glossary
Americannoun
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a list of terms in a special subject, field, or area of usage, with accompanying definitions.
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such a list at the back of a book, explaining or defining difficult or unusual words and expressions used in the text.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of glossary
1350–1400; Middle English glossarye < Latin glōssarium difficult word requiring explanation < Greek glōssárion, diminutive of glôssa tongue, language; later taken as a collection of such words, by construing suffix as Latin -ārium -ary; cf. gloss 2
Explanation
A glossary is a dictionary of terms specific to a certain subject. A biology textbook might have a glossary in the back, so you can quickly look up all those technical words. Many fields of study use terms that are pretty much restricted to that field of study, so authors often supply a glossary to help people understand what they're talking about. The glossary is often found at the end of a book or article and is usually in alphabetical order. A glossary can also come at the end of a chapter or even in footnotes. If you're just joining the world of Dungeons and Dragons, I recommend you look over the glossary, so you can get a sense of what your fellow gamers are talking about.
Vocabulary lists containing glossary
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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Language and Grammar - Introductory
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National Librarian Day
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Haystack, which provides businesses, including BuzzFeed Inc. and NerdWallet Inc., with internal communications software, is readying a tool called Glossary for companies and their workers to demystify corporate jargon.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 11, 2023
The first recorded mention of Beltane was in the 10th century CE text "Cormac's Glossary," known in Gaelic as "Sanas Cormaic."
From Salon • May 2, 2022
Presumably “A Glossary of Historical Atrocities and Other Horrors” would have been too on-the-nose.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 26, 2021
Glossary also raises serious questions about what McKinsey calls “personalized pricing” and what the State Farm patent application calls “personalized recommendations” and “insurance discounts.”
From New York Times • Apr. 10, 2019
In Allan Cunningham's Glossary to Burns, I find Primsie, which he defines to mean demure, precise.
From Notes and Queries, Vol. III, Number 87, June 28, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
