{"id":1587181,"date":"2022-08-03T13:40:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T17:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1587181"},"modified":"2022-08-03T13:40:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T17:40:12","slug":"fact-check-did-wikipedia-change-the-definition-of-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fact-check-did-wikipedia-change-the-definition-of-definition\/","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: Did Wikipedia Change The Definition Of \u2018Definition\u2019?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffact-check-did-wikipedia-change-the-definition-of-definition%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1587181&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Wiki-Logo-e1530636623977.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>An image\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid=614609150024827&#038;set=a.410210850464659&#038;type=3&#038;theater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo.php?fbid%3D614609150024827%26set%3Da.410210850464659%26type%3D3%26theater&#038;source=gmail&#038;ust=1659486426068000&#038;usg=AOvVaw0WDFtOe2ewfwvkA1TkYZYe\">shared on Facebook<\/a> claims Wikipedia changed the definition of the word \u201cdefinition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Verdict: False<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Wikipedia has not changed the definition of the word. The page has not been revised since February and is partially locked from edits until 2025.<\/p>\n<p><span><strong>Fact Check:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration has faced accusations of attempting to avoid using the word \u201crecession\u201d to describe the current economic situation, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/biden-administration-rejects-recession-label-for-economy-\/6677730.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Voice of America<\/a>. Wikipedia temporarily suspended edits to its page about recessions following an editing war over how the term is identified or declared, NPR <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/07\/29\/1114599942\/wikipedia-recession-edits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, an image shared on Facebook claims the word \u201cdefinition\u201d is also being changed. The Facebook image appears to show a screen grab of Wikipedia\u2019s description of the word that reads in part, \u201cA definition is a fluid statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWikipedia has now changed the definition of the word Definition,\u201d reads the post\u2019s caption. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2021\/03\/31\/fact-check-astrazeneca-mean-weapon-that-kill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Does AstraZeneca Mean \u2018Weapon That Kills\u2019?)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The claim is inaccurate. No such edits are present on the page. The current <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Definition\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">definition<\/a> of the word reads, \u201cA definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a <a title=\"Word\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Word\">word<\/a>,\u00a0<a title=\"Phrase\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Phrase\">phrase<\/a>, or other set of\u00a0<a title=\"Symbol\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Symbol\">symbols<\/a>).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Definition&#038;action=history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">page\u2019s history<\/a> shows that there have not been any revisions since February 2022 and none of the previous revisions appear to be an attempt to fundamentally redefine the word. A lock symbol appears on the top of the page which means the article is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:Protection_policy#semi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">semi-protected<\/a>\u201d until November 2025, according to the site.<\/p>\n<p>The image shared on Facebook appears to be digitally altered. The footnote numbers in the alleged description are black, not blue like those on all other Wikipedia pages.<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time a fake Wikipedia entry has been used to spread misinformation online. In 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/checkyourfact.com\/2020\/05\/31\/fact-check-cares-act-introduced-2017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Check Your Fact<\/a> debunked a fake Wikipedia article that claimed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was introduced in January 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An image\u00a0shared on Facebook claims Wikipedia changed the definition of the word \u201cdefinition.\u201dVerdict: FalseWikipedia has not changed the definition of the word. The page has not been revised since February<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1587181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1587181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1587181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1587181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1587181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}