1.22. Glossary

Sphinx has a built-in Glossary structure that you can use to:

• Produce a consolidated glossary of terms.

• Link terms in other content to their glossary definitions.

1.22.1. Create a Glossary

.. glossary::

For more details, see glossary directive.

To add glossary terms, you use the directive .. glossary::. Write each glossary entry as a definition list, with a term, followed by a single-line indented definition.

Each glossary entry is nested below the .. glossary:: directive. For example:

.. glossary::

    Sphinx
       Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and
       beautiful documentation. It was originally created for the
       Python documentation, and it has excellent facilities for the
       documentation of software projects in a range of languages.

    RST
       reStructuredText is an easy-to-read, what-you-see-is-what-you-get
       plain text markup syntax and parser system. It is useful for
       in-line program documentation (such as Python docstrings), for
       quickly creating simple web pages, and for standalone documents.
       reStructuredText is designed for extensibility for specific
       application domains. The reStructuredText parser is a component
       of Docutils.

    Sublime Text
       Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup
       and prose. You'll love the slick user interface, extraordinary
       features and amazing performance.

1.22.2. Link a Term to its Glossary Entry

:term:

For more details, see index role.

When a glossary term is used in text, you can link it to its definition with the :term: role. For example, to link the term Sphinx to its definition, use the following syntax:

:term:`Sphinx`

The term specified must exactly match a term in Glossary directive.

You can link to a term in the glossary while showing different text in the topic by including the term in angle brackets. For example:

:term:`reStructuredText<RST>`

The term in angle brackets must exactly match a term in the glossary. The text before the angle brackets is what users see on the page.