Main Page

Welcome to Wikipedia! We are building an open-content encyclopedia in many languages. In the English version, started in January 2001, we are now working on 6,841,638 articles. Learn how to edit pages, experiment in the sandbox, and visit our Community Portal to find out how you can participate in the development of Wikipedia.

Browse by topic Other languages Sister projects Text only | No tables

Today's featured article Electroshock weapons, common instruments of non-scarring torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for various reasons, including punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions of torture are restricted to acts carried out by the state, but others include non-state organizations. A variety of methods of torture are used, including psychological methods to provide deniability. Beating is the most common form of physical torture. Most victims of torture are poor and marginalized people suspected of crimes, although torture against political prisoners or during armed conflict has received disproportionate attention. Torture is prohibited under international law for all states under all circumstances and is explicitly forbidden by several treaties. Opposition to torture stimulated the formation of the human rights movement after World War II, and torture continues to be an important human rights issue. (Full article...) Recently featured: Mckenna Grace Etika Cyclone Taylor Selected anniversaries	In the news Julian Assange WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (pictured) is released from prison as part of a U.S. plea bargain. In ice hockey, the Florida Panthers defeat the Edmonton Oilers to win the Stanley Cup. Coordinated attacks in Dagestan, Russia, leave 26 people dead. The Iberian lynx is reclassified from endangered to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Ongoing: Israel–Hamas war timeline Russian invasion of Ukraine timeline Sudanese civil war timeline Recent deaths: George M. Woodwell Dennis Deer Russell Morash Ashin Munindabhivamsa Taylor Wily Keith Locke Did you know... Clark House ... that Clark House (pictured) hosted Cold War meetings? ... that a 2022 book lamented that American painter Edna Hibel did not have a Wikipedia article? ... that there are more than 9,000 swamps in Belarus? ... that before becoming a voice actor, Kenichirou Matsuda attended law school trying to become a civil servant? ... that the first Hindu temple in Wisconsin was built "in the middle of nowhere"? ... that Alan Choe was tasked with developing Queenstown, Singapore's first satellite town, after its British architects left the country in the mid-1950s? ... that Google's Client Hints proposal was initially classified as harmful by Mozilla? ... that Dick Walker's discovery of Saturn's moon Epimetheus was only realized twelve years later? ... that Richard Linklater's original concept for Dazed and Confused took place entirely within a car as its characters listened to ZZ Top?
Browse Wikipedia by topic
Wikipedia in other languages This Wikipedia is written in English. Many other Wikipedias are available; some of the largest are listed below. 1,000,000+ articles العربية مصرى Deutsch Español فارسی‎ Français Italiano Nederlands 日本語 Polski Português Русский Svenska Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 250,000+ articles Bahasa Indonesia Bahasa Melayu 閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gú Български Català Čeština Dansk Esperanto Euskara עברית Հայերեն 한국어 Magyar Norsk bokmål Română Simple English Srpski Srpskohrvatski Suomi Türkçe Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча 50,000+ articles Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bosanski کوردی Eesti Ελληνικά Frysk Gaeilge Galego Hrvatski ქართული Kurdî Latviešu Lietuvių മലയാളം Македонски မြန်မာဘာသာ Norsk nynorsk ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Shqip Slovenčina Slovenščina ไทย తెలుగు اردو Wikipedia's sister projects Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that also hosts a range of other volunteer projects: Commons Free media repository MediaWiki Wiki software development Meta-Wiki Wikimedia project coordination Wikibooks Free textbooks and manuals Wikidata Free knowledge base Wikinews Free-content news Wikiquote Collection of quotations Wikisource Free-content library Wikispecies Directory of species Wikiversity Free learning tools Wikivoyage Free travel guide Wiktionary Dictionary and thesaurus If you find Wikipedia or its sister projects useful, please consider making a donation. Donations are used primarily for purchasing computer equipment and launching new projects.