WordPress Terminology 📃

Now that you know what WordPress is and how to install WordPress using various development tools, it’s time for you to get comfortable with the terms used within the WordPress ecosystem.

You might have heard some of these terms previously depending on your level of experience with WordPress, and web development in general.

But since you are new to this course and you would like to become a better WordPress developer, we urge you to get comfortable with these terms to better understand the official documentation, support articles, and other WordPress developers. Now, here are some terms which you will find handy when talking about WordPress:

• Back End – The back end refers to the area of your site where you can log in and manage everything from your Dashboard.
• Codex – The official WordPress manual with support articles, documentation, code snippets, and links to external resources.
• Content Management System – A software which helps to manage content a website.
• cPanel – A web-based administration tool for managing your web hosting account.
• Database – A software used to store and manage data in an orderly fashion.
• Default theme – The theme that comes by default with a fresh installation of WordPress. Also used as a fallback theme if the current theme breaks.
• DNS – Refers to the Domain Name System which maps domain names( like google.com) to its IP address.
• DOM – An interface that allows programmers to dynamically access HTML and XML on a web page.
• Domain name – A system used to assign easy to remember names to IP addresses of websites.
• Footer area – The horizontal area at the bottom of the website where widgets and copyright information are usually displayed.
• Front end – The user-facing part of your website where visitors can view and interact with your content.
• Gravatar – A service which lets users associate a global avatar (image or photo) with their email addresses.
• Header Image – A wide picture that can be set to appear at the top of your website.
• Hosting provider – A company which sells space on a web hosting server for a fee.
• IDE – An application which provides you with all the tools you need to develop and test software.
• Menu – A collection of links to pages, categories, and social media profiles on your website usually displayed in the navigation area.
• Meta – Can mean different things in WordPress depending on where it is used. Usually used to refer to administrative data.
• Multisite – Create a network of WordPress sites from a single WordPress installation.
• Navigation – A set of links on your website which helps site visitors navigate through your content.
• Nonce – A one-time token generated by WordPress to protect your site against unexpected or duplicate requests which can cause permanent or unintended consequences.
• Permalink – A permanent link to content on your website. Can be used to share unique pages on your website with others easily.
• Sidebar – A place on your website where you usually display the search bar, recent and popular posts, and other important widgets. A website can have more than one sidebar.
• Toolbar – The small black bar just above your site from where you can access quick links to various parts of your website. Usually visible only to logged in users.
• XML-RPC – A remote procedure call (RPC) protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism.

To learn more about WordPress terminology, have a look at the WordPress Glossary page.