A plainlink is a link external to en.wikipedia.org, but in this case not followed by an external link icon. It is used for links internal to en.wikipedia.org which require special URL parameters and therefore cannot be reached by wikilinks.

This help page is a how-to guide. It details processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting.

The arrow icon can be suppressed by:

• Placing the external link syntax between <span class="plainlinks">...</span> tags.
• Using {{Plain link}}.

For example,

<span class="plainlinks">[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]</span>

{{Plain link|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki|Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia}}

produce Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Some templates such as {{Querylink}} and {{Oldid}} use plainlinks.