Glossaries

A glossary is a brief, usually specialized, dictionary typically found near the end of a document, that relates to the subject of the document. (A term, by the way, is a word, abbreviation, or acronym related to the subject of the document. A glossary of (ahem) words is a dictionary.)

A hobby horse of mine: Never say “Glossary of Terms”! A glossary contains terms by definition, so including “Terms” in the heading is redundant.

If you specialize the terms in some way, you can mention that, so “Glossary of Acronyms” is okay; so is “Glossary of Computer Terms”; you can even get away with “Glossary of Terms Used in this Document.” But not “Terms” all by itself. Harumpf.

The terms that should go into a glossary are words and abbreviations that relate to the content of the document that also might not be immediately understood (or remembered) by a typical reader. Put it in the glossary even if you define the term in the document. Especially if you define it in the document. How many people do you know who need to be told something only once, eh?

Having said all that, here’s a link to a nice little glossary from Motherboard associated with, well, not a document, but a subculture that you might be familiar with.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hacking-glossary

Got any glossaries you care to add to the list? Share a link in the comments.