Wikipedia:Typo Team/moss

The moss project seeks to find and remove the furry green typos that have been growing on Wikipedia articles. It uses a python script named moss and written by User:Beland to automatically find misspellings, mistakes in English grammar, violations of the Manual of Style, and confusing or broken wiki markup.

Death to typos!

QUICK LINK TO THE BEST PAGE FOR NEW PARTICIPANTS

How the lists are made
The moss spell checker is run against a recent set of database dumps, which are generated on the 1st and 20th of every month (but take a few days to process). All the articles in the English Wikipedia are examined. The following are ignored:
 * Text inside references, templates, tables, quotation marks, sections like "External links" and "Works", and some other weird places.
 * Capitalized words (which are presumed to be correctly-spelled proper nouns)
 * Words that appear in titles in the English Wiktionary (which has definitions of all words in all languages, excluding proper nouns and systematic words like chemical names and large numbers)
 * Words that appear in titles in the English Wikipedia (which explains some things that don't appear in the dictionary)
 * Words that appear in titles in the Wikispecies (which has many technical words that don't appear in the dictionary or encyclopedia)

Many mistakes are not (yet) caught:
 * Improper addition of 's (possessives are not added to Wiktionary, so these are excluded systematically)
 * Incorrect capitalization
 * Incorrect multi-word phrases
 * Wrong word used in context
 * Non-English language words not tagged with lang or where an English misspelling happens to be the same as a word in another language. (These are counted as correct spellings if they are in the English Wiktionary, which lists words in all languages – only the definitions are restricted to English.)
 * Other situations listed in below

2023 statistics

 * See also: Older statistics

* Due to software issues, language detection wasn't working for this run.

2024 statistics
* Due to software issues, language detection wasn't working for this run.

Typo classification legend

 * red = Probably need to fix
 * yellow = Unsorted - need code improvements to sort into likely vs. unlikely typos or subtypes that can be usefully processed.
 * blue = Probably OK (but may need to verify)
 * bold = actively working on fixing
 * grey = no longer used

Instructions for editors
Just like a regular spell checker, sometimes a word that's highlighted is really a misspelling and should be changed, but sometimes it is a correct spelling that needs to be added to the spell checker's dictionary (which in this case is the English Wiktionary and Wikispecies). For the below lists, here's how you can help:

{{bulleted list | For spelling mistakes: Click on the links to the individual Wikipedia articles, and edit them to correct the misspelling. Make sure this is actually a misspelling, and not a technical term that needs to be better explained, or an alternate spelling (possibly from a different regional variety of English). | For non-English words (including words from Old English and Middle English, since they are pronounced differently): Edit the article and use the {{tl|lang}} or {{tl|transl}} templates to mark all non-English passages. Template contents are ignored, so they will not show up in the next report. If you can define the word, it would still be helpful to add the non-English word to the English Wiktionary or the same-language Wiktionary if you speak that language. As of the March 20, 2019 dump, only words not found in any Wiktionary are reported by moss as misspellings. (The "home" Wiktionary for Old and Middle English words is the modern English one.) {{bulleted list | If you don't know which language is being used, you can tag it with {{tl|which lang}}. If you add a "reason=" parameter, that will change the pop-up tooltip text readers will see when they hover over "what language is this?". If you have a guess as to which language it might be, or any other question or comment, you can leave that here to help future editors. If you use this tag, you can delete the article from the moss listing; the article will be added to Category:Articles with unidentified words instead, and ignored by future runs of moss until the mystery is solved. | For Early Modern English spellings, use {{lang|en-emodeng}}. | For languages that don't have an ISO 639 code (often happens with historical languages), you can use an IETF language tag instead. Failing that, use the miscellaneous code "mis" and add an HTML comment indicating the language. For example: {{lang|mis|sharbe do kin ratz}} }} | For incorrect spellings in direct quotes: {{bulleted list | These shouldn't be picked up by the spell checker, as text in double quotes ("") is ignored. The article probably has incorrect punctuation. | Regardless of punctuation problems, you can add {{tl|sic}} around the word or phrase. See Manual of Style for guidance. }} | For correct spellings that belong in the dictionary: Click on the word to add it to the English Wiktionary. Remember the word might not be English (though the definition must be) and be sure to check capitalization! | For correct spellings already in the dictionary: Delete from the list. These have been added in the meantime since the database dump by other editors. They do not automatically turn red as internal Wikipedia links do. | For correct spellings not appropriate for Wiktionary: {{bulleted list | For complicated chemical names: {{bulleted list | If there is an article about this chemical, it's best to make a redirect. You may want to tag it {{tl|R from systematic name}} or {{tl|R from technical name}} if appropriate. | If there is no Wikipedia article, you can either {{tl|chem name}}; for example: {{unbulleted list|style=margin-left: 2em| {{chem name|poly(1-phenylethene)}} }} This should not be used for chemical formulas such as {{chem2|H2O}}, for which {{tl|H2O}} or {{tl|chem2}} may be appropriate. For some common compounds there are specific templates available such as Template:CO2. }}     | For DNA sequences, add {{tl|DNA sequence}} around it. | For species, add the whole name to Wikispecies:Wikispecies:Requested articles and it will be suppressed from future runs. | For proper nouns and (including non-English titles) that aren't capitalized, put inside a {{tl|proper name}} tag. | Use - 2021–22 Denizlispor season, 2022 West Virginia High School Boys' Soccer (AAA), Ang Probinsyano (season 6), Ang Probinsyano (season 7), Ang Probinsyano (season 8) ... find all
 * 133 -  - 2011 NIRSA National Soccer Championship, 2018 NIRSA National Soccer Championship, 2019 NIRSA National Soccer Championship, 2021 NIRSA National Soccer Championship, 2022 NIRSA National Soccer Championship ... find all
 * 123 -  - 2021–22 Denizlispor season, 2022 West Virginia High School Boys' Soccer (AAA), Archery GB, Boxer Protocol, Family of Barack Obama ... find all
 * 120 -  - Biarc, Bite It, Bloodstained Oz, Blue Jays (album), Carne De Melocotón ... find all
 * 82 - - Andrea Muzii, Antiphospholipid syndrome, Capitalism, Clara Ponsatí, DE-CIX ... find all
 * 80 - - Antin Vasynchuk, Comparison of relational database management systems, Iris recognition, Jim (Huckleberry Finn), Kaillera ... find all
 * 68 - - Control key, English relative words, Finite verb, Join Java, List of costliest tornadoes in the Americas ... find all
 * 58 -  - 2021–22 Denizlispor season, 2022 West Virginia High School Boys' Soccer (AAA), Archery GB, Boxer Protocol, Chirped pulse amplification ... find all
 * 55 - - Appin (company), Aramaic Uruk incantation, Bach Temperament, Brian Skerry, Craigellachie Bridge ... find all
 * 40 -  - Archery GB, Etymology of Norway, Geometrical Product Specification and Verification, San Antonio (disambiguation) ... find all
 * 20 -  - Balkan Mountains, Chamberlain (band), List of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance candidates for the 2024 Indian general election, Piecewise ... find all
 * 5 -  - Antigorite, ISO 13567 ... find all
 * 3 -  - ISO 13567 ... find all
 * 2 - - Disney Renaissance, Race (human categorization) ... find all
 * 2 -  - Antigorite, ISO 13567 ... find all

Bad link formatting (HL)
These are also included in the main listings. Angle brackets are not used for external links (per ); "tags" like and are actually just bad link formatting. See External links for external link syntax; use cite web for footnotes.
 * 62 - - 37th Annie Awards, Alhassan Tampuli Sulemana, Aparajito (2022 film), Bala Devi Chandrashekar, Bill Hynes ... find all
 * 24 - - Anarchy (video game), Eduardo Costantini, Garaway Local School District, Global Rights, John Felton (canoeist) ... find all
 * 17 - - Atari ST User, Bill Loewen, Diana (mythology), Harvard Summit for Young Leaders in China, IT risk ... find all
 * 7 - - Coober Pedy, Rietvlei Wetland Reserve ... find all
 * 4 - - Earlimart (band), List of phishing incidents, Neuroplastic surgery, Paul Juon ... find all

Unsorted (H)
Many of these can be replaced by var (for text to be replaced) or angbr (e.g. for linguistic notation). Enclose in  for inline software source code.
 * 34 - - 2018 United States House of Representatives elections in California, 2022 New York State Assembly election, 2023 Rugby World Cup knockout stage, 2024 United States House of Representatives elections in California, Augusto Barrios ... find all
 * 15 - - Dolmen (miniseries), Geometrical Product Specification and Verification, San Antonio (disambiguation) ... find all
 * 15 - - Dolmen (miniseries), Geometrical Product Specification and Verification, San Antonio (disambiguation) ... find all
 * 14 -  - 21st Street–Queensbridge station, 36th Street station (IND Queens Boulevard Line), 42nd Street–Bryant Park/Fifth Avenue station, 47th–50th Streets–Rockefeller Center station, 57th Street station (IND Sixth Avenue Line) ... find all
 * 13 - - Art in Paris, Cho Seung-woo, David Ord, Five Seals, Olympic Hall ... find all
 * 11 -  - Caipira dialect, Database transaction schedule, Priority queue, Sardica paschal table, Smart Pascal ... find all
 * 10 - - Yaron Avitov ... find all
 * 9 - - Dynamic time warping, Google Analytics, Henry Raikes, Janet Lusk, Juan Correa ... find all
 * 9 -  - List of Schedule 1 substances (CWC), Middle Mongol, Peetre theorem, Saliba language, Tamil phonology ... find all
 * 9 - - Dynamic time warping, Google Analytics, Henry Raikes, Janet Lusk, Juan Correa ... find all
 * 8 - - Whiteshell Laboratories ... find all
 * 8 -  - Chen Hualan, Jo Jung-min, Luigi Giorgi (soldier), TNCO ceilings, Vincenzo Lancia ... find all
 * 7 -  - Fusion tree, Saliba language, Surface and bulk erosion, Surface second harmonic generation, Template metaprogramming ... find all
 * 7 -  - Cremunés dialect, Inquiry, Lai Tay script, Language planning, Quebec French phonology ... find all
 * 7 -  - Attié language, Ban number, Caipira dialect, Ebrié language, Proto-Afroasiatic language ... find all
 * 7 - - Lead 15th Anniversary Live Box, Lead Upturn 2011: Sun x You, Lead Upturn 2013: Leap, Lead Upturn 2016: The Showcase, Lead Upturn 2019: Sync ... find all
 * 6 - - Babson-Alling House, Battle of Fort Bull, Hack Wilson, Keilor, Victoria, Shadow World (role-playing game) ... find all
 * 6 - - Cubanate, En Esch, I Ya Toyah, WWIII Live 2003 ... find all
 * 6 - - 2011 ANZ Championship season, 2012 WNBL Finals, 2015 WNBL Finals, Ink Master season 11, List of Los Bastardos episodes ... find all
 * 6 - - Delhi–Alwar Regional Rapid Transit System, Fail-safe, Hebron, New York, Stoked for the Holidays ... find all
 * 6 - - Carbon governance in England, Chalena Vásquez, Elvin C. Stakman, Libeaus Desconus, Pioneer Valley ... find all
 * 6 -  - Jacobi elliptic functions, Kolmogorov complexity, Nasal consonant, Samsung Economic Research Institute, Suyá language ... find all
 * 6 -  - Robert Ira Lewy, Yaron Avitov ... find all
 * 6 - - Whiteshell Laboratories ... find all
 * 6 -  - Caipira dialect, Cremunés dialect, Language planning, Projection principle, Traditional Spelling Revised ... find all
 * 6 - <d> - Northern Borderlands dialect, Northern, Central and Southern Vietnam, Pakora, Papadam, Southern Borderlands dialect ... find all
 * 6 - <ch> - Chan Chan, Gwari language, Romanization, Southern Borderlands dialect, Trellech ... find all
 * 5 - <y> - Caipira dialect, Middle Mongol, Ordinal Pareto efficiency, Redundancy principle (biology), Yeísmo ... find all
 * 5 - <sh> - Gwari language, Judaeo-Spanish, Middle Mongol, Weltdeutsch, Ṣ ... find all
 * 5 - - Olympus Guardian ... find all
 * 5 - - SIGMET ... find all
 * 5 - <l> - Caipira dialect, Dia, Mali, Teiresias algorithm ... find all
 * 5 - - Range coding ... find all
 * 5 - - Boyle Abbey ... find all
 * 4 - <z> - Dutch-language literature, General Chinese, Leiden Willeram, Weltdeutsch ... find all
 * 4 - - Audiometry, Iba N'Diaye, Nicolay family, VOEvent ... find all
 * 4 - - Fan rice, J. Lynn Helms, Ractopamine, VOEvent ... find all
 * 4 - - Cape Verdi, Ramruma, Sun Princess (horse) ... find all
 * 4 - - BlackNurse, Client-to-client protocol ... find all
 * 4 - - Servotron 9000 ... find all
 * 4 - - C syntax, DG/L, XML for Analysis ... find all
 * 4 - - Fusion tree ... find all
 * 4 - - Shift-reduce parser ... find all
 * 4 - - Ideograph (rhetoric) ... find all
 * 4 - <is> - Gellish, Semantic data model ... find all
 * 4 - <if> - Executive Council of Hong Kong, Executive Council of Macau ... find all
 * 4 - <g> - Crimean Gothic, Intercultural communication principles, Ormulum, Osmanoğlu family ... find all
 * 4 - - Luhn mod N algorithm, St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh (Episcopal) ... find all

Need debugging

 * 19 -  - Arena (web browser), Back-to-back user agent, BagIt, Call graph, Code folding ... find all
 * (These look legit, probably a moss bug. Beland note to self: Run these on wikitext_util functions in an interactive window to find parse breakage.)
 * 5 - - Broch of Gurness, Danapur, Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Osceola, Iowa, Spitakavor Monastery ... find all

Notification of new dumps
"Most likely misspellings by articles" should always have work to do (if not, ping Beland to add more from the current dump). Some of the other sections are occasionally waiting for a new dump to get a useful list, either because they are ranked by frequency or a code change has been made to clean up noise in the next run. New runs are generally posted twice a month. The database snapshot from the first day of the month generally takes about 9-13 days to process, and the snapshot from the twentieth day of the month might take 4-6 days until it can be posted.

All that said, if you want to get a ping when results from a new dump are posted, you can add your name to the list below. If you are only interested in a particular section, include a note to that effect.


 * (add your username to this list)
 * Endersslay (talk) 00:51, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
 * snoozebug … zzz 15:24, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Jake01756 (talk) (contribs) 21:31, 19 February 2023 (UTC)
 * <span style="color:blue;text-shadow:2px 2px 3px rgba(17,189,172,1)">Jake The Great!📞talk! 01:40, 18 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Puddleglum2.0 (talk) 20:31, 13 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Schazjmd (talk) 18:25, 21 December 2018 (UTC)
 * bradleyagin (talk) 04:08, 12 January 2019 (UTC)
 * <b style="color:#FA0">Darylgolden</b>(<b style="color:#F00">talk</b>) Ping when replying 00:50, 11 February 2019 (UTC)
 * MarkZusab (talk) 03:52, 15 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Amiodarone  talk  20:52, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Zojomars (talk) 17:48, 31 May 2019 (UTC)
 * Anarhistička Maca (talk) 06:25, 30 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Clovermoss (talk) 00:46, 27 October 2019 (UTC)
 * JaAlDo (talk) 14:18, 11 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Creativecreatr Creativecreatr (talk) 09:56, 26 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Voidify (talk) 06:12, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Doghouse09 (talk) 20:52, 8 September 2020 (UTC)
 * -- spazure  (contribs) 09:24, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Idell (talk) 21:26, 23 October 2020 (UTC)
 * --[[User:Fehufanga|
 * Fehufangą ]] ♮ ✉ Talk page  ♮ 12:16, 28 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Triethylborane (talk) 03:23, 19 May 2021 (UTC)
 * littleb2009 (talk · contribs)
 * Normal Name (talk) 20:28, 29 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Amazomagisto (talk) 02:36, 6 July 2021 (UTC)
 * TreeReader (talk) 09:17, 1 August 2021 (UTC)
 * A live mussel (talk or contribs) 09:05, 14 October 2021 (UTC)
 * -- lettherebedarklight –  晚安  ( おやすみなさい ).  04:07, 4 June 2022 (UTC)
 * rbstrachan (talk) 21:11, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Tymewalk (talk) 08:38, 4 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Max263 (talk • contribs) 12:32, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
 * SikiWtideI (Speak to the backwards police) 21:44, 11 November 2022 (UTC)
 * KING WIKIPEDIAN DCCLXIV (talk &#124; contribs) 21:12, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Blue Edits (talk) 16:55, 30 June 2023 (UTC)
 * BD2412 T 20:16, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
 * <b style="color:red; text-shadow:darkred 0.2em 0.2em 0.4em;">Tommi1986</b> <b style="color:brown">let's talk!</b> 20:41, 16 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Bunnypranav (talk) 14:34, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

moss code and data sources
moss is written in Python, and is available on github at: https://github.com/cdbeland/moss

Data is obtained from XML database backup dumps.