Clean, readable, scannable. Below is your Complete WordPress Glossary, grouped into Beginner, Intermediate, and Pro-Level terms with expanded descriptions in bullet format. Perfect for your blog, PDF, or WordPress glossary page.
Beginner-Level Terms
“The foundation you can’t skip.”
- WordPress
The world’s most-used content management system (CMS), perfect for building websites without coding. It comes in two flavors: WordPress.com (hosted) and WordPress.org (self-hosted). Open-source, customizable, and beginner-friendly. - Dashboard
The admin control panel, where you manage everything—posts, pages, plugins, themes, users, and settings. Your command center is at com/wp-admin. - Post
Blog entries or time-based content. Ideal for news, updates, articles, and anything that’s part of your content flow. - Page
Static, evergreen content like “About”, “Contact”, “Privacy Policy”. Pages aren’t listed chronologically like posts. - Theme
Controls the look, layout, and design of your site. WordPress offers thousands of free and paid themes to match your niche. - Plugin
Mini apps that extend your site’s functionality—like contact forms, sliders, SEO tools, or e-commerce shops. - Media Library
Your hub for storing and managing uploaded images, videos, PDFs, and audio files. Drag-and-drop simplicity. - Permalink
The permanent URL to each post or page. Clean permalinks (like com/about-us) are better for SEO and user trust. - Category
Used to group posts into major topics. Think of categories like folders in your blog’s content library. - Tag
Specific keywords that help describe a post’s micro-details. Useful for filtering and SEO, but don’t overdo it. - User Roles
Defines access permissions for users—Admin, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. Critical for multi-author sites. - Customizer
A built-in tool to tweak your site’s design—colors, logo, menus—while seeing changes live. Found under Appearance > Customize. - Settings
The engine room for basic configurations—site name, tagline, homepage setup, time zone, and permalink structure. - Login URL
The page you use to access the backend. By default, it’s /wp-login.php or /wp-admin.
Intermediate-Level Terms
“You’re past setup mode—now it’s about smart moves.”
- Widget
Functional blocks (like a search bar or recent posts) are placed in sidebars, footers, or widget-ready areas. - Block Editor (Gutenberg)
The drag-and-drop editing system uses “blocks” for paragraphs, images, lists, embeds, etc. Replaces the Classic Editor. - Short code
Bracketed code snippets like[form id=1] embeds advanced functionality into pages or posts.
- Page Builder
Visual design tools like Elementor or WP Bakery that give full design control without needing code. Great for landing pages. - Revisions
WordPress saves older versions of your posts/pages so you can roll back if you mess up. - Backup
Regularly save copies of your entire website (files + database). Critical for restoring your site if things go wrong. - Caching
A performance booster that serves saved versions of your pages to reduce load times and server strain. - Security Plugin
Adds a protective layer to block malware, spam, and brute-force login attempts. Popular choices: Wordfence, Sucuri. - Analytics Plugin
Integrates with Google Analytics or other platforms to show who’s visiting your site, how they behave, and what converts. - WooCommerce
A powerful eCommerce plugin that adds a full shopping experience to your site—products, cart, payments, shipping. - Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Adds an extra layer of login security by requiring a time-sensitive code from your mobile device. - Updates
WordPress core, themes, and plugins frequently get updates for new features, bug fixes, and security patches. Keep them current! - XML Sitemap
A structured file that lists all your website’s pages and posts to help search engines crawl and index them. - Google Search Console
A free tool by Google that lets you track your site’s performance in search, submit sitemaps, and fix crawl errors.
Pro-Level Terms
“For the builders, breakers, and backend warriors.”
- Child Theme
A sub-theme that inherits everything from a parent theme but lets you customize safely without losing changes during updates. - Database
WordPress uses a MySQL database to store all your content—posts, settings, user info, and plugin data. The heartbeat of your site. - FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Let’you connect to your server to upload, download, or fix files directly. Tools like FileZilla make it accessible. - White Screen of Death (WSOD)
A blank screen caused by code errors, theme conflicts, or plugin failures. Debugging skills are required to fix. - Advanced Custom Fields (ACF)
A plugin that allows you to create powerful, custom fields for posts, pages, and custom post types—beyond the default editor. - Custom Post Types (CPTs)
Content formats beyond regular posts and pages—like “Courses”, “Portfolio Items”, or “Events”. - REST API
Enables developers to send and receive data from WordPress using HTTP. Ideal for headless sites or mobile apps. - Cron Jobs
Scheduled tasks like auto-publishing, database cleanup, or backups. WordPress runs these with its built-in cron system. - .htaccess File
A powerful Apache file in your root directory used for redirection, caching rules, security tweaks, and more. - wp-config.php
The core configuration file tells WordPress how to connect to the database, debug, and handle advanced options. - Security Keys (Salts)
Unique encryption keys are stored in wp-config.php to enhance the security of cookies and sessions. - Staging Site
A private, cloned version of your site is used to test new themes, plugins, or code before pushing live. - Git / Version Control
A system developers use to track code changes, collaborate, and roll back mistakes. Essential for pro dev workflows.
