system.

Neptune's mass is 17 times Earth's mass and a little bit more than Uranus' mass. Neptune is denser and smaller than Uranus. Its greater mass makes its gravity make its atmosphere smaller and denser.

It was named after the Roman god of the sea, Neptune. Neptune's astronomical symbol is ♆, the trident of the god Neptune.

Neptune's atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium. It also contains small amounts of methane which makes the planet appear blue. Neptune's blue color is much darker than the color of Uranus. Neptune also has the strongest winds of any planet in the Solar System, as high as 2,100 km/h or 1,300 mph.

Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams were the astronomers who discovered Neptune. Neptune was not discovered using a telescope. It was the first planet to be discovered using mathematics. In 1821, astronomers saw that Uranus' orbit was different from what they expected. Another nearby planet's mass was changing Uranus' orbit. They found Neptune was the cause.

Voyager 2 visited Neptune on 25 August 1989. It was the only spacecraft to visit the planet. Neptune used to have a huge storm known as the "Great Dark Spot". Voyager 2 discovered the spot in 1989. The dark spot was not seen in 1994, but new spots were found since then. It is not known why the dark spot disappeared. Visits by other space probes have been planned.

Neptune has five rings. These rings are hard to see from the Earth.

Selected Good Article

A satellite image of Hurricane Floyd in 1987
A satellite image of Hurricane Floyd in 1987

Hurricane Floyd was the only hurricane to make landfall in the United States during the 1987 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the last of seven tropical storms and three hurricanes. Floyd developed on 9 October just off the east coast of Nicaragua. Floyd was a hurricane for only twelve hours. It dissipated on 14 October.

Did you know...

From a collection of Wikipedia's articles:

A purple-throated carib hummingbird

  • ... that hummingbirds (pictured) are the only birds that can fly backwards?
  • ... that in 2009, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu became the first Nobel Prize winner to be a member of the U.S. Cabinet?
  • ... that Magnifica humanitas is the first papal encyclical to be published without an official Latin version?
  • ... that in 2024, Rachel Reeves became the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer?
  • ... that one of the most read articles of The Seattle Times in 2005 was about a man who died after having sex with a horse?
  • ... that because of SAG rules, Michael John Douglas had to change his name by searching a phone book under "K," saw "Keaton" and decided to pick it as his surname?
  • Knowledge groups

    Applied sciences
    Architecture (building) • Communication • Electronics • Engineering • Farming • Health • Industry • Medicine • Transport • Weather
    People and social studies
    Anthropology (study of people) • Archaeology (history of civilization) • Geography • Education • History • Language • Philosophy (abstract ideas) • Psychology • Sociology • Teaching
    Daily life, art and culture
    Animation • Art • Book • Cooking • Custom • Culture • Dance • Family • Games • Gardening • Leisure (free time) • Movies and films • Music • Radio • Sports • Theater • Travel • Television
    Natural sciences and maths
    Algebra • Astronomy (stars and space) • Biology (animals and plants) • Chemistry • Computer science • Earth science • Ecology • Geometry • Mathematics • Physics • Statistics • Zoology (study of animals)
    Government and law
    Copyright • Defense • Economics (trade and business) • Government • Human rights • Laws • Military • Politics • Trade
    Religions and beliefs
    Atheism • Bahá'í • Buddhism • Christianity • Esotericism • Hinduism • Islam • Jainism • Judaism • Mythology • Paganism • Sect • Sikhism • Taoism • Theology

    Sister projects

    Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other projects:
    In Simple English:
    Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus
    Commons
    Free media repository
    Wikifunctions
    Free collection of functions
    In Regular English:
    Wikispecies
    Directory of species
    Wikipedia
    English Wikipedia
    Wikidata
    Free knowledge base
    Wiktionary
    Dictionary and thesaurus
    Wikiquote
    Collection of quotations
    Wikibooks
    Free textbooks and manuals
    Wikisource
    Free-content library
    Wikiversity
    Free learning resources
    Meta-Wiki
    Wikimedia project coordination
    Wikivoyage
    Free travel guide
    MediaWiki
    Wiki software development
    Abstract Wikipedia
    Language-independent articles

    Other languages

    5,000,000 articles or more
    1,000,000 articles or more
    500,000 articles or more
    100,000 articles or more

    Simple English  •  Afrikaans (Afrikaans)  •  asturianu (Asturian)  •  azərbaycanca (Azerbaijani)  •  تۆرکجه (South Azerbaijani)  •  беларуская (Belarusian)  •  български (Bulgarian)  •  বাংলা (Bangla)  •  Cymraeg (Welsh)  •  dansk (Danish)  •  Ελληνικά (Greek)  •  Esperanto (Esperanto)  •  eesti (Estonian)  •  euskara (Basque)  •  galego (Galician)  •  עברית (Hebrew)  •  हिन्दी (Hindi)  •  hrvatski (Croatian)  •  հայերեն (Armenian)  •  ქართული (Georgian)  •  қазақша (Kazakh)  •  Latina (Latin)  •  Ladin (Ladin)  •  lietuvių (Lithuanian)  •  latviešu (Latvian)  •  Malagasy (Malagasy)  •  Minangkabau (Minangkabau)  •  македонски (Macedonian)  •  मराठी (Marathi)  •  Bahasa Melayu (Malay)  •  မြန်မာဘာသာ (Burmese)  •  norsk nynorsk (Norwegian Nynorsk)  •  srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски (Serbo-Croatian)  •  slovenčina (Slovak)  •  slovenščina (Slovenian)  •  shqip (Albanian)  •  Kiswahili (Swahili)  •  தமிழ் (Tamil)  •  తెలుగు (Telugu)  •  тоҷикӣ (Tajik)  •  ไทย (Thai)  •  اردو (Urdu)  •  oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча (Uzbek)  •  粵語 (Cantonese)  •  閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gí (Minnan)