Urban Dictionary is a Web-based dictionary that contains nearly eight million definitions
as of July 29, 2014. Submissions are regulated by requiring membership of either Facebook
or Gmail, and subsequently by volunteer editors and rated by site visitors.
History The site was founded in 1999 by Aaron Peckham
while he was a freshman computer science major at California Polytechnic State University.
One of the first definitions on the site was "the man", defined as "the faces of 'the establishment'
put in place to 'bring us down'". The website was referenced in a 2011 District
Court complaint by ATF agents to document the meaning of the vulgarism "murk" as used
in a criminal threat. It also consists of names and slang.
Content In the context of Urban Dictionary, "definitions"
include not only literal definitions, but also descriptions. As such, "to define" a
word or phrase on Urban Dictionary does not necessarily entail providing a strict definition;
merely a description of some aspect of the word or phrase could suffice for inclusion
in the dictionary. Originally, Urban Dictionary was intended
as a dictionary of slang or cultural words or phrases not typically found in standard
dictionaries, but it is now used to define any word or phrase. Words or phrases on Urban
Dictionary may have multiple definitions, usage examples, and tags.
Visitors to Urban Dictionary may submit definitions without registering, but they must provide
a valid e-mail address. Before they are included in the dictionary, all new definitions must
be approved by voluntary editors. Editors are not given any guidelines to use when approving
or rejecting definitions. Quality control
By default, each definition is automatically accepted or rejected based on the number of
"Publish" or "Don't Publish" votes it receives by editors, comprising volunteers of the public.
There are no criteria that editors have to follow in approving or rejecting definitions;
often definitions are not even read during the decision process. A valid e-mail address
was previously but is no longer required for editing. Editors are distinguished by their
IP address and through the site's usage of HTTP cookies, in order to limit each editor
from voting on any particular definition too many times. If a definition is rejected, it
is automatically rejected upon re-submission in the future if there are no changes to it.
If a definition is published, it is immediately displayed on the site. The definition can
then be voted "up" or "down" by site visitors, and may be removed for certain reasons.
Traffic and users As of April 2009, an average of 2,000 definitions
are submitted every day, and the site receives approximately 15 million unique visitors per
month, with 80% of users being younger than 25. As of February 2013, Urban Dictionary's
Alexa rating is 845, with a rating of 396 in the United States and 43,559 sites linking
in. As of February 2014, the site contains over 7.5 million definitions.
See also Dictionary
Slang Slang dictionary
References
Further reading Peckham, Aaron. Urban dictionary: fularious
street slang defined. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing, L.L.C. p. 320.
ISBN 0-7407-5143-3. Retrieved 2013-01-03. Peckham, Aaron. Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous
Street Slang Defined. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing, L.L.C. p. 240.
ISBN 0-7407-6875-1. Retrieved 2013-01-03. NobleWorks Cards. NobleWorks Cards: Urban
Dictionary All Occasions Greeting Cards. Union City,New Jersey. Retrieved 2013-03-03.
External links Official website
Urban Dictionary on Twitter Urban Dictionary on Facebook
Official blog