Download free glossary template files in various file formats. Free, without registration. The user and world deserves good glossaries and end-user documentation. 🙂

What is a glossary template?

A glossary describes a list of terms of a specific domain or knowledge area (e.g. of your software product). The goal is to introduce and describe new or unknown words to outsiders and new users, so they understand their meaning and usage. More information can be found at how to create a well-crafted glossary for software documentation.

A glossary template describes the main element a glossary entry consists of. It is used when creating a new glossary entry.

What is the structure of a glossary template?

A glossary template might consist of the following elements:

• Term: word or fragment that is unknown or to be introduced
• Definition: short description of the meaning of the term; not longer as 2-3 sentences
• Alias: (optional) list of similar terms or synonyms
• Category: (optional) in case of multiple glossaries or a big glossary, the category the glossary term belongs to
• Further reading: (optional) list of links to additional resources that are related to the term and e.g. explain the usage or a specific functionality

Example of a glossary template entry

The online documentation of the multilingual product documentation system indoc contains a glossary entry about the term “Content Slug” (to view the example, click on the link).

It consists of the following main elements:

• Title: represents the term, here “Content Slug“
• Definition: short description of the term, here: “The content slug is part of a content element. The slug describes a part of the url, that is used to address this content element.“
• Additional description: two use cases are written to better describe the usage
• Example: specific example to better describe the usage and variants of the term
• Suggestion: how to use the term depending on the use case of the user

Screenshot of a glossary entry

Glossary Table Template

The glossary table template can be used to list the glossary as a table. It should contain short description and content. Otherwise reading the meaning of a term in the glossary table will be challenging to the user.

Term	Definition	Alias	Category	Further reading
Content Slug	The content slug is part of a content element. The slug describes a part of the url, that is used to address this content element.	Page Slug, Content Url Part	Content Elements	(link to) Structure of a Content element

Dictionary – bilingual glossary template or translation glossary template

The dictionary can be described as a specific type of a glossary. A dictionary entry describes a term of a foreign language in and translates them into the main language of the user.

A bilingual glossary is similar to a dictionary and translates & describes terms of one language into the other language, using the target language. E.g. describe domain specific terms of a software product that are used in English into Spanish, so the Spanish user better understand the meaning of the English terms inside of the software.

Bilingual Glossary Template

The template of a bilingual glossary entry contains the following elements

• Term in Source Language
• Translated Term in Target Language
• Short Description in Target Language
• Additional information
• References to content about the term

Translation Glossary Template

The structure of a Translation Glossary Entry is – compared e.g. to the bilingual glossary element – shorter and might only contain the following elements:

• Term in Source Language
• Term in Target Language

Both multilingual and translation related glossary subtypes are used in the context of multilingual documentation of software products.

Glossary of Terms Template

(example …, glossary template free /-download)

Glossary Template – free downloads

Glossary Template for Microsoft Word docx

A free template of a glossary document for Microsoft Word 2010/2013/2016/2019/2021 can be downloaded

Download Free Glossary Template for Microsoft Word in docx format

Glossary Template for Microsoft Powerpoint as PPTX

Free download of a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation containing a glossary template and a glossary entry as example. It can be used as baseline or reference.

Download free Microsoft Powerpoint glossary template and glossary example

Glossary Template for Microsoft Excel as xlsx

Free download of a Glossary Template for Microsoft Excel in xlsx format – compatible for Microsoft Excel 2013/2016/2019/2021/2022.

Download free Microsoft Excel glossary list in xlsx format

Glossary Template in markdown format

The following section contains a sample glossary entry in mark down format. It is taken from our set of free and open documentation types templates at https://github.com/indocPro/document-types

# Glossary entry template
Title: Glossary entry template

Copyright: CC0 by https://github.com/indocPro/document-types

Producer: indoc.pro, and other authors

Contact: Add an issue to the gitHub project

## Title: Term <a name="title"></a>
Content: word or fragment

## Definition <a name="definition"></a>
Content: short description of the meaning of the term; not longer than 2-3 sentences

## Alias <a name="alias"></a>
Content: similar terms or synonyms (optional)

## Category <a name="category"></a>
Content: in case of multiple glossaries or a big glossary, the terms might be categorized (optional)

## Further reading <a name="reading"></a>
Content: list of links to additional pages in the online documentation that are related to the term and e.g. explain 
    the usage or a specific functionality in your software product

Source: https://github.com/indocPro/document-types/blob/main/en/glossary/glossary-template.md

Glossary Template in pdf format

Based on the Microsoft Word template, download the Glossary Template in pdf format:

Download free glossary example and template as PDF file

Free Glossary Template for Google Docs

Access and copy the Google Docs glossary template

Glossary Template for WordPress

Just copy the following section to your WordPress page, adapt it to your styling and use it as template when adding new glossary terms to your glossary list.

• Term: word or fragment that is unknown or to be introduced
• Definition: short description of the meaning of the term; not longer as 2-3 sentences
• Alias: (optional) list of similar terms or synonyms
• Category: (optional) in case of multiple glossaries or a big glossary, the category the glossary term belongs to
• Further reading: (optional) list of links to additional resources that are related to the term and e.g. explain the usage or a specific functionality

Using separate WordPress pages for each term would allow you to link them also in the end-user documentation. But for only a few terms, one page with a list of glossary entries might be sufficient. Use a heading for each term, and with a table-of-content plugin, you get a list of glossary terms without additional work. Typically, these plugins also use relative links inside the page (the link contains a # for the specific heading / term). This specific term link can be used to reference the entry from other pages.

Additional file formats

In case you would need the glossary template for other file formats, contact us. For example,

• Glossary template in txt format
• Glossary template for Notion
• Atlassian Confluence glossary template (Atlassian glossary template, Glossary template in confluence, Confluence glossary page template, Glossary template confluence)
• Glossary template in html format
• Glossary template for Microsoft Sharepoint
• Glossary template for Microsoft OneNote
• Glossary template for Canva

We also provide a free reference document example document and template