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Defining Glossary Terms

Basic Usage

ezglossary uses Material definition lists to define glossary terms. Simply add a definition list with section specifiers anywhere in your documentation:

Note

Alternatively, you can directly use html description lists in your page as well.

term:glossary
:   A list of specialized words with their definitions

The format is section:term, where section specifies the glossary section this term belongs to.

Note

You can also use HTML description lists directly in your page.

Example

Define terms in the section demo:

*demo:my_term1*
:   Definition of my_term 1

demo:my_term2
:   Definition of my_term 2 

*`demo:my_term2`*
:   Definition of my_term 2
my_term1
Definition of my_term 1

[1] [2]

Text Formatting

You can use Markdown formatting in your definitions:

demo:formatted_term
:   A term with **bold**, *italic*, and `code` formatting.

    You can even use multiple paragraphs and other Markdown elements:
    - Lists
    - Tables
    - Code blocks

By setting inline_refs in your configuration, you can enable reference links directly in term definitions:

plugins:
    ezglossary:
        inline_refs: short  # Options: none, short, list

Or configure it per section:

plugins:
    ezglossary:
        section_config:
            - name: demo
              inline_refs: short

Special Characters

The following characters require special handling in section names and terms. Replace them with their HTML entities:

Character HTML Entity Usage
# (start) # Section/term starting with #
& (start) & Section/term starting with &
/ / Path separator
\| ¦ Vertical bar
" " Double quote
< &#lt; Less than
> &#gt; Greater than
: &#58; Colon
@ &#64; At sign

Example

demo:special&#35;term
:   A term using the # character

Reference: <demo:special&#35;term>

Configuration

ignore_case

When enabled, terms are matched case-insensitively. Default: false

plugins:
    ezglossary:
        ignore_case: true
inline_refs

Controls how references appear in term definitions. Options: - none (default): No inline references - short: Numbered references like [1] - list: Full reference list with page names

plugins:
    ezglossary:
        inline_refs: short

Further Reading