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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 fix ===
In the event that the page title is causing an error, such as <span class="plainlinks">[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%2A%2A%2A&oldid=171348746 what happened]</span> at ''[[***]]'', add the parameter: '''<code>{{para|page-title |<var> page title</var>}}</code>''' . Thus, the [[***]] page would use the syntax: '''<code><nowiki>{{Disambiguation|page-title = ***}}</nowiki></code>''' .

===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|Call sign disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Broadcast call sign disambiguation pages]]
* {{tl|Chinese title disambiguation}} – [[:Category:Disambiguation pages with Chinese character titles]]
* {{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:Mathematical disambiguation]]
* {{tl|Numberdis}} for numbers – [[:Category:Lists of ambiguous numbers]]
* {{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]]

See also [[WP:SIA]] which includes a list of templates for set index articles.

=== 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|church}}: for [[:Category:Church building 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]]

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 [[WP:DCAT]]. 

===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
        }
    }
}
</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
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[[Category:Disambiguation message boxes| ]]

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