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This is the {{tl|Disambiguation}} template.

'''<big>Important: Please do not [[Wikipedia:Substitution|subst:]] this template.</big>'''

This is a general-purpose template, to be placed at the bottom of any article that exists to help readers find other articles with the same or similar names. This concept is called ''[[Wikipedia:Disambiguation|disambiguation]]'' and is used with many common words, such as ''[[Cross (disambiguation)|cross]]'', ''[[Life (disambiguation)|life]]'' and ''[[work]]''. This template automatically adds articles to the [[:Category:Disambiguation pages]]. 

== Page title fixes ==
This template will automatically detect incomplete disambiguation present in page titles. If the title includes anything other than (disambiguation) in parentheses, it is assumed to be the article type. For example, this template on the page [[1st Division (France)]] would produce the text "This disambiguation page lists France articles associated with the title '''1st Division'''". If the page titles contains parentheses that are not used for disambiguation (such as [[Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)]]), set {{para|ignore_parentheses|yes}}. If you wish to manually specify the article type, use the {{para|type}} parameter.

==Variant templates==
===Disambiguation===
{{Category see also|Disambiguation message boxes}}

For disambiguation pages requiring cleanup, use {{tl|Disambiguation cleanup}}.

More specific and alternative templates exist for disambiguation pages whose entries are limited exclusively to items of a particular type:
* {{tl|Airport disambiguation}} for airports – [[:Category:Airport disambiguation]]
* {{tl|Biology disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Biology disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Call sign disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Broadcast call sign disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Caselaw disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Case law disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Chinese title disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Disambiguation pages with Chinese character titles]]
* {{tl|Genus disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Genus disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Geodis}} for place names – [[:Category:Place name disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Hndis}} for people's names – [[:Category:Human name disambiguation pages]]
** {{tl|Hndis-cleanup}}
* {{tl|Hospital disambiguation}} for hospitals or medical centers – [[:Category:Hospital disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Letter disambiguation}} – adds a Latin letter navbox, does not auto-categorize
* {{tl|Letter-NumberCombDisambig}} – [[:Category:Letter-number combination disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Mathematical disambiguation}} for mathematics titles – [[:Category:Mathematics disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Mil-unit-dis}} – [[:Category:Military units and formations disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Numberdis}} for numbers – [[:Category:Lists of ambiguous numbers]]
* {{tl|Phonetics disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Linguistics disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Road disambiguation}} for roads – [[:Category:Road disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|School disambiguation}} for educational institutions – [[:Category:Educational institution disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Species Latin name disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Latin name disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Wikipedia disambiguation}} for ambiguous titles and shortcuts in the Wikipedia namespace – [[:Category:Wikipedia disambiguation pages]]

'''Note:''' A set index article (SIA) is ''not'' a disambiguation page; it is a list article about a set of items ''of a specific type'' that ''also'' share the same (or similar) name. [[Wikipedia:Set index articles]] includes templates for SIAs.

== Parameters ==
Sometimes there isn't a specific disambiguation template (see list above) that fits for a page, or the page has items in more than one of the above classes. Then use {{tl|Disambiguation}} but with one or more parameters telling which categories to use. Up to ten parameters can be fed, and in any order, for example:

:{{tlc|Disambiguation|school|hospital}}

Only add a parameter from this list if the disambiguation page has several items of that type:
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|human name}}: for [[:Category:Human name disambiguation pages]] (note that you must instead add the category separately if it needs a different [[WP:SORTKEY|sort key]])
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|bird}}: for [[:Category:Bird common name disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|church}}: for [[:Category:Church building disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|county}}: for [[:Category:County name disambiguation pages]]
** {{tlx|Disambiguation|uscounty}}: for [[:Category:United States county disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|fish}}: for [[:Category:Fish common name disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|genus}}: for [[:Category:Genus disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|geo}}: for [[:Category:Place name disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|hospital}}: for [[:Category:Hospital disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|latin}}: for [[:Category:Latin name disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|letter number}}: for [[:Category:Letter-number combination disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|math}}: for [[:Category:Mathematical disambiguation]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|number}}: for [[:Category:Lists of ambiguous numbers]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|plant}}: for [[:Category:Plant common name disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|political}}: for [[:Category:Political party disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|road}}: for [[:Category:Road disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|school}}: for [[:Category:Educational institution disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|ship}}: for [[:Category:Ship disambiguation pages]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|township}}: for [[:Category:Township name disambiguation pages]]

These can be added if there are one or more elements in the list (per their category descriptions):
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|airport}}: for [[:Category:Airport disambiguation]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|callsign}}: for [[:Category:Broadcast call sign disambiguation pages]]

These can be added even if there's only one element in the list, since these types are not actually ambiguous:

* {{tlx|Disambiguation|given name}}: [[:Category:Disambiguation pages with given-name-holder lists]]
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|surname}}: for [[:Category:Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists]]

This parameter reflects the title, not the contents: 

* {{tlx|Disambiguation|chinese}}: for [[:Category:Disambiguation pages with Chinese character titles]]

And this parameter reflects a maintenance need, not the contents:

* {{tlx|Disambiguation|split}}: for [[:Category:Disambiguation pages in need of being split]]

Note that {{tl|Disambiguation}} might not have parameters for all subcategories of [[:Category:Disambiguation pages]], then you have to manually add the category to the disambig page.

=== Nocat ===
If categorization is not needed on pages that are not in [[WP:MAINSPACE|mainspace]], then the "nocat" parameter may be set equal to "true" or "yes" as follows:
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|nocat{{=}}true}}
* {{tlx|Disambiguation|nocat{{=}}yes}}

== Redirects ==
The following redirect to this template:

* {{tl|Disambig}}
* {{tl|Dab}}
* {{tl|DAB}}
* {{tl|Disamb}}

== Technical details ==
Internally, this template uses {{tl|Dmbox}}. That template categorises pages into [[:Category:All disambiguation pages]] and [[:Category:All article disambiguation pages]].

This template also uses {{tl|Disambiguation/cat}} to handle the categorisation parameters, such as "hospital" and "school".

== Template use ==
Place template at the foot of the disambiguation page after all of the disambiguation content but before any categories (see below) or interlanguage links, as per the [[WP:DCAT]] guideline.

==TemplateData==
{{TemplateDataHeader}}
<templatedata>
{
    "description": "Place at the bottom of Disambiguation pages.",
    "params": {
        "1": {
            "label": "1",
            "description": "Used to put the page in a category. Can be one of 'split' (dab pages in need of being split); 'clean up','clean-up','cleanup' (dabs in need of cleanup); 'airports','airport' (airport dabs); 'call sign','call signs','broadcast call sign','broadcast call signs','callsign' (broadcast call sign dabs); 'chinese char','chinese-char','chinesechar','chinese character','chinese' (chinese character dabs); 'churches','church building','church buildings','church' (church building dabs), 'fish' (fish dabs); 'geodis','geography','geographical','place name','place names','place','places','geo' (Place names); 'county';  'uscounty' (United States county dabs); 'township' (Township name dabs); 'name','names','human name','human names','hn','hndis' (Human name dabs); 'surnames','surname' (surname dabs); 'given names','given name' (given-name dabs), 'hospital name','hospital names','hospitals','hospital' (hospital dabs); 'latin name','latin names','latin' (Latin name dabs); 'letter-number','letter number' (Letter-number combination dabs); 'mathdab','maths','mathematics','mathematical','math' (mathematical dabs); 'numberdis','numbers','ambiguous number','ambiguous numbers','number' (Lists of ambiguous numbers), 'plants','plant' (Plant common name dabs); 'roaddis','roads','road' (road dabs), 'schooldis','schools','educational institution','educational institutions','college','colleges','university','universities','school' (Educational institution dabs); 'political','party' (political party dabs), 'genus' (Genus dabs)",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "2": {
            "label": "2",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "3": {
            "label": "3",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "4": {
            "label": "4",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "5": {
            "label": "5",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "6": {
            "label": "6",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "7": {
            "label": "7",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "8": {
            "label": "8",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "9": {
            "label": "9",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "10": {
            "label": "10",
            "description": "Further category keys, as parameter 1.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "page-title": {
            "label": "page-title",
            "description": "Page title to use, only useful for special cases when default does not work.",
            "type": "string",
            "default": "(FULLPAGENAME)",
            "required": false
        },
        "nocat": {
            "label": "nocat",
            "description": "Set to 'yes' to prevent categorisation.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "demospace": {
            "label": "demospace",
            "description": "Used for testing.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "ignore_parentheses": {
            "label": "ignore_parentheses",
            "description": "Set to 'yes' to prevent parentheses in the article title from being parsed as incomplete disambiguation.",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        },
        "type": {
            "label": "type",
            "description": "Manually specify the article type in the descriptive text ('This disambiguation page lists {{{type}}} articles...')",
            "type": "string",
            "required": false
        }
    }
}
</templatedata>

== See also ==
* [[Wikipedia:Hatnote]]
* {{tl|Disambiguation needed}} – Adds an inline "disambiguation needed" tag to an ambiguous link within an article, see [[Wikipedia:OTHERUSES]] for more.
* {{tl|WikiProject Disambiguation}} – for disambig talkpages
* {{tl|Other uses}} – for linking to disambiguation pages in articles

<includeonly>{{#ifeq:{{SUBPAGENAME}}|sandbox||
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[[Category:Disambiguation message boxes| ]]
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