Template:Distinguish

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This template produces a hatnote to point out to readers, who may have misspelled their desired title, the existence of one or more pages whose title(s) is, or are, similar to the current page. It is used in cases where the distinction between the titles is generally obvious and does not need further explanation.

For cases where an explanation is required, please use the templates {{For}} and {{About}}. For use on category pages, the corresponding template is Template:Category distinguish.

Usage

Here is an example of its standard usage on the article about the mathematical Astroid:

<syntaxhighlight inline="1" lang="wikitext">{{distinguish|Asteroid}}</syntaxhighlight> →

Not to be confused with Asteroid.

This hatnote can be used to distinguish the topic from multiple other topics, as for Corundum or Bangala language:

<syntaxhighlight inline="1" lang="wikitext">{{distinguish|Carborundum|Conundrum}}</syntaxhighlight> →

Not to be confused with Carborundum or Conundrum.

<syntaxhighlight inline="1" lang="wikitext">{{distinguish|Bangla language|Mbangala language|Ngala language}}</syntaxhighlight> →

Not to be confused with Bangla language, Mbangala language, or Ngala language.

The |text= parameter can be used to create customized text, in case context is required. An example is on the article Phobos (mythology), which contains a customized hatnote to distinguish it and "Phoebus" (a redirect of Apollo). Both links lead to topics about Greek gods, so the parenthetical disambiguation in "Phobos (mythology)" is insufficient to disambiguate the two. Since it is typically not preferable to link a redirect in a hatnote, the article "Apollo" is linked to directly and a short explanation fills in the necessary context:

<syntaxhighlight inline="1" lang="wikitext">{{distinguish|text=Phoebus, an epithet of the Greek god Apollo}}</syntaxhighlight> →

Not to be confused with Phoebus, an epithet of the Greek god Apollo.

Note that a final period is automatically added at the end of the sentence, and that only one blue link is used per disambiguated topic (i.e, do not type ...an [[epithet]] of the [[Greek]] god [[Apollo]].

When the target is a disambiguation page, display of the parentheses may be avoided by escaping the vertical bar using the magic word {{!}}:

checkY <syntaxhighlight inline="1" lang="wikitext">{{distinguish|Crossfire (disambiguation){{!}}Crossfire}}</syntaxhighlight> →

Not to be confused with Crossfire.

The escape is necessary, otherwise the template will read the next text as another topic:

☒N <syntaxhighlight inline="1" lang="wikitext">{{distinguish|Crossfire (disambiguation)|Crossfire}}</syntaxhighlight> →

Not to be confused with Crossfire (disambiguation) or Crossfire.

When to use

This hatnote is generally used when readers have misspelled their desired title, and the error would be apparent by simply displaying the alternative term without further explanation. For example, consider a reader looking for the punctuation mark who instead ends up at coma:

Coma

Not to be confused with Comma.

Readers are presumed to recognize that they actually wanted comma by merely looking at the spelling, and this case generally requires no further explanation.

However, {{distinguish}} is not suitable when the difference is not readily apparent without additional details. Consider a reader looking for a game they believe is named Reversi:

☒N Reversi

Not to be confused with Reversis.

In the above hatnote, it is not generally apparent how the suggested Reversis is different from Reversi, which is also a game.

In this case you should use {{about}} instead of {{distinguish}}. The difference is to provide explanation upfront without requiring the reader to click through and differentiate the terms on their own.

checkY Reversi

This article is about the board game. For the card game, see Reversis.

{{Distinguish}} should only be used when the ambiguity exists for a portion of the readership that is sufficient to warrant a hatnote. Care should be taken to avoid trivial uses.

Redirects

• Template:Confused
• Template:Confuse
• Template:Misspelling
• Template:Nottobeconfusedwith
• Template:Ntbcw

See also

• {{About}}
• Template:Category distinguish
• {{For}}
• Template:Redirect
• Template:R from misspelling

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:Distinguish/doc. (edit | history)
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.