Glossary
WordPress: terms A–Z
Every WordPress term explained in plain English — blocks, plugins, themes, roles, and more.
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WordPress has its own language. This page is your reference guide so you always know what a term means, whether it comes from our team, a plugin's settings page, or a support article.
Quick summary
This page covers 60+ WordPress terms alphabetically. For step-by-step WordPress guides, visit the WordPress section. Use Ctrl+F / Cmd+F to jump to any term.
A–C
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Admin | Short for Administrator. The highest WordPress user role — full access to every setting and feature. See WordPress user roles explained. |
| Admin bar | The thin black bar at the top of the screen when you're logged in. Gives quick links to the dashboard, content editing, and more. |
| Admin dashboard | The behind-the-scenes control panel for your WordPress site. Accessed at yoursite.com/wp-admin. |
| Block | A single content element in the WordPress block editor — a paragraph, an image, a button, a video embed, etc. See Working with blocks. |
| Block editor | The current default WordPress content editor (also called Gutenberg). You build pages by stacking and arranging blocks. See Getting started with the block editor. |
| Block pattern | A pre-designed combination of blocks you can insert as a starting point and then customize. |
| Categories | A way to organize posts into broad topics. Each post can belong to one or more categories. |
| Classic editor | The older WordPress text editor (before blocks). Some sites still use it via the Classic Editor plugin. |
| Comment | A reader response posted below a blog post. Can be moderated (approved or deleted). |
| Core | WordPress itself — the base software, separate from themes and plugins. "Core update" means a WordPress version update. |
| CPT | Custom Post Type. A content type beyond the default posts and pages — portfolio items, team members, events, etc. Usually set up by your developer. |
| Customizer | The older WordPress design tool that lets you preview changes in real time. Being gradually replaced by the site editor in newer themes. |
D–G
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | See Admin dashboard. |
| Database | WordPress stores all your content — posts, pages, settings, users — in a MySQL database. It's the site's memory. |
| Default theme | The theme WordPress ships with each year (e.g. Twenty Twenty-Five). Active unless you've installed a custom theme. |
| Draft | A saved but unpublished version of a post or page. Only visible to logged-in users with editing access. |
| Elementor | A popular WordPress page builder plugin. See What is Elementor?. |
| Excerpt | A short summary of a post shown on blog listing pages. Can be auto-generated or written manually. |
| Featured image | The main "thumbnail" image representing a post or page — used in blog listings, social sharing, and sometimes headers. |
| Full Site Editing (FSE) | The newer WordPress approach that lets you edit headers, footers, and templates with blocks — not just page content. Uses the Site Editor. |
| Gutenberg | The code name for the WordPress block editor. Often used interchangeably with "block editor." |
H–M
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Hook | A developer concept — a point in WordPress code where you can add or modify behavior. You won't need this as a content editor. |
| htaccess | A server configuration file that controls redirects, security rules, and URL structure for WordPress. Usually managed by your developer. |
| Media library | The section of your dashboard where all uploaded images, PDFs, and files are stored and managed. See The media library explained. |
| Menu | A set of navigation links. WordPress lets you create and manage multiple menus (primary nav, footer nav, etc.). |
| Multisite | A WordPress feature that runs multiple websites from one installation and admin dashboard. |
N–P
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Page | A static content item — like "About Us," "Contact," or "Services." Unlike posts, pages don't have dates or categories. |
| Page builder | A plugin that adds a visual, drag-and-drop editor to WordPress. Elementor and Beaver Builder are popular examples. |
| Permalink | The permanent URL of a post or page. WordPress lets you control the format (e.g. yoursite.com/post-name). See Permalinks & URL structure. |
| PHP | The programming language WordPress is built on. Your host runs a PHP version — keep it current. |
| Plugin | An add-on that extends WordPress's functionality. There are plugins for SEO, forms, e-commerce, security, and thousands more. See What are plugins?. |
| Post | A dated, categorizable piece of content — like a blog article. Unlike pages, posts appear in reverse-chronological order on your blog. |
| Preview | A view of how a draft page or post will look to visitors before you publish it. |
R–S
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Revision | An automatically saved earlier version of a post or page. WordPress keeps a history so you can undo changes. See Undo mistakes with revisions. |
| Role | A set of permissions assigned to a WordPress user. Common roles: Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Subscriber. |
| RSS feed | A machine-readable list of your latest posts. Lets readers subscribe using feed readers or aggregators. |
| Settings | The configuration section of the WordPress dashboard — general info, reading/writing, permalinks, etc. |
| Shortcode | Older WordPress text-based codes wrapped in square brackets (e.g. [contact-form]) that inserted content. Largely replaced by blocks. |
| Sidebar | A column alongside the main content area on some page layouts. Often contains widgets. |
| Site editor | The newer WordPress tool for editing your entire site's design — including headers, footers, and templates — using blocks. |
| Slug | The URL-friendly text in a post or page address. For yoursite.com/about-us, the slug is about-us. |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer — makes your site use HTTPS. Usually handled by your host. |
T–Z
| Term | Plain-English definition |
|---|---|
| Tags | A more specific way to label posts than categories. Optional, but useful for organizing by topic. |
| Template | A layout structure used for a type of page — e.g. a "Blog Post" template defines how all posts are displayed. |
| Theme | The design layer for your WordPress site — it controls overall layout, style, fonts, and colors. See WordPress themes explained. |
| Trash | Deleted posts and pages go here first. You can restore them or permanently delete them. |
| Update | A new version of WordPress, a theme, or a plugin. Updates include bug fixes, new features, and security patches. |
| Upload | Adding a file (image, PDF, video) to your site's media library. |
| User | Anyone with a login account on your WordPress site. Users have different roles with different levels of access. |
| Widget | A self-contained block of content or functionality added to widget areas (sidebars, footers). |
| WooCommerce | The most popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress. Turns a WordPress site into an online store. See What is WooCommerce?. |
| WordPress.com | The hosted, closed-source version of WordPress run by Automattic. See WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. |
| WordPress.org | The open-source, self-hosted version of WordPress — the one most business websites use. |
| wp-admin | The URL path to your WordPress dashboard: yoursite.com/wp-admin. |
| wp-content | The folder on your server where themes, plugins, and uploaded media are stored. |
| WYSIWYG | "What You See Is What You Get." An editor where what you see while editing looks like what visitors will see. The block editor is a WYSIWYG editor. |
| Yoast SEO | A popular WordPress plugin that helps manage page titles, meta descriptions, sitemaps, and SEO settings. |
Common questions
Related guides
- What is WordPress?
- A tour of the WordPress dashboard
- WordPress user roles explained
- What are plugins?
- WordPress terms, explained simply
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