How to cite a Wikipedia article in MLA 8 format

There are two ways to cite a Wikipedia article in MLA 8 format.

Automatically cite a Wikipedia article in MLA 8 format

The easiest way is to use our citation generator below. Simply select the style you need to format your citation in, then paste the URL for the Wikipedia article into the search box and press search. We’ll find the details automatically and format them in the style you selected.

Manually cite a Wikipedia article in MLA 8 format

Alternatively you can cite it manually. A Wikipedia article is essentially just a webpage, so you should cite it in the same way you would usually cite a webpage. For MLA 8 format this is as follows:

First, locate these details for the article: article title, published date, access date, article URL (web address). The article title can be found at the top of the article, and the publish date can be found right at the bottom and looks something like This page was last edited on 28 June 2018, at 11:39 (UTC). The access date is the date you took information from the article (usually today).

Then use this template, replacing the colored placeholders with the information you found on the page:

Wikipedia Contributors. “Article title.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Published date day, month, year, Article URL. Accessed Accessed date day, month, year.

The final formatted citation should look like this: