![]() Glossaries and indexes are sometimes mixed up because they both come at the end of a work and are organized alphabetically by keyword. What’s the difference between a glossary and an index? When these difficult words are defined in a glossary at the end of a work, readers can look up the definitions quickly without consulting a dictionary. What does a glossary do?Īcademic and complicated written works often use advanced words readers might not be familiar with. Glossaries are commonly used in research papers and academic books to explain certain words readers wouldn’t understand. You can think of glossaries as a mini-dictionary for words used in that work. Glossary FAQs What is a glossary in a book?Ī glossary is a section at the end of a written work that defines confusing, technical, or advanced words. Unlike a glossary, indexes don’t give any information or details about a topic, just the places where it’s discussed in the work. ![]() Indexes are organized by topic for example, if you’re writing a report on Mahatma Gandhi, and one of your sources is a book on the history of India, you can look for “Gandhi, Mahatma” in the index to find the pages that mention him. Instead of definitions, an index lists page numbers where readers can find the content they’re looking for. An index, however, is a tool for finding where in the work a certain topic is discussed. Despite their similarities, though, glossaries and indexes serve two different purposes.Ī glossary provides definitions for complex words. If you’re not sure of the formatting, use our free citation generator to automatically create the citation you need. The correct format for glossary citations varies depending on whether you’re using APA or MLA format. Likewise, if you’re using a specific or controversial definition from a certain glossary that’s different from other definitions, you need to cite your source. However, in formal writing, such as research papers or dissertations, you need to provide a citation if you’re quoting a glossary entry from another work. Definitions are considered common knowledge-even if the words are uncommon-so no citations are necessary. If you are writing a glossary, you do not need to cite your sources. Glossary exampleĪdjective: a word that modifies or describes a noun by naming an attribute.Īdverb: a word that modifies or describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb.Īpostrophe: a punctuation mark ( ‘ ) used to create the possessive form of a noun and to show certain letters are omitted in contractions. As an aid to readers, these works sometimes provide a glossary to define the difficult words, so readers can look them up quickly without consulting a dictionary.įurthermore, because glossaries include only the words that appear in a work, readers can look them up faster than in a dictionary, which has an entire language’s worth of words. ![]() What does a glossary do? Some written works use a lot of uncommon words, especially academic works, such as research or thesis papers. A glossary comes at the end of a book or paper, so readers can find it easily when they need it while reading. Unlike dictionaries, glossaries define only the words used in a work. It is formatted like a dictionary, with the keywords organized alphabetically and their definitions written in plain language. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly What is a glossary in a book?Ī glossary in a book (or paper or other written material) is a special section that provides definitions for complicated words.
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