Webflow terms, explained simply
A plain-English A-to-Z glossary of Webflow terminology — every term you might encounter as a Webflow site owner.
New to Webflow — or just confused by some terminology? This glossary explains every common Webflow term in plain language.
Quick summary
This is a reference glossary. Look up any term that's confused you. Terms are in alphabetical order.
A
Asset — Any file uploaded to your Webflow project: images, PDFs, fonts, videos, etc. Assets are stored in the Asset Manager in the Designer.
Asset Manager — The panel in the Designer that stores all uploaded files for your project.
Auto-publish — Webflow does not auto-publish — you must click Publish manually for changes to go live.
B
Backup — Webflow saves a snapshot of your site every time you publish. You can restore these snapshots if something goes wrong. See Backups & version history.
Badge — A small status indicator (this documentation site uses them, not Webflow itself).
Bandwidth — The total amount of data transferred when visitors load your site. Webflow plans include a bandwidth allowance. Most sites never hit their limit.
C
Canvas — The center area of the Webflow Designer where you see a live view of the page you're editing.
CDN (Content Delivery Network) — A network of servers around the world that delivers your site content from the server closest to each visitor. Webflow includes CDN hosting on all plans, which makes sites load faster.
Class — A reusable set of styles in the Designer. When Chykalophia applies a class to an element, all elements with that class share the same styles. This is how design consistency is maintained across a site.
CMS (Content Management System) — Webflow's built-in system for managing dynamic content like blog posts, team members, and portfolio items. See The Webflow CMS, explained.
CMS Collection — A content type in the CMS (e.g., "Blog Posts" or "Team Members"). Each Collection has a defined set of fields. See CMS collections explained.
CMS item — One entry within a Collection. For example, a single blog post is a CMS item in the Blog Posts Collection.
Collaborator — Someone invited to access the Webflow Editor for a specific project. This is the access level most clients use.
Collection — See CMS Collection.
Collection list — A design element that displays multiple CMS items on a page (e.g., a list of blog post cards or team member thumbnails).
Collection page — The template page that displays one CMS item at a time. Every blog post uses the same Collection page template.
Custom domain — Your branded domain name (e.g., yourbusiness.com), as opposed to the default Webflow subdomain.
D
Dashboard — The main Webflow interface you see when you log in at webflow.com. It shows your Workspaces and projects.
Designer — Webflow's professional visual development tool, used by developers and designers to build and style sites. See The Webflow Designer, explained.
DNS (Domain Name System) — The system that translates your domain name into the server address where your site is hosted. See What is DNS?.
Draft — A status for CMS items or pages that are saved but not yet live on the site. Draft items are invisible to visitors.
Dynamic — Content that changes based on CMS data. For example, a blog post page that automatically shows the correct title, date, and body for each post is dynamic.
E
Editor — Webflow's content editing interface, designed for non-technical users (clients and content managers). Allows editing of text, images, and CMS items. See Editor mode vs Designer mode.
Ecommerce — Webflow's built-in online store functionality. Available on Ecommerce site plans. See Webflow Ecommerce (overview).
Element — Any individual building block in Webflow: a heading, paragraph, image, button, section, etc.
F
Field — One piece of data within a CMS Collection. For example, "Title," "Body," and "Featured Image" are fields in a Blog Posts Collection.
Form — A built-in Webflow element that collects visitor data (name, email, message, etc.) and stores it as a submission.
Form submission — One completed form entry from a visitor. Stored in your Webflow project.
G
Global color — A named color used throughout your site's design. Changing a global color updates it everywhere at once. Managed by Chykalophia in the Designer.
Global font — A font style applied site-wide. See global color.
H
Hosting — The service that keeps your website accessible on the internet. Webflow provides hosting as part of its site plans. See Webflow hosting explained.
HTTPS — The secure version of the HTTP web protocol. All Webflow sites use HTTPS automatically (indicated by the padlock icon in your browser).
I
Interaction — An animation or behavior triggered by user action (scroll, hover, click). Built using Webflow Interactions in the Designer. See Animations & interactions (overview).
L
Localization — Webflow's feature for building multi-language websites. See Multi-language sites (overview).
M
Meta description — A short description of a page's content, shown in search results below the title. Set per-page in SEO settings. See SEO settings in Webflow.
Multi-reference field — A CMS field that links one item to multiple other CMS items.
N
Navigator — A panel in the Designer showing the hierarchical structure of all elements on the current page. Useful for finding and selecting nested elements.
O
Open Graph — Metadata that controls how your page appears when shared on social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Includes a title, description, and preview image.
P
Page — A single URL destination on your site. Pages can be static (fixed design) or dynamic (CMS Collection pages).
Page settings — Configuration for a specific page: SEO title, meta description, Open Graph settings, and URL slug.
Plan — The subscription tier that controls what features and limits your Webflow project has. See Webflow plans & billing explained.
Project — One website in Webflow. Your Dashboard may show one or more projects (if you have multiple sites).
Publish — The action of pushing your saved changes live to the website. See How publishing works in Webflow.
R
Reference field — A CMS field that links one item to another single CMS item (e.g., a blog post referencing its author).
Rich text — A content field that supports formatted text (bold, italic, headings, links, lists). Used for long-form content like blog post bodies.
S
Section — A full-width horizontal block in Webflow's page layout. Pages are built by stacking sections vertically.
Site plan — The subscription that enables hosting for a specific Webflow site. Required for a site to be accessible on a custom domain.
Slug — The URL-friendly part of a page or CMS item address. Example: for a blog post at /blog/my-post-title, the slug is my-post-title.
SSL certificate — A security certificate that enables HTTPS. Provided automatically by Webflow for all hosted sites.
Staging — The .webflow.io subdomain environment for testing changes before they go live on your custom domain. See Staging vs the live site.
Symbol — A reusable design element in the Designer (similar to a component). Changes to a Symbol update everywhere it's used on the site.
T
Template — A pre-built starting point for a page or site design. Webflow has a library of templates. Chykalophia builds custom designs rather than using templates.
Two-factor authentication (2FA) — A security feature that requires a second confirmation step when logging in. Available in Webflow account settings.
U
URL slug — See Slug.
V
Variable — A stored value (like a global color or font) that can be reused across the site design.
Version history — A record of published site snapshots. Use it to restore a previous version of your site. See Backups & version history.
W
Webflow.io subdomain — The free staging URL every Webflow project gets (e.g., yoursite.webflow.io). Used for testing and previewing.
Widget — Not a native Webflow term. Webflow uses "components" and "symbols" for reusable elements.
Workspace — The top-level account container in Webflow. A Workspace can contain multiple projects (sites). Chykalophia has its own Workspace; your site may be hosted within ours or within your own.
Related guides
Need a hand?
Learn more
Troubleshooting Webflow problems
Common Webflow issues and how to fix them — from changes not showing to the Editor not loading or CMS items not appearing.
Multi-language sites (overview)
An introduction to Webflow Localization — how multi-language websites work in Webflow and what's involved in setting one up.