English Wikipedia

The English Wikipedia is the English language edition of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Founded on 15 January 2001 and having surpassed 500,000 articles in March 2005, it is both the oldest and largest of Wikipedia's editions. As of 2005, approximately one-third of articles in all Wikipedias belongs to the English-language edition, and it is larger than the next two largest Wikipedias combined (the German and the Japanese).

Among the controversies specific to the English Wikipedia is a debate over which national variety of the English language is to be preferred, with the most common candidates being American English and British or International English. Many suggestions have been proposed by editors, ranging from standardizing upon a single form of English to forking the English Wikipedia project. The de facto policy, however, is to prefer an appropriate form of English for articles of regional scope (e.g., Canadian English for subjects related to Canada) but otherwise to allow the consistent use of any variety of English.