Glossars

Glossars are collections that assemble multiple glossaries into a single resource. A glossary is a curated list of terms with concise definitions, typically organized around a domain such as medicine, law, or computing. A glossar thus functions as a meta-resource that groups related glossaries, enabling unified search, cross-referencing, and standardized terminology across projects, languages, or organizations.

Each glossary within a glossar usually contains terms, definitions, usage notes, examples, and cross-references to related terms. Additional metadata can include the term’s domain, language, part of speech, synonyms, and provenance. Glossars may also provide licensing information and versioning to track updates.

Glossars appear in various forms, including domain-specific terminology repositories, multilingual terminology hubs, and software localization glossaries that support translation workflows. They are used in technical writing, standards development, data curation, and knowledge management to reduce ambiguity and improve interoperability.

Creation and maintenance involve terminology extraction, definition drafting, peer review, and governance. Initiatives may adopt standards for data exchange, such as SKOS or other linked-data formats, to facilitate interoperability between glossaries and enable connections to related concepts like ontologies.