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Innuendo is a statement which implies, but does not state, that a person or entity has done something immoral, unethical, or otherwise inappropriate, or has other undesirable qualities.
Innuendo may take any variety of forms; examples include:
- an implied connection to illict people or activities;
- wording that lends itself to an interpretation that a subject's denial of wrongdoing implies guilt;
- a suggestive mention of a negative detail that would only be remarkable if the article subject were responsible for or otherwise connected to it; or, especially,
- any detail that would reflect negatively on the article subject only if the reader had other knowledge about the article subject that is not contained in the article, including any negative detail that would only be understood to refer to the article subject by readers having such knowledge.
Material that serves primarily as a cue to proponents or opponents of a view that is not, itself, notable or relevant enough to include in the article, should be avoided at all costs.
The purpose and motivation of innuendo may vary, but it is usually intended to disparage a subject without substantiation and without directly inviting rebuttal. These purposes are generally at odds with the purposes of rendering encylopedic prose for Wikipedia articles. In particular, innuendo will generally present an accusation about a person or entity via hint or allusion, without stating it directly, whereas Wikipedia's policy on verifiability of article content requires that such claims be both clearly identifiable and traceable to a reliable source. As such, it may be difficult or impossible to reduce published innuendo to encyclopedic prose, and unpublished or editor-synthesized innuendo should be avoided at all costs.
Appearance of innuendo in any sourced material presented for inclusion should be treated with reference to WP:REDFLAG and should not be cited to low-quality sources. Innuendo is rarely, if ever, found in the highest-quality news reporting. Innuendo in academic sources is also rare, but may be more difficult for readers to contextualize due to the specialized nature of the subject matter, and should be treated with additional caution.