Glossary

Glossary

n. A list of words relating to a specialized field or area of knowledge, often arranged alphabetically, and which may contain supplemental information, references, verbal and/or pictorial illustrations, and/or other notes.

NOTE: You'll often find a section in the back of a book labeled “Glossary” and defining various specialized terms used therein. But what about when there's no other front part of the book? Nowadays, there are many specialized dictionaries that somewhat blur the line between Glossary and dictionary, having titles like Dictionary of Mathematics, etc. Are they really just Glossaries on steroids?

A Glossary is generally acknowledged to be different from a dictionary, as dictionaries typically have much broader scopes, covering, for example the vocabulary of an entire language, and including background information about word origins, and so on.

So, if you care to ask, “Is this really a Glossary or a dictionary?” my answer is: “Is that really important?”

I'm choosing to call this a “Glossary,” and to my mind, that's that. If you want to argue about it, please don't bother me. Go to college. I hear that's what they do there.