A Beginner’s Dictionary to WordPress

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A

About page: A static page that contains information about you and/or your blog. An ‘About’ page is usually the most-visited page on a website.

Account: What you use to access WordPress. When you sign up for WordPress, you create a username and password that allows you to log in to read blogs and publish to your WordPress site.

Administrator: They can perform all actions on a WordPress website and have full capabilities. A user with administrator role can also add and remove other users with the same role. Administrators have the ability to delete content and are the only user role that has the ability to upgrade a WordPress blog. They can change themes and edit core WordPress files as well as add, delete, and modify plugins. In most cases there is only one administrator.

Admin Area: The administrative area of a WordPress website. Usually it can be accessed by visiting the wp-admin directory in your web browser.
Example: https://www.makerkt.com/wp-admin/. The accessible sections within the admin area depend on the role of the user (i.e. editor, contributor, subscriber, author). See also: Backend, WP Admin.

Akismet: A comment spam filtering service-based plugin. This service uses detects and removes harmful pingback spam and other spam filled comments. The ‘author’ is able to see all the comments that were caught or cleared by Akismet so you are still in control.

AJAX: A technique that webpages use that allows the server to perform certain processing without needing to reload the page. Example: when someone posts a comment in your post, AJAX publishes the comment in real time so the change can be seen without having to reload the entire comments screen.

Archives: A historical organizer of content. An archive organizes posts from your website or blog into a historical order defined by date published, by subject or category, or by other parameters.

Author: A user who can upload files, write, edit, publish and delete their own articles. They can also edit their profile and change their passwords. A website can have multiple authors.

B

Backend: The area that authorized users can sign into to add, remove and modify content on the website (as opposed to Front End). See also: Admin Area, WP Admin

 Background: The image or colour behind the text on your site. It is the layer that lies furthest back behind all other content. Many themes allow you to add a custom background, by changing the colour or uploading your own image.

Blog: A website detailing the writings of an individual person, or by a group of people in a chronological order.

Blog Title: The name of your blog, which is displayed at the top of your blog and in the title bar of web browsers. See also: Site Title

Blogger: A person who publishes posts on a blog.

Blogroll: A list of links to other sites that you display on your blog, to share blogs and website you love and recommend with your readers. You can create a blogroll with the Links widget.

C

Carousel: A way to display a selection of smaller photos that also lets people view a large version of each one. A visitor clicks on one image to display its larger version, and can then rotate through all the other images one at a time.

Categories: A way of grouping posts together by subject matter. A website publishing content on a variety of topics can divide their website into sections using categories. Content is filed under a specific category in order to aid in navigation and direct toward a grouping of other similar content See also: Tags, Taxonomy

Content Management System (CMS): An interface that allows for the management of websites. It automates the process by removing the manual need for writing code or HTML.

Contributor: A user who can edit and delete their own posts, but they cannot edit or delete published posts. This type of user is the ideal choice for WordPress site owners who want to allow other people to come write on their websites.

Comments: A piece of content submitted by the viewer in response to the host’s content which appears underneath the original content. Comments allow your readers to share their thoughts, and let you respond. They’re enabled on all posts and pages by default. You can either disable them, or choose to approve all comments before they appear on your site.

Content: Information that is communicated to the end-user or viewer. Such information may be communicated through written word or text, and through media such as images, audio and video.

cPanel: A popular web-based administrator’s tool that many hosting providers use to allow users to configure their own accounts using a user-friendly interface.

Customizer: a set of tools found under My Sites → Customize that allows you to add and edit custom backgrounds and headers, add and configure widgets, change your fonts, change your colours, and more. The options you’ll have available depend on your theme.

Custom Fields: Areas where metadata is entered.

Custom Post Types:  A piece of content may appear in a variety of ways. They can appear as articles, videos, video libraries, portfolios, projects, podcasts, chats, quotes, and more.

D

Dashboard: The cockpit of your website. It is the complete administrative tools for your site, found by clicking on My Sites in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Here you are able to make informed decisions at a glance. You can change settings, select themes, write or manage content, add or remove users, add images, buy upgrades, and more.

Database: A structured, organized set of data. In computing terminology, a database refers to a software used to store and organize data. WordPress uses MySQL as its database management system.

Domain/Domain Name: An Internet identifier. A domain name is a name used for identification purposes on the Internet. In WordPress a domain name usually identifies a server where WordPress is installed. They are used in order to represent a specific website itself. They are also used to represent networks, services, or even specific computers through Internet Protocol or IP Addresses.

Drag and Drop: An action made by the user where you select an object, grab it, move it to another location and place it there. There are many website builders that feature drag-and-drop management systems which help make the process of building a website much easier.

Dynamic Webpage: Web pages that are capable of producing different content for different visitors. The website can display different content based on what operating system or browser you are using, whether you are using a PC or a mobile device, or even based on the source that referred you to that page. The content in the page can be dynamically generated by the user.

E

Editor: A user with the capability to write, edit, publish, and delete posts, including posts written by other users. They can also moderate, approve, and delete comments and manage categories, tags, custom taxonomies, and even upload files. An Editor also has the ability to read private posts and pages. Only an Administrator has more privileges than the Editor. Since editors can delete posts, even those already published, it is highly recommended that you only assign this role to a user you trust.

F

Featured Image: See: Post Thumbnail

Footer: The bottom section of a web page in the web design terminology. It usually contains information like copyright notices, links to privacy policy, credits, etc.

Front end: The website from the user’s point of view (as opposed to Back End)

G

Gravatar: Short for Globally Recognized Avatar. It is a photo or image that appears next to your name when you comment on or post to a blog. You can upload a Gravatar directly from your WordPress profile by clicking on the image by your name.

H

Header: The very top section of a website which spans across the width of the screen. Headers often include a name and logo for the site, menu options for further navigation and other valuable information such as a search bar or sign in/sign up link. For a blog, it is the image or your blog’s title at the top of your blog. Some WordPress themes include built-in header images, while others display simple text. Most themes allow you to upload a custom header.

Home Page: The main, introductory page of a web site. It typically serves as a table of contents for the site. By default, a WordPress website shows a home page with your latest posts listed in reverse chronological order. Users can, however, choose to use a static page as their custom home page.

Hosting Provider: A company or organization which provides, usually for a fee, space on a server which allows access to the Internet. The hosting service provides a space for your website on the Internet.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): An application protocol which is the foundation of data communication for the Internet.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML): The standard language used to create web pages. It is the language of the internet and the language that computers use to carry out functions. If you are ever curious to see what code is working on any given website, click a blank area of a site and press CTRL + U to see a full list of HTML code.

I

Images: Non-text content that you can add to your blog, in the form of .jpg/.jpeg, .gif, or .png files.

Internet Protocol (IP): The method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet. Each computer (known as a host) on the Internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet.

Insights: A section of your site’s statistics that helps you see how often you post, your site’s most popular days and times, and who your site’s followers are. Find them by visiting My Sites → Stats → Insights.

J, K

L

Likes: A way to show your appreciation for a post.

M

Media Manager: The set of tools that allow you to upload and store images, audio files, videos, and other files you’d like to use on your site. You’ll upload images to your Media Manager in order to display them in your posts, and can also do basic image editing (cropping, rotating, and resizing). Find it by visiting My Sites → Media.

 Menu: The part of your site that contains links to your posts, pages, or categories, typically located just above or below your site’s title, or along the right or left side of the screen. A menu enables readers to navigate around the various parts of your site. The default menu will just list current WordPress Pages. Most themes support Custom Menus, which let you specific exactly which items appear in the menu. Navigation menus allow theme designers to let users create custom menus of their own under Appearance → Menus. WordPress supports multiple menus so a theme can have support for more than one navigational menu (e.g. header and footer menus). Users can add posts, pages, and custom links to a menu using drag and drop functionality.

Meta: Means “information about”. Meta typically refers to administrative-type information. This information describes the website to the outside world.

Made Public: When a piece of content is published and goes live to the outside world. A piece of content can be written or built and saved for later without being published. When you are ready, you may publish your “draft” and make it public.

MySQL: A software used to create databases, store and get data when requested. All WordPress hosting providers offer MySQL included in their hosting packages.

N

Navigation Menu: See: Menu

O

Open Source: Computer programs with their source code available for everyone to study. WordPress is an open source software and any one can use, study, change and redistribute its source code. Open source software development model allows others to not only study the code but also improve it by testing, bug reporting, and submitting patches.

P

Pages: Static sections of your website with timeless content such as information in an “About” or “Contact” page. Pages are not associated with a date/time like posts, nor can you tag or categorize a page. There is no limit on how many pages you create in WordPress and it is possible to create a website with only pages and not using posts at all. Even though pages are supposed to have static content, users can update them as often as needed.

Password: The series of characters and/or numbers used to access your WordPress account.

Permalinks: Permanent URLs to individual blog posts
and categories. For example, https://www.makerkt.com/2016/wordpress_workshop/

Pingback: A special type of comment that is automatically created when you link to someone else’s blog post. A pingback lets the blogger know that someone has linked to them.

Plugin: Custom features that add to the functionality of a website. Since WordPress is designed to be a lean content management system, there is a need for Plugins in order to get added features. These plugins must be installed to your site and can range from almost anything one could think of. See: Widget, Widget vs Plugin

Post: An entry in your blog. A post may be any piece of content such as an article, image, or video. By default, your posts are displayed on your WordPress site’s home page and listed in reverse chronological order. The action of publishing a post is called “posting”.

Post formats: Special post layouts, available in some themes that let different types of content appear visually distinct. Formats include Standard, Gallery, Aside, Image, Status, Quote, Video, Audio, and Chat.

Post Meta Data: Information associated with each post. In addition to the actual post itself, post meta data includes items such as categories, tags, author, date, and time. It may also include additional information such as mood, weather, what the author is currently watching, reading, or listening to.

Post Thumbnail: A theme feature which allows theme developers to add support for using a representative image for posts, pages, or custom post types. Where and how the image displays will differ from website to website. Users can upload these images directly by clicking on the “set featured image” link in the Post Edit screen.

Privacy Settings: The setting controls who can and cannot view your blog. Find them under My Sites → Settings → Visibility Options.

Profile: Information about you that is shared publicly on the internet. This can include your username, first name, last name, and links to your website(s) or social network profiles. You can update your WordPress profile by clicking on your Gravatar in the upper right corner of the screen or from the admin area. Several preferences can be set here as well as changing your passwords.

Publicize: A feature that allows you to automatically share your posts on social media. To begin using Publicize, visit My Sites → Sharing to create connections to the services you’d like to use.

Q

R

Reader: The home page of WordPress.com, and a way to read and curate your favourite blogs in one place. Read recommended blogs and posts chosen by the WordPress.com editors, or browse by tags to find blogs on topics that interest you.

Responsive theme: A theme that adjusts its layout based on the size of the screen it’s viewed on — computer, tablet, or phone — so that the site always looks its best no matter the size. It also immediately adjusts itself when users resize their browsers. All themes added to WordPress since 2013 are fully responsive.

Rich Site Summary/ Really Simple Syndication (RSS): A format for delivering regularly changing web content. An RSS feed compiles all preferred content for a user from many areas into one easy-to-read place. These feeds are especially useful for people who consistently check many different sites for updates. This function eliminates the need to make multiple clicks and navigate to numerous websites individually.

S

Server: A computer containing software for, and connected to infrastructure for, hosting, or serving, web sites written in HTML. Web servers are computers that deliver (serves up) web pages. For example, if you enter www.makerkt.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the web server whose domain name is makerkt.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and sends it to your browser. Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the machine to the Internet.

Sidebar: A vertical column to the left or right of your main content, where you can place supplemental information. Most themes include at least one sidebar. This area is a primary place for widgets.

Site Logo: A tool that allows you to upload your logo one time, and then display it automatically in any theme that uses the Site Logo feature without re-uploading or adding it.

Sitemap: A list of every URL or page found on a website. The sitemap is a detailed organized hierarchy of every page on a website which is more than the structure and organization of an archive or main menu bar.

Site Title: The name of your site, which is displayed at the top of the site and in the title bar of web browsers. See also: Blog Title

Slideshow: A format for displaying images on your blog. Readers can click an image to view a larger version, and then scroll through each image one at a time.

Spam: Unsolicited bulk messages, especially advertising. WordPress has Akismet, an anti-spam system, built in. You can also mark particular comments as spam from My Sites → Comments.

Static Webpage: Web pages which display the exact same information whenever anyone visits it. Every visitor to that page will be greeted by the exact same text, multimedia design or video every time they visit the page until you alter that page’s source code. The website content cannot be changed by the user.

Statistics: The data about your blog, like how often your posts have been viewed, which posts and pages are most popular, who is following you, and much more. Find your stats under My Sites → Stats.

Sticky Post: A way to ensure that a particular post is always the first post on your blog, regardless of date. Make a post sticky by checking the Stick this post to the front page box under the post’s visibility settings, found next to the Publish button

Subscriber: A user who can create and maintain their profile on a WordPress website. Usually a subscriber has very limited capabilities compared to other users. With default settings, the subscriber role allows users to login and leave comments without having to enter their details every time. Having subscribers can also be used to deliver additional content to users such as newsletter or special access to pages and posts. Subscriber may also refer to a user who has subscribed to a website’s RSS feed, mailing list, or other updates.

T

Tag: A way to characterize posts by subject matter, and the way to browse posts by topic. When you add a tag to a post, that post will appear under that tag. Tags are optional, and posts can have multiple tags. Tags are useful in providing a way to quickly communicate in one or two words what a piece of content is about. Tags are more specific than categories. See also: Categories, Taxonomy

Tagline: A memorable phrase usually shown beneath your blog or site title. Taglines aren’t mandatory, but are a great way to add some more context and personality to your site.

Taxonomy: WordPress taxonomies are used as a way to group posts and custom post types together. WordPress has two very popular taxonomies that people use on a regular basis: Categories and Tags.

Theme: An underlying unifying design for a website. There are many elements working underneath to produce the design and functionality of a theme. A WordPress theme dictates the design of your site and contains templates that will define the look and feel of your site. WordPress has a very diverse collection of themes. You can browse and install new themes in the Appearance section of your admin panel. There may be many templates within one theme, for instance one for the home page, one for the about page, one for blog posts and so on.

Theme Showcase: A website that shows the themes available for your WordPress site and allows you to search them by layout, feature, colour, and more.

Thumbnail Size: A built-in WordPress theme feature that allows to define thumbnail sizes for images uploaded by the users. Thumbnail sizes do NOT only apply to thumbnails or featured images but apply to any and all images that you upload in your WordPress site.

Tiled gallery: A format for sharing multiple images in a page or post in an organized way. Tiled layouts have three style options — rectangular tiles, square tiles, or circular tiles.

Toolbar: The collection of icons at the top of a blog that allow you to perform different actions: access your blog’s dashboard, create a new post, visit the reader, review your notifications, and more. You only see the toolbar while you’re signed in to WordPress. It displays WordPress logo on the top left corner, and the user’s gravatar on the top right corner of the screen. The toolbar is usually visible to all logged in users by default. However, the links in the toolbar will change accordingly based on user’s role and capabilities on the website.

U

URL: The abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator. This is also known as a web address, or the characters visible in your browser’s address bar. For example: www.makerkt.com

V

Visual Editor: A tool for creating posts and pages that allows you to create, edit, and format your content in a view similar to that of a Word processor.

W

WAMP: An abbreviated name for the software stack Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP used on Windows servers. Because WordPress isn’t usually installed on Windows Servers, WAMP has become popular among developers as a method of installing WordPress on their personal computers. It comes in an easy installation package with a control panel. Beginners often use this for learning and testing purposes. It is important to note that if you install WordPress locally on your computer using WAMP, then you are the only person who can see that site. If you want to have a live WordPress site available to the public, then you need to have a Domain and WordPress Web hosting. See also: XAMPP

Web Address: See: URL

Web Hosting Service: See: Hosting Provider

Web Server: See: Server

Widgets: Applications that add customized features to certain areas of a website. They were originally designed to provide a simplified way for the user to control the design and structure of the website’s theme. Widgets may be placed in the header, footer, or elsewhere. They do not require any coding experience and are organized through a drag-and-drop action. See: Plugin, Widget vs Plugin

Widget vs Plugin: Plugins can do everything from protect a blog, to allowing people to see ad’s on your site. They could serve a back-end purpose and never be visible to you or the public. The plugin scripts are never visible to a reader, but some plugins need to interact with the audience in some fashion. That’s where widgets come in. Widgets are the visual, interactive portion, basically the ‘face’, of a plugin and therefore don’t provide functionality themselves. Widgets are purely front end stuff and often appear as buttons with logos or small icons. A widget usually is a pretty and easy way of using a plugin. When in doubt, remember that if you are looking at the button on the web page, it’s a widget. All widgets must lead to either a plugin or some base code, but plugins that have no need to interact with the end-user won’t have a widget.

WP Admin: An older version of the WordPress dashboard. However, there are still a few functions that can only be completed in the WP Admin dashboard. You can access it by adding wp-admin to the end of your site’s URL. For example, makerkt.com/wp-admin. See also: Admin Area, Back End.

X

XAMPP: A software package containing Apache web server, PHP, MySQL, and phpMyAdmin. You can install it on your Windows, Linux, or Mac operating systems. Beginners often use this for learning and testing purposes as well. It is important to note that if you install WordPress locally on your computer using XAMPP, then you are the only person who can see that site. If you want to have a live WordPress site available to the public, then you need to have a Domain and WordPress Web hosting. See also: WAMP

Y, Z

You can download the pdf version here: WordPressDictionary

Source:

The Ultimate List of WordPress Terminology

https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/a-beginners-guide-to-wordpress-terminology-6757,

https://learn.wordpress.com/glossary,

http://www.wpbeginner.com/glossary,

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-dynamic-static-pages-69951.html,

http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-Protocol,

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Web_server.html