Wikipedia:Winningest
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Winningest is a word that can be contentious among Wikipedia editors.
Background[edit]
There are dictionary entires for winningest from Collins ("The winningest person or team is the person or team that has won most often [US]") and Merriam-Webster ("having achieved the most wins").[1][2]
In a 2016 RfC, consensus was against the Manual of Style explictly addressing the use of winningest. At Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Winningest football coach, some participants in 2007 opined that winningest was a "made-up word"; it may not be stock vocabulary to many of Wikipedia's readership, and other ways of expressing it are available. Many editors and readers believe that it is too colloquial and informal in tone to be used in a reference work.
Per the guideline MOS:TIES:
An article on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should use the (formal, not colloquial) English of that nation.
Article titles[edit]
Especially in article titles (except for redirects and possibly disambiguation pages), winningest should almost always be avoided.
Literal quotes[edit]
When quoting a reliable source, winningest should be reproduced as used in the source (MOS:PMC).
Cosmetic edits[edit]
Replacing winningest with other wording should not normally be done by a bot (WP:COSMETICBOT).
References[edit]
- ^ "Winningest". Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
- ^ "Winningest". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 20, 2023.