wikipedia /ˌwɪkɪˈpiːdiə/ listen wik-ih-pee-dee-ə or /ˌwɪki-/ listen wik-ee- is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers through open collaboration and a wiki-based editing system. its editors are known as wikipedians. wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history. it is consistently one of the 10 most popular websites ranked by the similarweb and former alexa; as of 2022, wikipedia was ranked the 7th most popular site.it is hosted by the wikimedia foundation, an american non-profit organization funded mainly through donations.