wiki

wiki (ˈwɪkɪ)
—n
	a.  a web application that allows anyone visiting a website to edit content on it
	b.  (as modifier): wiki technology
[C20: from Hawaiian wiki-wiki quick, coined by Ward Cunningham (born 1949), US computer programmer who invented the concept]

Main Entry:	wiki
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	a collaborative Web site set up to allow user editing and adding of content
Etymology:	1995; < Hawaiian wiki wiki quick
Usage:	sometimes cap.

wiki definition

communications
Any collaborative website that users can easily modify via the web, typically without restriction. A wiki allows anyone, using a web browser, to edit, delete or modify content that has been placed on the site, including the work of other authors. This has been found to work surprisingly well since contributors tend to be more numerous and persistent than vandals and old versions of pages are always available.
Text is entered using a simple mark-up language which is then rendered as HTML. A feature common to many of the different implementations is that any word in mixed case LikeThis is automatically turned into a link to a page of that name, which may or may not exist (similar to the linking in this dictionary).
In contrast, a web log, typically authored by an individual, does not allow visitors to change the original posted material, only add comments.
Wiki wiki means "quick" in Hawaiian. The first wiki was created by Ward Cunningham in 1995.
wiki.org (http://wiki.org/).
(2005-07-21)

wiki

World Wide Web (WWW) site that can be modified or contributed to by users. Wikis can be dated to 1995, when American computer programmer Ward Cunningham created a new collaborative technology for organizing information on Web sites. Using a Hawaiian term meaning "quick," he called this new software WikiWikiWeb, attracted by its alliteration and also by its matching abbreviation (WWW)

Learn more about wiki with a free trial on Britannica.com.