Wikipedia:Short description

The short description of a Wikipedia article is a concise explanation of the scope of the article.

The short description may be used for several purposes, including as a disambiguator in searches and as an annotation in outline articles.
The short description should be as short as is reasonably practicable while serving its purpose. A target of 40 characters has been suggested, but there can not be a hard and fast limit. sometimes more words will be necessary to make sense.
The short description will be the first point of contact for many readers, so it should be easily comprehensible, even if that means making it a little longer.
The short description is part of the article content, and is subject to the standard processes for content decisions, including but not limited to Bold-Revert-Discuss and the rules on edit-warring and vandalism.
Disputes should be handled on the talk page in the same way as any other content.
Short descriptions are subject to all Wikipedia standards of content, including BLP, neutrality and verifiability, though, like the title, they are not referenced in line. In effect they serve as an extension or annotation to the title.
The short description need not be a full sentence if a shorter construction will serve. It is not clear whether it should have an initial capital (sentence case) or not.

Format and placing

The format for a short description will use a magic word {{SHORTDESC: }} which takes the short description as a parameter when the software has been written. (link to technical information when available)
Until the magic word has been developed, there is a template {{short description}} which can be used to start work on populating the articles. Eventually all articles should have a short description, so there is a lot of work ahead to create them.
As the short description is the first thing that will be shown after the title when it is used, it is logical to put it right at the top of the page. before anything else. This may conflict with other templates and hatnotes which are convenient to place right at the top, but this particular one will eventually be in all articles, so there is a reasonable argument for giving it priority.

There is no special guidance yet for the formatting of short descriptions. WikiProjects may find it useful to suggest standard formats which may be applicable to categories of articles.
Wikidata has English descriptions of a significant fraction of Wikipedia articles. Where these are good, they may be copied to the relevant article. The Wikidata descriptions are all public domain, so need no attribution. If you use a Wikidata description, check that it is appropriate and accurate. Wikidata descriptions may not comply with all Wikipedia content policies, and it is the responsibility of the editor to ensure that Wikipedia content complies. This is particularly relevant for biographies of living people and medical articles.