This page will help you to fix the cite error message:

The named reference $1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Overview

A footnote used multiple times may be defined with a name:

<ref name="foo-bar">content</ref>

To invoke a named footnote:

<ref name="foo-bar" />

References may also be defined within the reference list. Here is a correct example: 

((reflist|refs=
<ref name=refname1>refcontent1</ref>
<ref name=refname2>refcontent2</ref>
<ref name=refname3>refcontent3</ref>
<ref name=refname4>refcontent4</ref>
))

Use straight quotation marks " " to enclose the reference name (size exaggerated). Do not use curly quotation marks “ ”. Curlies will simply be treated as another character, not as quotation marks. If one style of quotation marks is used when first naming the reference, but the other style is used in a reference repeat, an error message will be seen on the published page. See WP:Manual_of_Style#Quotation_marks for more information.

Issues and resolution

(This error message is sometimes mistakenly produced by the MediaWiki software, even when a named reference is correctly defined if one tries to add a webpage address (URL) in the Template:Refn without using ref tags, for example when the URL includes the equals sign =, e.g. https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=Ossetia.)

A named reference was invoked but never defined, or no content was provided for the definition. The reference may be defined inline or in the reference list. You may have misspelled the reference name, used special characters that look the same but are actually different, or the original named reference is missing (for example, if you just copied and pasted the invoked ref).

For instance,

<ref name="foo-bar">content</ref>
and
<ref name="foo–bar">content</ref>

are not the same: one contains a hyphen while the other uses an ndash. To avoid this sort of error, try to use only the characters available on the standard keyboard.

You may have also invoked a reference but never defined it, for example: <ref name="foo–bar">...</ref> or <ref name="foo–bar" />.

You may have tried to include the reference inside the ref tag, for example: <ref foo–bar />.

The full reference may have been removed from the article with other content, such as when removing information under BLP concerns. In this case the text of the reference will be available in the page history, and you can convert the single <ref /> tag into a full reference.

List-defined references may have this error if:

A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

message, but the missing tag causes the reference to "eat" the reference following in the list. Since that reference is undefined, the message

The named reference $1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

displays for both references. This can be very confusing, as the order of references in the list may not match the order used in the content.
((reflist|refs=
<ref name=refname1 />
))

Display

If the reference name includes characters other than standard English alphabet and numerals, then those characters will be dot encoded. That is, the characters will be converted to ASCII hexadecimal and shown with a period before them. For example, a name such as $$abcd would show as .24.24abcd. As noted at WP:NAMEDREFS: "Please consider keeping names simple and restricted to the standard English alphabet and numerals."

Examples

Standard

Here the reference named minim is invoked, but never defined: 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=ipsum>Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name=minim/> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref name=duis>Reference 3</ref>Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

==References==
((reflist))

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[1] Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.[2] Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.[3]Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

References
  1. ^ Reference 1
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference minim was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Reference 3

Now minim appears to be defined, but the extra / actually invokes the reference before the definition; note that the closing </ref> shows: 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=ipsum>Reference 1</ref> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name=minim/>Reference 2</ref> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref name=duis>Reference 3</ref>Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

==References==
((reflist))

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[1] Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.[2]Reference 2</ref> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.[3]Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

References
  1. ^ Reference 1
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference minim was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Reference 3

List-defined references

Here, the referenced named excepteur is improperly closed— it causes the reference following in the list named ipsum to not close, thus both references show an error: 

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.<ref name=ipsum/> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.<ref name=minim/> Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.<ref name=duis/> Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.<ref name=excepteur/> Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus.

==References==
((reflist|refs=
<ref name=duis>duis</ref>
<ref name=excepteur>excepteur<ref>
<ref name=ipsum>ipsum</ref>
<ref name=minim>minim</ref>
))

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[1] Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.[2] Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.[3] Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.[4] Curabitur pretium tincidunt lacus.

References
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference ipsum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ minim
  3. ^ duis
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference excepteur was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

Technical

Pages with this error message are placed into Pages with broken reference names. The system message page is at Cite error references no text.

Category