Welcome to Wikipedia, the free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit.


Almanac · Categories · Glossaries · Lists · Overviews · Portals · Questions · Site news · Index

Art | Culture | Geography | Health | History | Mathematics | People | Philosophy | Science | Society | Technology

We are building an open-content encyclopedia in many languages. We started in January 2001 and are now working on 6,842,525 articles in the English version. Learn how to edit pages, experiment in the sandbox, and visit our Community Portal to find out how you can contribute to Wikipedia. This page is also available without pictures.More main page alternatives

Today's featured article

 
Mandy Rice-Davies

"Well he would, wouldn't he?" is an aphorism that is commonly used as a retort to a self-interested denial. It was said by the model Mandy Rice-Davies (pictured) while giving evidence at the 1963 trial of Stephen Ward, who had been accused of living off money paid to Rice-Davies and her friend Christine Keeler for sex: part of the larger Profumo affair. While being cross-examined Rice-Davies was told that Lord Astor, who owned the Cliveden estate on which Ward rented a cottage, had denied an affair with her; she replied: "Well he would, wouldn't he?" Political, communications and psychological experts have interpreted it as a phrase which indicates the speaker believes a person is making a self-interested, obvious or irrelevant denial. They have also stated it functions as a retort to mistruths made by public figures. Linguistically, it has been noted for its use of the modal verb would to create rhetorical effect. The phrase has been included in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations since 1979. (Full article...)

Recently featured:
{{POTD row}}

Current events

 
Plaza Murillo surrounded by soldiers

Selected anniversaries

{{June_28_selected_anniversaries}}

Did you know...

 
Exterior of the Stonewall Inn


Portals

Categories

Animation  – Celebrities  – Dance  – Entertainers  – Festivals – Games – Hobbies – Humour – Music – Parties – Radio – Television – Toys

Africa – Antarctica – Asia – Australia – Europe – North America – Oceania – South America
Cities – Climate – Countries – Landforms – Maps – Parks – Subterranea – Towns

Education – Family – Food and drink – Health – Home – People

Wikipedia in other languages

Sister Projects

Wikipedia is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Wikimedia operates several other multilingual and open-content wiki projects:

Meta-WikiCoordination of all Wikimedia projects
WiktionaryA multilingual dictionary and thesaurus
WikibooksFree textbooks and manuals
WikiquoteA collection of quotations
WikisourceFree source documents
WikinewsFree content news source



If you find this encyclopedia or its sister projects useful, please consider making a donation.