terminologyinclude

Terminologyinclude is a concept in documentation and knowledge management that refers to embedding definitions from a central glossary into individual documents. It aims to ensure consistent use and explanation of terms across a documentation set by reusing a single authoritative source.

In practice, a terminologyinclude feature or directive lets a content author pull in terms and definitions during rendering. The mechanism may be implemented as a template include, a content macro, or a transclusion that replaces a placeholder with glossary entries. The glossary is maintained separately, allowing updates to definitions to propagate automatically to all documents that reference it.

Usage considerations include aligning glossary scope with the document, handling term variants and acronyms, and supporting multiple languages or domains. Systems may offer filters to limit included terms to a project, a section, or a specific version, helping to control relevance and redundancy.

Benefits of terminologyinclude include reduced duplication of definitions, improved consistency across documents, and easier localization and maintenance. It supports compliance in regulated contexts by ensuring defined terms remain uniform throughout material.

Limitations include dependency on the glossary’s accuracy and update cadence, potential performance overhead during rendering, and the need for clear versioning to avoid mismatches between documents and definitions.

See also: glossary management, transclusion, content reuse, terminology workflow, documentation automation.