glossary

noun

glos·​sa·​ry ˈglä-sə-rē 

ˈglȯ-

plural glossaries

: a collection of textual glosses or of specialized terms with their meanings

glossarial

glä-ˈser-ē-əl 

glȯ-

adjective

Examples of glossary in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

DeepL offers features like creating a custom glossary and this year introduced a tool that asks follow up questions to clear-up ambiguities, which could help in niche domains. —Harry Booth, Time, 6 Oct. 2025

Gaming glossary: Battle pass: A tiered system which rewards players with virtual items for completing various objectives in gameplay, and may be offered in a limited time period. —Lim Hui Jie, CNBC, 3 Oct. 2025

The path of rightness only belongs to those on the Left, just ask a liberal, and anyone not on board is a deplorable, fascist, Nazi or whatever else is in their progressive Mad Libs glossary. —Boston Herald Editorial Staff, Boston Herald, 2 Oct. 2025

There was even a glossary of diagnosis codes that are used for billing. —Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica, 10 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English glosarie, borrowed from Medieval Latin glōsārium, glōssārium, from glōsa, glōssa gloss entry 3 + Latin -ārium -ary entry 1

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

glossary

noun

glos·​sa·​ry ˈgläs-(ə-)rē 

ˈglȯs-

plural glossaries

1

: a list of the hard or unusual words found in a book

2

: a dictionary of the special terms in a particular field