This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (June 2024)

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Usage

Redirects

Weasel words are words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful had been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated. Phrases such as "some say", "many scholars believe", "it is widely thought", "many are of the opinion" etc. are example of weasel terms. For more information see WP:WEASEL.

The following can be used to note articles with excessive weasel words:

((Weasel|((subst:DATE)))) for entire articles
((Weasel|section|((subst:DATE)))) for sections

This template will add articles to Category:Articles with weasel words.

Wikipedia project pages

Templates

Disputed factual accuracy

Boxes:
- ((Disputed)) For disputing entire article
- ((Dispute about|what)) For disputing part of an article
- ((Disputed section)) For disputing a section in an article
- ((Disputed tag)) For disputing recent promotions or amendments of policies and guidelines
- ((Under discussion)) For use on project pages (e.g., policies and guidelines), not on articles

Inline:
- ((Dubious)), and ((Disputed inline)) Statement
- ((Under discussion inline)) Statements on project pages

Both accuracy and POV

Boxes:
- ((Controversial)) Talk page

Disputed neutrality (POV)

Boxes:
- ((POV)) Article, ((POV section)) Section, ((POV lead)) Lead section
- ((POV map)) Map

Inline:
- ((Lopsided)) Statement
- ((POV statement)) Statement

Wiki

v t e Citation and verifiability article maintenance templates
Sourcing	((Circular)) ((Dubious)) ((Excessive citations)) ((Further reading cleanup)) ((More citations needed)) ((More citations needed section)) ((More footnotes needed)) ((No footnotes)) ((No significant coverage)) ((One source)) ((One source section)) ((Only primary sources)) ((NRIS only)) ((Primary sources)) ((Primary sources section)) ((Religious text primary)) ((Self-published)) ((Self-reference cleanup)) ((Self-sourcing examples)) ((Refexample section)) ((Sources exist)) ((Text-source)) ((Third-party)) ((Unreferenced)) ((Unreferenced section)) ((Unreferenced category)) ((Unreliable sources)) ((Unreliable sources section)) ((User-generated))
BLP-specific	((BLP unreferenced)) ((BLP unreferenced section)) ((BLP primary sources)) ((BLP self-published)) ((BLP sources)) ((BLP sources section)) ((BLP IMDb-only refimprove)) ((BLP IMDb refimprove)) ((BLP no footnotes)) ((BLP more footnotes needed)) ((BLP one source))
Topic specific	((Localist)) ((Media IMDb refimprove)) ((More medical citations needed)) ((More science citations needed)) ((Neologism)) ((Science review)) ((Unreferenced law)) ((Unreferenced-law section)) ((Unreferenced medical section))
Dispute-related	((Cite check)) ((Cite check section)) ((Content)) ((Disputed)) ((Dispute about)) ((Disputed section)) ((Disputed chem)) ((Disputed list)) ((Disputed map)) ((Expert needed)) ((Hoax)) ((Original research)) ((Original research section)) ((Speculation)) ((Speculation section)) ((Synthesis)) ((Verifiability)) ((Verify sources))
Citation improvements	((Citation style)) ((Citations broken)) ((Cleanup bare URLs)) ((Format footnotes)) ((Full citations needed)) ((Ibid)) ((Page numbers improve)) ((Page numbers needed)) ((Shallow references))
General advice	Citing sources Reliable sources Maintenance template removal Citation needed Find sources Combining sources Referencing styles

Inline cleanup tags

Attribution

Clarity

Miscellaneous

Neutrality

Precision

((By how much)) ((Definition)) ((Definition needed)) ((Example needed)) ((Example needed span)) ((Explain)) ((How)) ((How often)) ((Misquoted)) ((Quantify)) ((Specify)) ((Vague)) ((When)) ((Where)) ((Which)) ((Who else)) ((Why)) ((Year needed))
Excessive	((Overly detailed inline)) ((Duplication span)) ((Importance inline)) ((Relevance inline)) ((Undue weight inline)) ((Globalize inline)) ((Infobox clutter))

Time-sensitivity

Verifiability

Dubious	((Contradictory inline)) ((Disputed inline)) ((Dubious)) ((Dubious span)) ((Inconsistent)) ((Needs independent confirmation)) ((Speculation inline))
Bare URLs	((Bare URL inline)) ((Bare URL non-HTML)) ((Bare URL AV media)) ((Bare URL PDF)) ((Bare URL image)) ((Bare URL DOC)) ((Bare URL plain text)) ((Bare URL spreadsheet))
Incomplete or broken citation	((Author incomplete)) ((Author missing)) ((Date missing)) ((Dead link)) ((Edition needed)) ((Episode needed)) ((Full citation needed)) ((Incomplete short citation)) ((ISBN missing)) ((Moved resource)) ((Page needed)) ((Place missing)) ((Publisher missing)) ((Season needed)) ((Time needed)) ((Title incomplete)) ((Title missing)) ((Volume needed)) ((Year missing))
Missing or problematic reference	((Additional citation needed)) ((Better source needed)) ((Better source needed example)) ((Check quotation)) ((Chronology citation needed)) ((Circular reference)) ((Citation needed)) ((Citation needed span)) ((Citation not found)) ((Close paraphrasing inline)) ((COI source)) ((Deprecated inline)) ((Excessive citations inline)) ((Failed verification)) ((Failed verification span)) ((Image reference needed)) ((Irrelevant citation)) ((Medical citation needed)) ((Medical citation needed span)) ((Nonspecific)) ((Not verified in body)) ((Obsolete source)) ((Page range too broad)) ((Primary source inline)) ((Promotional source)) ((Quote without source)) ((Request quotation)) ((Request quotation span)) ((Retracted)) ((Scientific citation needed)) ((Self-published inline)) ((Tertiary source inline)) ((Third-party inline)) ((Unreliable fringe source)) ((Unreliable medical source)) ((Unreliable source?)) ((Verify quote)) ((Verify source))

Wording

General advice

Toolbox

Templates

Welcome	((subst:Welcome)) ((subst:Welcomeh)) ((subst:Welcome-anon)) ((subst:W-graphical-anon)) ((subst:Welcome-anon-unconstructive)) ((subst:Welcome-anon-npov)) ((subst:welcome-t)) ((subst:thanks))
Vandalism	((subst:uw-vandalism1)) ((subst:uw-vandalism2)) ((subst:uw-vandalism3)) ((subst:uw-vandalism4)) ((subst:uw-vandalism4im))
Content removal	((subst:uw-delete1)) ((subst:uw-delete2)) ((subst:uw-delete3)) ((subst:uw-delete4)) ((subst:uw-delete4im))
Check	((subst:Copyvio\|url=source)) ((Db\|...)) ((Di-no license)) ((Di-no source))
Dispute	((Citation needed)) ((Controversial)) ((Disputed)) ((Fringe theories)) ((POV)) ((Unreferenced section)) ((Advert)) ((Multiple issues))
Delete	((subst:afd)) ((subst:cfd)) ((ffd)) ((mfd)) ((subst:rfd)) ((subst:tfd)) ((subst:proposed deletion))

Community

Protocols

Main

Stats

Statistics
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External

HTML to Wiki Converter for Tables

Wikipedia:Directories and indexes

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Weasel in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for Weasel

Tag to be placed at the top of an article. Used for articles that employ weasel words too much. Weasel words are are words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful had been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated. Phrases such as "some say", "many scholars believe", "it is widely thought", "many are of the opinion" etc. are example of weasel terms.

Template parameters[Edit template data]
This template prefers inline formatting of parameters.
Parameter		Description	Type	Status
Date added	`date`	Month and date. "((subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME)) ((subst:CURRENTYEAR))" will fill this in for you. Auto value `((subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME)) ((subst:CURRENTYEAR))`	Date	suggested

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Weasel/doc.
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox and testcases pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.

Usage

See also

Wikipedia project pages

Templates

Disputed factual accuracy

Both accuracy and POV

Disputed neutrality (POV)

Wiki

TemplateData