WordPress Dictionary Of Terms For Beginners

WPBeginner has launched a WordPress glossary filled with commonly used terms and phrases. It’s easy to forget that a lot of people have no idea what a sidebar, widget, or a shortcode is. Syed Balkhi, founder of WPBeginner.com, explains the idea came to him via an attendee at WordCamp Columbus 2012.

While speaking at the beginner workshop in WordCamp Columbus 2012, one of the attendees raised their hand and asked me this question:

“What is this widget thing that you’re talking about? It would be really nice if there was a dictionary that I can look up these WordPress lingo”

After my session, I sat down with her and answered a lot of her questions. Once I came back from the event, I completely forgot about the idea until earlier this year.

Which Explanation Is Easier To Understand?

The glossary is neatly laid out with terms organized in alphabetical order. To see if their explanations are any easier to understand, I compared WPBeginners definition of the term Widgets with what is provided on the Codex.

In this example, the Codex does a better job explaining what the term Widget means in WordPress. The explanation provided by WPBeginner goes into too much detail and unfortunately, introduces other terms such as Widget Areas. Widget areas is not a widely used term and instead should be substituted with sidebar. Sidebar is the correct term that describes an area of a WordPress theme that can display widgets. If a user looks for the definition of Widget Area, they will come up empty-handed. Since the WPBeginner glossary already explains the term Sidebar, they should link to it in place of Widget Areas.

For other terms such as the Admin Bar, I find the WPBeginners explanation to be easier to understand than the Codex version.

Add The Glossary To Your List Of Resources

The WPBeginners glossary of WordPress terms is an excellent resource. Between the Codex glossary and WPBeginner, there is a wide range of terms with easy to understand explanations.