# Business Glossary
The **Business Glossary** is ODD Platform's operator-curated catalog of term entities — the concepts your data represents (`Customer`, `Order`, `Active User`), captured as first-class catalog entities with their own descriptions, owners, tags, and links to the data entities they explain.
This page is the canonical reference for the feature. For where it sits among the other governance pillars, see the [Data Glossary](/features/data-glossary.md) pillar landing.
## What terms are
A **term** in ODD Platform is a Data Entity of type `TERM`. Like every other data-entity class, a term has:
* A **name** (the canonical label — `Customer`, `Active User`, `Monthly Recurring Revenue`).
* A **namespace** — terms live within a Namespace and are scoped by it (see [Namespace-scoped terms](#namespace-scoped-terms) below).
* A **description** — the Wikipedia-About-style narrative authoring of what the term means.
* **Owners** — operators responsible for the term's definition and lifecycle.
* **Tags** — applied via the standard tagging surface; the term's `TERM_TAGS_UPDATE` permission gates this.
* **Links** to other terms (term-to-term) and to data entities (term-to-entity).
Give extra information about your data entities by creating terms that define these entities or processes related to them. You may see all terms connected to a data entity on its overview page. All created terms are gathered in the **Dictionary** tab.
## The Dictionary tab
The Dictionary tab is the catalog-wide list of all terms in the platform. From here you can:
* Browse terms across every namespace.
* Create a new term (gated by `TERM_CREATE`).
* Open a term's detail page to edit its description, manage owners, link to other terms, and review which data entities reference it.
A term's detail page shows the **Overview** (the About-style description), a **TERMS** section listing directly-linked terms, and a reverse-search panel showing every data entity and column that references this term in its description.
## Namespace-scoped terms
Terms live within a Namespace and are scoped by it. This makes coordinating terms across teams explicit:
* A team's namespace carries its own term vocabulary (`finance/Customer` is distinct from `marketing/Customer` if both teams want different definitions).
* Searches and term-to-entity link operations resolve within the namespace by default; the link format used in description text spells out the namespace explicitly when crossing namespaces (see [Term-to-entity associations](#term-to-entity-associations)).
For coordinating terms across teams, use [Namespaces in Management](/features/management.md) as the operator-mutating surface that creates and curates namespaces themselves.
## Ownership and privileges
A term carries **owners** — operators (linked to platform users via [User-owner association](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/user-owner-association.md)) responsible for the term's definition, edits, and lifecycle. The owner holds the authority to create, approve edits, and delete the associated term, contributing to the relevance of those descriptions.
The platform exposes seven `TERM_*` RBAC permissions:
| Permission | Action |
| ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `TERM_CREATE` | Create a new term in the Dictionary. |
| `TERM_UPDATE` | Edit the term's name, description, namespace, or directly-linked terms. |
| `TERM_DELETE` | Delete a term from the Dictionary. |
| `TERM_OWNERSHIP_CREATE` | Assign an owner to a term. |
| `TERM_OWNERSHIP_UPDATE` | Update an existing owner's role on a term. |
| `TERM_OWNERSHIP_DELETE` | Remove an owner from a term. |
| `TERM_TAGS_UPDATE` | Apply or remove tags on a term. |
Plus the cross-cutting `TERM_ASSIGNMENT_UPDATED` activity-event marker emitted whenever a term is linked to or unlinked from a data entity.
For the platform-wide permission catalog and how to compose roles around these permissions, see [Permissions](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/permissions.md).
## Term-to-term linking
ODD supports two distinct ways of relating terms in the catalog. Pick the one that fits the relationship you want to express.
**Description-text mentions.** Inline-mention a term inside a data entity's or column's description. The mention surfaces in that entity's **Terms** section once the description is saved. This is the right tool for narrative use — when the term is part of how you explain the entity. The required format and a full walkthrough live in [Term-to-entity associations](#term-to-entity-associations) below.
**Direct term-to-term links.** A term can also be linked directly to other terms — independent of any data entity description. From a term's detail page, the **Overview → TERMS** section exposes an **Add term** action (gated by `TERM_UPDATE`) that opens an autocomplete to pick the target term. The link is bi-directionally visible: it appears on both terms' pages and can be removed from either side. Each linked term carries an `isDescriptionLink` flag, so the UI can distinguish links created via inline description mentions from these direct links.
The same term-to-term linking is exposed over the platform API — see [API Reference → Glossary → Term-side linkage](/developer-guides/api-reference/glossary.md).
**When to use which.** Reach for description-text mentions when the term naturally belongs in the narrative of an entity (*"This `orders` table records each `Customer Order`."*). Reach for direct term-to-term links when you are curating the glossary itself (*"`Customer` and `Client` mean the same thing in our taxonomy."*) and want the relationship to be visible from either term's page regardless of where it is mentioned.
## Term-to-entity associations
This is the descriptive-information walkthrough — how operators link business terms to specific data entities and columns to give them domain context.
**Adding business terms to the Dictionary.** Initially, it is necessary to add relevant business terms to the platform's Dictionary. These terms can be associated with specific data entities or columns.
The Dictionary Terms section primarily serves to define and provide context for data entities. For instance, if a data asset relates to "Customer Analytics", the associated business term can signify its alignment with the customer analytics domain.
**Ownership and privileges.** An essential part of this feature is the capacity to designate an owner for a business term. This owner holds the authority to create, approve edits, and delete the associated entity, contributing to the relevance of those descriptions.
**An About feature inspired by Wikipedia.** The central concept behind the development of this feature draws inspiration from the user-friendly functionality found on Wikipedia — an **About** section.
As soon as the term is introduced into the dictionary, users can navigate to the **About** section and craft a concise term description using a rich formatting toolbar.
**Linking and describing terms.** The terms mentioned in description text can then be linked to the previously established business term, using the required format for linking. When users hover the cursor over an information icon, it triggers the highlighting effect, illuminating the text **format** that should be used to link the text to a specified term.
**Updated Dictionary Terms section.** Once created and saved, the business term becomes accessible in the Dictionary Terms section. Successful creation of the link will be indicated by a notification in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Before linking terms, it is essential to have previously created them and established a corresponding Namespace in the Dictionary. Adhere to the specified formatting requirements and be mindful of spaces. If the term or Namespace is not defined in the Dictionary, a notification will appear around the About section.
**The identical feature for columns.** Users are able to associate terms not only with the dataset as a whole but also with the individual columns. To try it, the user may go to the **Structure** section, choose the desired **Column**, or proceed with the automatically selected one and provide a description in the same manner as described earlier.
After saving the description and associating it with the relevant term, the linked term will appear directly below in the Terms section.
This feature provides users with a convenient way to reach all the business terms available on the platform.
**Reverse search functionality.** It is important to note that connecting items to data entities enables a reverse search capability. Users can easily verify which entities and columns have previously been linked to a specific term.
If the user clicks on the term, a window containing the relevant information will be displayed.
**Activity audit trail.** The history of numerous actions within the platform is accessible in the [Activity Feed](/features/active-platform-features/activity-feed.md), including the creation and linking of terms (the `TERM_ASSIGNMENT_UPDATED` event).
## API surface
The full Business Glossary HTTP API — term CRUD, term-to-term linkage, term-to-data-entity assignment, term-to-column assignment, and the corresponding Activity events — is documented at [API Reference → Glossary](/developer-guides/api-reference/glossary.md).
## Where to next
* [Manual Object Tagging](/features/data-discovery/tagging.md) — the taxonomy counterpart; tags are the *labelling* mechanism, terms are the *meaning* mechanism.
* [Search and Filtering](/features/data-discovery/search.md) — find data entities by the terms linked to them.
* [Query Examples](/features/data-modelling/query-examples.md) — query examples can be linked to terms via `QUERY_EXAMPLE_TERM_*` permissions.
* [API Reference → Glossary](/developer-guides/api-reference/glossary.md) — the HTTP surface.
* [Permissions](/configuration-and-deployment/enable-security/authorization/permissions.md) — the platform-wide permission catalog, including all `TERM_*` rows.
* [Activity Feed](/features/active-platform-features/activity-feed.md) — where term creation and term-to-entity assignment events are recorded.
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