Wikimedia Foundation

Enhance your website with free knowledge straight from Wikipedia!
Install Wikipedia Preview, the free add-on designed to better engage your visitors and improve the user experience on your website.
The Wikipedia Preview plugin provides context to your site’s visitors with content directly from Wikipedia. It allows you to add links to your content so that when your visitors click or hover on them, they see a pop-up box with information and images straight from Wikipedia. With Wikipedia Preview your visitors gain context on a topic, without ever leaving your website.
Wikipedia Preview is an official plug-in designed and developed by the <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">Wikimedia Foundation</a>, the non-profit behind Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects.
The plug-in is entirely free to download and use, in line with the Wikimedia Foundation’s mission to provide free knowledge for everyone.
<iframe loading="lazy" class="youtube-player" width="750" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_m6YzR0j8Fs?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe>
Benefits
<ul>
<li>Rich-media content straight from Wikipedia, to give your site’s visitors the context they need, without ever having to leave your website.</li>
<li>Always free.</li>
<li>Available in 300 languages.</li>
<li>Easy to set up. Adding Wikipedia Preview links is even easier than adding other hyperlinks.</li>
<li>Leveraging the content and brand name of one of the most popular websites in the world.</li>
</ul>
Features
<ul>
<li>Can be set up using the same process you use to add hyperlinks to your articles or using the Gutenberg editor custom tool.</li>
<li>Handles any link to a Wikipedia article regardless of language, lead image presence or length.</li>
<li>Site owners can choose a specific section of an article as a preview, not limited to just the lead section.</li>
<li>Supports dark mode option for improved readability.</li>
<li>Works for Right-to-Left (RTL) and Left-To-Right (LTR) languages.</li>
<li>Offers access to a built-in gallery to dive into article images.</li>
<li>Can be disabled for any page using the post metadata sidebar.</li>
<li>Uses Gutenberg editor custom tool to search for Wikipedia articles and visualize Wikipedia Preview for readers.</li>
</ul>
How to add preview links to your site
Option 1 – How to add Wikipedia Preview links using the Classic Editor:
<ul>
<li>Add a Wikipedia article link to your site’s content using the same process you use to add hyperlinks to your articles.</li>
</ul>
Option 2 – How to add Wikipedia Preview links using the Gutenberg/ Block Editor:
<ol>
<li>Highlight the text you want to link to a Wikipedia article.</li>
<li>Select ‘W’ – Wikipedia Preview icon from the menu.</li>
<li>You will see a list of suggested articles. Select the one you want to link to.</li>
<li>Wikipedia Preview will automatically turn the link into a preview of the relevant Wikipedia article. You can easily customize the preview content by selecting a specific section of the article.</li>
</ol>

Wikipedia Preview

Textbook implementation. Also, this is just a fun way to add more interactivity to your blog, plus possibly learn something new.

Textbook

Fantastic plugin

Wikipedia Preview lets you show a popup card with a short summary from Wikipedia when a reader clicks or hovers over a link.

Slodds

Shortcode: <code>[slodds_random_facts]</code> — paste it into any page or post to display a random fact widget.
Slodds Random Facts adds a clean, interactive random fact widget to your WordPress site. Show your visitors interesting facts about science, space, animals, history, food, and more. Perfect for blogs, educational sites, and anyone who wants to add a fun element to their pages.
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>1,000 curated, high-quality facts across 14 categories</li>
<li>Filter by category: Animals, Space, Science, History, Food, and more</li>
<li>Kid-friendly mode — show only facts suitable for all ages</li>
<li>Light and dark theme support</li>
<li>“Next Fact” button with smooth transitions</li>
<li>Mobile responsive design</li>
<li>No external API calls — works entirely offline</li>
<li>No tracking, no cookies, no data collection</li>
<li>Lightweight — no external dependencies</li>
</ul>
<h4>Categories</h4>
Animals, Culture, Food, General, Geography, History, Human Body, Language, Nature, Ocean, Psychology, Science, Space, Technology
<h4>Shortcode Options</h4>
<pre><code>[slodds_random_facts] — basic usage

[slodds_random_facts category="Space" kid_friendly="true" theme="dark"]
</code></pre>
<ul>
<li><code>category</code> — filter to a specific category. Default: all</li>
<li><code>kid_friendly</code> — true or false. Default: false (shows all facts)</li>
<li><code>theme</code> — light or dark. Default: light</li>
<li><code>show_category</code> — show category label. Default: true</li>
</ul>

Slodds Random Facts

Display random facts on any page. 1,000 curated facts across 14 categories. No API calls, no tracking.

Wikipedia Preview vs Slodds Random Facts