Urban Dictionary

Urban Dictionary

Screenshot of Urban Dictionary's front page
URL	urbandictionary.com
Slogan	Define Your World
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Slang dictionary
Registration	Required only for editing
Available language(s)	English
Owner	Aaron Peckham
Created by	Aaron Peckham
Launched	1999
Alexa rank	653
Current status	active

Urban Dictionary is a Web-based dictionary of slang words and phrases. As of 2009, the site contains over four million definitions. Submissions are regulated by volunteer editors and rated by site visitors.

Time's Anita Hamilton placed Urban Dictionary on her 50 best websites of 2008 list.

History

The site was founded in 1999 by Aaron Peckham while he was a freshman computer science major at California Polytechnic State University. One of the first definitions on the site was, "the man", referring to, "the head of the establishment put in place to 'bring us down.'”

Content

The definitions on Urban Dictionary are meant to be those of slang or subculture words, phrases, and phenomena not found in standard dictionaries. Most words have multiple definitions, usage examples, and tags.

Racist, homophobic or sexist terms are acceptable as long as their definitions only document the use of such slurs and are not themselves abusive. Site guidelines recommend submitters and volunteer editors shun definitions that include in-jokes, personal references, non-celebrities, nonsense, advertisements, or descriptions of sexual violence.

Quality control

Quality is regulated democratically at two levels. First, registered users vote to accept or reject newly submitted definitions. Definitions appear in the dictionary after receiving a sufficient differential of "accept" over "reject" votes.

Secondly, definitions already in the dictionary can be voted "up" or "down" by any site visitor. The definitions appear in "descending order" of highest gross votes.

Traffic and users

As of April 2009, Urban Dictionary has over 4 million definitions, with an average of 2,000 being submitted every day. The site receives approximately 15 million unique visitors per month, with 80% of users being younger than 25. Urban Dictionary's Alexa rating is 653, with a rating of 291 in the United States and 18,881 sites linking in.

Books

• Peckham, Aaron (2005). Urban dictionary: fularious street slang defined. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing, L.L.C.. pp. 320. ISBN 0-7407-5143-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=49wFXyb35goC&printsec=frontcover&dq=urban+dictionary&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved January 25, 2010. 
• Peckham, Aaron (2007). Mo' Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined. Kansas City, Missouri: Andrews McMeel Publishing, L.L.C.. pp. 240. ISBN 0-7407-6875-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=u27ferHysRMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Mo+Urban+Dictionary&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved January 25, 2010. 

External links

• Urban Dictionary