Wiktionary:Quotations/Resources

This page gives an overview of useful resources for finding quotations for English entries. To effectively search for quotations, you should familiarize yourself with at least of few of these sites. For a comprehensive list of corpora, see Wiktionary:Corpora.

Google Books

Google Books is an enormous database of literature spanning hundreds of years. It is used so often by Wiktionary editors that a gadget, Quiet Quentin, exists to quickly create quotations from this site.

To access: perform an ordinary Google search. Click ⋮ More (under the search bar) and then click Books. No account is needed.

An example query: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22example%22&tbm=bks

Caveats

Google Books uses optical character recognition to generate text from its scanned books, so text often contains incorrect formatting and spelling errors.
Google Books often hides pages as a result of copyright issues, while still displaying the text in the search preview. If the original text on the page is not visible, an alternative quotation should be used (if possible).
Google Books archives many ebooks, which are a grey area as to whether they count for attestation requirements. On some ebooks, Google Books has a "Other editions" section with a paperback or hardcover edition of the same book.
The year of publication given by Google Books is often wrong. Make sure to check this information with other sources.

Internet Archive

The Internet Archive contains a huge digital library of books, and is an excellent resource on par with Google Books.

To access: go to https://archive.org. Type your query into the second search bar. Then, select the Search text contents option (under the search bar) and click Go. No account is needed.

An example query: https://archive.org/search?query=%22example%22&sin=TXT

Caveats

The Internet Archive may show results in other languages. To search in English only, click the checkbox next to English in the sidebar.
Due to copyright issues, most books on the Internet Archive are in "limited preview" mode, which only lets you see two pages at a time. You can nevertheless gain full access by logging in with a Google account and "borrowing" the book for one hour.

Text Creation Partnership

Early English Books Online is a corpus of books published in the 16th–17th centuries, mostly in English, whose contents were digitized by retyping them from microfilm. It is fully searchable. Eighteenth Century Collections Online is a corpus of books published in the 18th century, mostly in English. A subset of a few thousand titles were retyped from microfilm, while others were digitized using optical character recognition. Many of the microfilm scans are also available through the Internet Archive.

To access: go to https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/ or https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/. Type a query into the search box, then click the yellow magnifying glass button.

Google News

Google News is a search engine for online news articles, and is very useful for attesting new terms which have not yet been recorded in books or dictionaries.

To access: perform an ordinary Google search. Click News (under the search bar). By default, Google News shows only new articles. Click Tools (right-hand side), Recent (two levels under the search bar) and change it to Archives. No account is needed.

An example query: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22example%22&tbm=nws&tbs=ar:1

Caveats

Most newspapers on Google News are not "durably archived" as required by Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion. Make sure that the newspaper you're quoting has a print edition. Some commonly quoted newspapers on Wiktionary are The New York Times ({{RQ:NYT}}), The Atlantic ({{RQ:Atlantic}}), and The Guardian ({{RQ:Guardian}}).
HuffPost (link to vote) and Vice News (link to vote) are explicitly considered durable despite having no print edition.
It is recommended to archive online news links.

How to archive sites

The most popular archival site is the Wayback Machine. To check if a site has already been archived, go to https://web.archive.org/XXXXXX (where XXXXXX is your original URL), which should redirect you to the latest saved version. If this doesn't work, go to http://web.archive.org/save and save the page.

Be sure to clean the URL before archival, or it may not work properly. For example, the URL

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2023/03/01/teslas-investor-day-is-long-on-time-short-on-useful-new-details/?sh=48ee059b65bb

is archived under

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanohnsman/2023/03/01/teslas-investor-day-is-long-on-time-short-on-useful-new-details.

In some cases the Wayback Machine is unable to properly save a site, either due to a paywall or as a result of the site opting out of archival. In those cases, you can try archiving the site using archive.today by going to https://archive.ph. Note: archive.today is inaccessible if your computer is using the 1.1.1.1 DNS service (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19828317).

Issuu

Issuu is a digital publishing platform which keeps a record of various small magazines and newspapers. Like Google News, it is useful for attesting new and informal terms.

To access: go to https://issuu.com and enter a query into the search bar. The search term isn't highlighted, but can be found easily using Control-F. No account is needed.

Example query: https://issuu.com/search?q=%22example%22

Caveats

Issuu may show results in other languages. To search in English only, change the language from All to English in the sidebar.
Like Google News, you should check if the work cited has a print edition. This is difficult with more obscure publications, so use your judgement (e.g. a printed magazine will usually have small font sizes, page numbers, and full-page ads). If the periodical has an entry on WorldCat, ISSN Portal, or a similar authority control site, you can probably assume it's durably archived, especially if the entry explicitly says a print edition exists, but the lack of a WorldCat entry is not sufficient to show that a periodical has not appeared in print. (Also, WorldCat often catalogues different works with similar or the same titles, so watch out for that.)

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine for scientific papers, and is very useful for attesting technical and scientific terms.

To access: go to https://scholar.google.com and enter a query into the search bar. You can select either Articles or Case law, which searches different databases. No account is needed.

An example query: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22example%22

Caveats

Google Scholar has a button to automatically create a citation for a paper. This should not be used, as quotations in Wiktionary are standardized by templates such as Template:quote-journal.

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary contains a huge repository of specially prepared quotations for thousands of obscure words. The third edition (OED3) requires a pricy ($100/year) subscription, but can be accessed for free from many libraries and websites. Nevertheless, the OED is extremely helpful for quoting obscure or archaic senses of common words. Also, the second edition (OED2) is available for free for everyone.

To access: go to https://www.oed.com and enter a query into the search bar. However, most of the information is locked behind a paywall.

An example entry: https://www.oed.com/dictionary/example_n

To cite: use {{R:OED Online}}.

OED2

The second edition (OED2) was published in 1989 and is available for free everywhere. However, it is not searchable, making it very inconvenient to use. It is also missing many entries and quotations which have been added to the third edition.

To access the OED2: One way to access the OED2 is by following a direct link, which are of the form https://web.archive.org/https://www.oed.com/oed2/XXXXXXXX (where X is a digit). The first entry is https://web.archive.org/https://www.oed.com/oed2/00000001 ("A") and the last entry is https://web.archive.org/https://www.oed.com/oed2/00291601 ("zyxt"). An alternative way to access the OED2 is by going to https://archive.org/details/OXD1989ENEN, which allows you to look at scans of the physical volumes. No account is needed for either method.

An example entry: https://web.archive.org/https://www.oed.com/oed2/00079397

To cite: use {{R:OED2}}.

Caveats

The OED has many missing terms, especially newer terms.
Quotations from the OED should not be copied indiscriminately, as this likely constitutes a copyright violation.

Green's Dictionary of Slang

Green's Dictionary of Slang is an extremely comprehensive slang dictionary modelled after the OED. It is extremely helpful for finding quotations for obscure slang terms.

To access: go to https://greensdictofslang.com and enter a query into the search bar. No account is needed.

An example entry: https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/q5gbs6q

To cite: use {{R:Greens}}.

Caveats

Green's does not have any words besides slang.
Quotations from Green's should not be copied indiscriminately, as this likely constitutes a copyright violation.

Genius

Genius is a site that archives song lyrics, especially focusing on hip hop music. Since songs count as "durably archived" for Wiktionary's attestation requirements, Genius is a useful resource for finding quotations for "street slang", such as African-American slang, Toronto slang, or London slang.

To access: go to https://genius.com and enter a query into the search bar. No account is needed.

An example query: https://genius.com/search?q=%22example%22

Caveats

Genius should generally not be used to cite terms other than slang.
Genius lyrics are crowdsourced and therefore may not be entirely accurate. In some cases, you should use your own judgement of what the singer is actually saying.
Song lyrics can potentially be used to cite alternative forms of terms that differ in pronunciation (such as ain't and hain't), but cannot reliably be used to distinguish between alternative orthographic forms with no pronunciation difference (such as curb and kerb), unless they have appeared in print with a specific spelling, in which case the citation would really be to that print edition.
Song lyrics are often vague in meaning, figurative, or open to multiple interpretations. Even if the meaning of a term can be securely identified, the verse in which it is used may not be a helpful quotation for readers that demonstrates the term's meaning and typical usage. Such citations can be used to demonstrate the existence of a term, but may be better to avoid if alternative sources without such issues exist.
Genius archives many rare and obscure songs. A song should only be quoted if an audio recording exists somewhere on the web (usually YouTube), or if it is recorded on a physical medium (such as a vinyl record, CD, cassette, or a book / magazine containing the lyrics). In the latter case, it may be considered durably archived.

Usenet

Usenet is a discussion system which was popular around the 1980s–2000s. Today, many old Usenet posts are archived on Google Groups. Despite the fact that Usenet is essentially equivalent to today's social media, Usenet posts are considered "durably archived" and therefore count for attestation requirements. Usenet is often useful for attesting informal or slang terms. Note that any messages posted on or after February 22, 2024 are not considered "durably archived" (link to vote).

To access: go to https://groups.google.com/my-groups. Click My groups and then click All groups and messages. Then, type your query into the search bar. A Google account is needed.

An example query: https://groups.google.com/search?q=%22example%22

Caveats

Before quoting from Google Groups, check the group name on the sidebar just above Conversations and make sure that it is a Usenet newsgroup and not a Google Group. Usenet newsgroups take the form of lowercased words connected by a period, such as "rec.arts.movies" or "talk.religion". See list of newsgroups for more.
Due to the decline of Usenet's popularity in the 2000s, it is generally not useful for attesting newer terms.
Usenet quotations are generally of lower quality than professionally edited publications, and so should be avoided unless necessary.

Twitter

Twitter (now sometimes known as "X") is a popular social media site which is very useful for attesting Internet slang and very informal language. However, it is not considered "durably archived" under Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion. While some terms have passed verification without meeting ordinary attestation requirements (such as melanoheliophobia), Twitter should not be quoted unless absolutely necessary.

To access: go to https://twitter.com/search-advanced and enter a query into the search bar. A Twitter account is needed.

An example query: https://twitter.com/search?q=%22example%22

Caveats

When creating a Twitter quotation, the "author" parameter should be the user's handle (such as "@user123"), rather than their display name.
Tweets are often deleted or made inaccessible, so it is recommended to archive them. See § How to archive sites.

Reddit

Reddit is another popular site dedicated to discussion of various topics and content aggregation. Like Twitter, it is not considered "durably archived" under Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

To access: go to https://www.reddit.com and enter a query into the search bar. Reddit can also be searched using Google, which can sometimes give better results. No account is needed for either method.

An example query: (using Reddit) https://www.reddit.com/search?q=%22example%22, (using Google) https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Areddit.com+%22example%22

Caveats

Reddit posts are often deleted or made inaccessible, so it is recommended to archive them. See § How to archive sites.