Help:Term lookup

This is a help page, for term lookup.

Are you looking for the meaning of a particular term? The Subject Wikis Reference Guide can help you to look up definitions of terms, as well as all kinds of information about the term you're looking for.

A quick explanation of how we're organized
The subwiki.org domain contains a number of subject-specific wikis. Each subject-specific wiki has articles developed and organized from the viewpoint of a specific subject or discipline. As of now, all the subject-specific wikis are in mathematical subjects. Here's a list of all the subject-specific wikis.

The Subject Wikis Reference Guide is designed to let you reach, just from the name of a term, the appropriate subject wikis that contain that term.

When the full term name is known
Any term which occurs in one or more of the subject-specific wikis (and sometimes, a term that doesn't) should have a reference guide page. The reference guide page for a term has the same name as the term. Thus, for instance, to get the reference guide page about normal subgroup, you'll need to type the following URL:

Alternatively, you can type normal subgroup (without quotes) in the search bar and press Enter (or the Go key). This will directly take you to the page titled "Normal subgroup".

When part of the term name is known
Suppose you don't know the full name of a term, but know that it is called "perfect something". Alternatively, suppose you're interested in all the possible uses of the word "perfect" in terminology in different subjects. Then, try searching for whatever part of the term you do know. For instance, in this case, you'll try the page:

or search for perfect in the search bar.

If you're interested in the use of the term in a particular subject (for instance, economics), then type the prefix or partial term, followed by the subject in parentheses. For instance, to see all the uses of the term "perfect" in economics, try:

The generic page on Perfect includes the content from the pages on Perfect in each broad subject area, as sections. Further, the page on perfect (economics) includes content from the guide pages for each of the specific terms that have "perfect" in them.

Proceeding from the guide page
The Subject Wikis Reference guide page to a particular term gives the following:


 * A quick (and not necessarily comprehensive) definition, and common style of usage
 * A list of related terms and ideas.
 * A link to the primary subject wiki entry on the term (if such an entry exists). For instance, if you're looking for a term like "Hausdorff space", the Reference Guide page on it will tell you that the primary subject wiki entry is at Topospaces:Hausdorff space.
 * Links to entries on the term in other subject wikis.
 * Links to entries on the term in other encyclopedia-like web resources.

Textbook and journal references are maintained in the subject wiki entries and are not to be found on the reference guide page.