Urban Dictionary

Urban Dictionary

File:UrbanDictionarylogo.gif
Type of site	Slang Dictionary
Owner	Aaron Peckham
Created by	Aaron Peckham
URL	www.UrbanDictionary.com/
Commercial	Yes
Registration	optional

Urban Dictionary is an online dictionary whose definitions are written by users. With an Alexa ranking as one of the 2000 highest web traffic sites, Urban Dictionary is touted as the "Internet's unofficial slang authority" for definitions.

The dictionary was founded by Aaron Peckham and went online on 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. 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 many users, the site is primarily a form of entertainment. Besides slang, Urban Dictionary also contains Internet jargon, neologisms, bands, and 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.

Urban Dictionary is built on user contributions, but unlike Wikipedia and some other open source products, each definition stands alone without further refinement. The only form of communal interaction is voting which can identify definitions as popular or unpopular, so UD does not purport to be authoritative or balanced. Despite its low signal-to-noise ratio (i.e. an abundance of graffiti), Urban Dictionary could be a valuable resource for those looking for information on cutting edge slang, although critics argue that it is so unreliable as to make this "dictionary" utterly useless as a resource for anything other than vulgar humour.

In addition, Urban Dictionary is recommended for adult audiences. It contains frequent explicit language, and some of the pictures that are submitted may contain nudity, or other explicit imagery.

Quality control

The quality control system reduces the number of hateful and personal definitions. Urban Dictionary allows racial and sexual slurs because such terms are a major part of slang but not racist or sexist definitions. In other words, entries can document discrimination but not endorse it. The quality control process has gone through several iterations. 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 current 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. Words with no other definitions on the site go to the front of the queue. Conversely, words with many definitions wait longer before being reviewed by editors. This system allows new slang 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.

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)

Criticisms

Urban Dictionary has been criticized for its very excessive use of sexual definitions. At least 80% of the words have at least one sexual definition.

See also

• Slang dictionary

References

• "In the hot seat: 'Ginormous' Web site makes phat book - look it up" - Interview with Aaron Peckham in the Sacramento Bee January 7, 2006 (registration required)
• Radio interview with Aaron Peckham, June 16, 2006

External links

• Urban Dictionary home page
• Qualified praise for Urbandictionary from the The Times Literary Supplement
• "Nuff said": an article on online dictionaries by Toby Lichtig in the TLS, February 9th 2007.
• Critique of open source dictionaries such as Urban Dictionary and Wiktionary by a lexicographer
• Eight-year court case over censorship and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA)