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Featured articleMoon is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on August 28, 2007.
In the news Article milestones
DateProcessResult
July 8, 2006Peer reviewReviewed
October 15, 2006Featured topic candidatePromoted
January 2, 2007Good article nomineeListed
January 14, 2007Peer reviewReviewed
April 30, 2007Featured article candidatePromoted
May 18, 2010Featured article reviewKept
June 13, 2021Featured topic removal candidateDemoted
In the news A news item involving this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "In the news" column on March 19, 2011.
Current status: Featured article

Requested move 10 June 2024[edit]

– Earth's moon is almost always preceded by the definite article, and moon without the definite article more likely refers to a natural satellite. Ergo, this seems like a clear-cut case for moving per the first criterion of WP:THE. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 17:00, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Question: How do you square this with Earth being an example on WP:THE where the definite article should not be used? Leaning support btw but think this needs clarifying. YorkshireExpat (talk) 17:31, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
At the risk of WP:OSE, we'd also need to clarify how the Moon differs from the Sun, the Solar System, the Milky Way, etc. Would the best title be The Moon or The moon? (Both currently redirect to Moon.) A compromise would be to move Moon but not Natural satellite, instead moving a suitably modified Moon (disambiguation) to Moon. Natural satellite is unlikely to be the primary topic for the term "Moon", as our article on Earth's moon has nine times more page views and four times more incoming links. Certes (talk) 18:16, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
@Certes I think I have a problem with the name of the article Natural satellite, as planets and indeed stars are also natural satellites. So are (the so far I believe purely theoretical) submoons. I know the article points that out, but still. I think the case for the other objects that you mention, is that there are many other moons that are within our consciousness as humans, whereas other solar systems, suns, and Milky Ways are far more abstract constructs. The reason you call it 'The' Moon, is so that you don't confuse it with some other moon, which there are plenty of relatievly close by. YorkshireExpat (talk) 12:02, 12 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

planets and indeed stars are also natural satellites

That doesn't matter, as they're not usually described in those terms. We don't pick names firstly striving for some level of technical correctness, we pick common names that are clear to a general readership. I'm sorry, but people can only get confused about this if they're trying to confuse themselves on purpose.

The reason you call it 'The' Moon, is so that you don't confuse it with some other moon

No it's not! Not at all! We called it The Moon (in English, in other languages where applicable, etc.) well before we were able to fathom moons orbiting other bodies. Here's some of Ælfric of Eynsham's Old English from 994:
Sē mōna næfþ nān lēoht būtan of þǣre sunnan lēoman, and hē is ealra tungla niðemest[1]
Likely because it's been of a definite, singular importance to our world. I doubt the meaning when we use the definite article has actually strayed from that.
Anyway, Moon is the correct article title. Remsense诉 15:37, 12 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose “Moon” overwhelmingly refers to the Moon, not a moon or moons in general. Renaming natural satellite to moon would probably require another renaming of Moon to Moon (satellite of Earth); and even if we broke with guidelines and renamed it to The Moon, it would still be extremely easy to confuse with the article formerly known as “natural satellite”. Tl;dr this is a whole can of worms that doesn’t need to be opened— the current titles are unambiguous, whereas the proposed titles would make it harder to find either topic despite being Wikipedia:COMMOMNAMEs. Dronebogus (talk) 19:47, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose. Dronebogus pretty much sums it up. The current titles are intuitive and sensible. - Special-T (talk) 20:15, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Interesting but ... no Credit where it's due; it's true that, when referring to the Moon as a distinct object, English almost always uses the definite article, whereas for other moons this is not so. Still, I'm not convinced that the proper name includes the "the". Intuitively I would say it does not. Also when used adjunctively ("Moon lander", "Moon rock") it is still referring to the Moon in particular, not moons in general, but no article is used. --Trovatore (talk) 20:44, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose basically per Certes: we'd need to apply this same logic to Earth, Sun, etc. We don't need to add the "the" here and there's no real disambiguation issue as our moon is clearly the primary topic. Elli (talk | contribs) 22:46, 10 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. We do always refer to our moon with the definite article, and 'natural satellite' is not the WP:COMMONNAME for other moons. The very first example given in WP:THE is that using 'the' in a title makes sense in a case like 'the Crown', where 'crown' and 'the Crown' naturally lend themselves to two, separate articles. That's exactly what we have here. (Regarding squaring the circle with the Sun – there are other stars, but there aren't other Suns...) AVNOJ1989 (talk) 00:46, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Well from the perspective of beings on exoplanets those stars are their sun(s). Dronebogus (talk) 16:44, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose, per Earth and Sun, uppercased Moon is the proper name (not 'The Moon') per MOS:ASTRONOMICALBODIES. As for 'stars', etc., renaming the natural satellite page Moons may work well (please notice that 'Moons' has redirected there since 2004). Randy Kryn (talk) 03:32, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    Well yes that makes sense per WP:PLURALPT as the Earth's moon can't be in the plural just like the Earth's sun. Crouch, Swale (talk) 16:55, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose per consistency with Sun (not the Sun) and Earth (not the Earth). Moon overwhelming, with long-term significance, refers to the Earth's moon and not moons in general. cookie monster 755 04:26, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
    However, Earth's moon is almost always referred to as the Moon, with the definite article, not Moon. Even other pages, such as Far side of the Moon, Orbit of the Moon and even Template:The Moon, use the definite article in their titles. JohnCWiesenthal (talk) 05:16, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
  • Oppose the definite article is a convention when referring to it, but is not actually part of its name. It's called "Moon" not "the Moon". Canterbury Tail talk 12:38, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It is actually part of its name, though. --AVNOJ1989 (talk) 17:25, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Not according to the references in the article. We even have a section on its name that states it's simply "Moon". Do you have references that state that the definite article is actually part of its proper name? Canterbury Tail talk 17:51, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Britannica doesn't treat "The" as part of the name. Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:58, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Subtle but important – all the sources state Moon is its name. None say that it is its only name. The conditions listed in WP:THE do not seem to me require "the X" to be the only name for something to implement it as an article title. --AVNOJ1989 (talk) 18:01, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I think the real difference here is the relative prominence of the articles. Someone typing "moon" in the search box, or linking to it, is overwhelmingly likely to be intending this article, not the class of objects that includes Io. On the other hand, someone entering "crown" is most likely looking for the type of hat, not details about Britain's unwritten constitution. --Trovatore (talk) 20:18, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
It doesn't directly speak to what I was getting at – it's not that there's no difference at all, but for WP:THE, the distinction brought up isn't relevant – but you make a very good point that the proposed redirects would 'invert' WP:PTOPIC. --AVNOJ1989 (talk) 20:57, 11 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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