# Community glossary?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [April 13, 2020, 12:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797 "2020-04-13T12:34:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Joshua\_Kogan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Joshua_Kogan)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 12:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/1 "2020-04-13T12:34:47Z")
Hi everyone, I’m interested in creating a community glossary w/in discourse. Something like this:
I understand that this functionality isn’t part of the core, but is there a plugin that already exists? Or has anyone come up with a creative way to get this done in their forum?
To clarify, I want to add a glossary to my forum – I don’t want to turn a forum into a glossary.
Thanks!
---
### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/2 "2020-04-13T12:45:41Z")
Would making it a wiki post so what you want?
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### Author:  [@Steven](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Steven)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 12:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/3 "2020-04-13T12:54:23Z")
A wiki post (for the content) with DiscoTOC (for the navigation between letters) would be a pretty good combo
I wonder if this plugin might help in some way
> [@Discourse Docs](https://meta.discourse.org/t/knowledge-explorer-plugin/130172):
>
> warning This plugin is being retired in favour of the experimental [Doc Categories plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-doc-categories/322376). We will still support Docs until the new plugin is no longer considered experimental. discourse2Summary Discourse Docs provides the ability to find and filter knowledge base topicshammer_and_wrenchRepository Link [https://github.com/discourse/discourse-docs](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-docs)open_bookInstall Guide [How to install plugins in Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-plugins-in-discourse/19157)Features The Discourse Docs plugin is a powerful tool that…
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### Author:  [@Joshua\_Kogan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Joshua_Kogan)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/4 "2020-04-13T12:55:20Z")
It could get the job done-ish, but not exactly what I’m thinking. With a glossary page, each word would then be a link to it’s definition, or could have the definition right below the word (maybe accordian to see definition). In the former case, linkifying throughout the site could route a user to the word’s definition page, and in the latter case, to the open accordian.
The above could be done with wikis and a planned framework, but ease of community use would increase if there was a more straightforward way to add a word, rather than a topic. Also, the alphabetical sorter on the top of the page is a nice feature.
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### Author:  [@Joshua\_Kogan](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Joshua_Kogan)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 1:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/5 "2020-04-13T13:05:21Z")
I haven’t worked with DiscoTOC. That might be the way to make this work. Knowledge Explorer plugin is fantastic, but I have to think about how to make it work with the glossary and rest of the site.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/6 "2020-04-13T13:22:26Z")
There is a linkify theme component. It could do what you want if it’s just a few words. If you are going to have dozens of hundreds you’ll want a plugin
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### Author:  [@tomtjes](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tomtjes)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/7 "2020-04-13T17:31:43Z")
Just played around with that a little bit and added some CSS to my theme to make glossary links appear in the standard text color with a dotted underline.
```scss
a.linkify-word {
text-decoration-line: underline;
text-decoration-style: dotted;
color: $primary;
text-underline-offset: 0.1em;
}
```
(Browser-compatibility for `text-underline-offset` is not great yet, but at least on Firefox (Desktop) and Safari it makes this look a little nicer.)
Examples:
- Light Theme, Desktop Safari
- Minima Theme Dark, Mobile Safari
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### Author:  [@pacharanero](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pacharanero)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/8 "2025-12-08T15:14:39Z")
I have been working on a Glossary section for the [https://discourse.igkt.net/](https://discourse.igkt.net/) forum, and did it this way:
- Create a category for Glossary entries (in my case #glossary)
- Start to create Glossary Topics, in my case I’ve created one Topic per concept in the Glossary, but another way to do this would be use fewer Topics, and use Markdown headings so you can use anchor-style links to them. Anything that has a unique link will work.
- Use the built-in [Watched Words](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watched-words-reference-guide/241735) feature to Link the glossary word (and any synonyms) to the relevant Topic. (sadly this has to be done manually, unless I come up with an automation for it)
This is a new feature for that forum so feedback will, I’m sure, be forthcoming as to whether it is useful and we get enough glossary coverage, and whether it interferes with the user’s ability to add their own links to these words.
Would love to hear from others who have implemented a Glossary and hear how they did it.
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### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/9 "2025-12-08T21:18:45Z")
I’ve had a crack at this too; it is surprisingly difficult to get it to fly for both technical and social reasons.
My tips:
1. When using watched words, use restrictive Regex - or you’ll get it applied at unhelpful times
2. Topic templates can be very helpful to encourage a good structure for contributions
3. You’ll need a champion. Or be prepared to be the champion yourself. Hard graft!
---
### Author:  [@Heliosurge](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Heliosurge)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2025, 6:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/community-glossary/147797/10 "2025-12-09T18:13:16Z")
You might find these 2 #Customization > Theme component useful.
A glossary as part of the site docs is a good idea. To that end plugin Doc Categories is quite useful. I typically copy some of the various Documentation topics regarding the user interface and such as a Hot-to.
> [@Auto-Linkify Words](https://meta.discourse.org/t/auto-linkify-words/82193):
>
> :exclamation:Discourse has a built-in feature called Watched Words which can [replicate most of the features](https://meta.discourse.org/t/watched-words-reference-guide/241735) of this theme component. Consider using that before installing this theme component. discourse2Summary Auto-Linkify Words allows you to automatically hyperlink certain words or patterns in your post with the desired destination URL.hammer_and_wrenchRepository Link [https://github.com/discourse/discourse-linkify-words](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-linkify-words)open_bookNew to Discourse Themes? [Beginner’s …](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beginners-guide-to-using-discourse-themes/91966)
> [@Add \ tags to words in posts](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-abbr-tags-to-words-in-posts/88394):
>
> About This theme component is ported from [Auto-Linkify Words](https://meta.discourse.org/t/linkify-words-in-post/82193) to provide functionality similar to the [Abbreviations and acronyms plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/abbreviations-and-acronyms-plugin/38501) – namely to wrap various abbreviations used in a given forum/site/Discourse installation in \ tags. Location [https://github.com/metabrainz/discourse-abbrify-words](https://github.com/metabrainz/discourse-abbrify-words)How to install Credits Thanks to @sam for writing the “Linkify words in post” plugin.