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A: Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a dictionary says that "Wikipedia should not be written like a dictionary," not "Wikipedia shouldn't have articles about words." There are plenty of other articles about words, but the purpose of those articles is to talk about the word itself, not define what the word means as a dictionary would. However, this doesn't mean that Wikipedia should have articles about every word in the English language; Wikipedia does have notability guidelines, which the word "the" happens to meet. (More detail here.)
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In this case, the "the" is required even when using "preeminent", so it can hardly be said to be replacing it: "the preeminent hospital of choice..." (And in fact, "of choice" does the job just as well.) Additionally, the example phrase "five apples the dollar" does not parse in my idiolect. It could be "five apples a dollar" or perhaps "five apples to the dollar", however. --Brion
No, you've got it backwards. He's not saying that "preeminent" replaces "the", but "the" properly emphasized can mean "preeminent." Eg., "The hospital of choice" is equivalent to "The preeminent hospital of choice" as long as the speaker or writer properly emphasizes "the."
I have the "a" versions of distribution on the A, an page. As for the adjective business, something happens there with the the that is more than just the definite article and there ought to be some way to express that. I thought first it was an emphasis, which it is in speech, but I think you can write the preeminent whatever as the whatever and make that work too, but I'm less sure. Maybe written requires italics. Ortolan88 10:33 Aug 23, 2002 (PDT)
