<glossterm>

The <glossterm> element specifies the term that is defined by the glossary entry topic.

Specialization hierarchy

The <glossterm> element is specialized from <title>. It is defined in the glossary entry module.

Attributes

The following attributes are available on this element: ID and conref attributes, localization attributes, @base, @class, @outputclass, and @rev.

@base
Specifies metadata about the element. It is often used as a base for specialized attributes that have a simple syntax for values, but which are not conditional processing attributes.

The @base attribute takes a space-delimited set of values. However, when serving as a container for generalized attributes, the attribute values will be more complex. See Attribute generalization for more details.

@class (not for use by authors)
This attribute is not for use by authors. If an editor displays @class attribute values, do not edit them. Specifies a default value that defines the specialization ancestry of the element. Its predefined values allow DITA tools to work correctly with specialized elements. In a generalized DITA document the @class attribute value in the generalized instance might differ from the default value for the @class attribute for the element as given in the DTD or schema. See The class attribute rules and syntax for more information. This attribute is specified on every element except for the <dita> container element. It is always specified with a default value, which varies for each element.
@conaction
Specifies how the element content will be pushed into a new location. The following values are valid:
mark
The element acts as a marker when pushing content before or after the target, to help ensure that the push action is valid. The element with conaction="mark" also specifies the target of the push action with @conref. Content inside of the element with conaction="mark" is not pushed to the new location.
pushafter
Content from this element is pushed after the location specified by @conref on the element with conaction="mark". The element with conaction="pushafter" is the first sibling element after the element with conaction="mark".
pushbefore
Content from this element is pushed before the location specified by @conref on the element with conaction="mark". The element with conaction="pushbefore" is the first sibling element before the element with conaction="mark".
pushreplace
Content from this element replaces any content from the element referenced by the @conref attribute. A second element with conaction="mark" is not used when using conaction="pushreplace".
-dita-use-conref-target
See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.

See STUB CONTENT for examples and details about the syntax.

@conkeyref
Specifies a key name or a key name with an element ID that acts as an indirect reference to reusable content. The referenced content is used in place of the content of the current element. See STUB CONTENT for more details about the syntax and behaviors.
@conref
Specifies a URI that references a DITA element. The referenced content is used in place of the content of the current element. See STUB CONTENT for examples and details about the syntax.
@conrefend
Specifies a URI that references the last element in a sequence of elements, with the first element of the sequence specified by @conref. The referenced sequence of elements is used in place of the content of the current element. See STUB CONTENT for examples and details about the syntax.
@dir

Identifies or overrides the text directionality. The following values are valid:

lro
Indicates an override of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, forcing the element into left-to-right mode.
ltr
Indicates left-to-right.
rlo
Indicates an override of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm, forcing the element into right-to-left mode.
rtl
Indicates right-to-left.
-dita-use-conref-target
See Using the -dita-use-conref-target value for more information.

See The dir attribute for more information.

@id
Specifies an identifier for the current element. This ID is the target for references by @href and @conref attributes and for external applications that refer to DITA or LwDITA content. This attribute is defined with the XML data type NMTOKEN, except where noted for specific elements within the language reference.

See id attribute for more details.

@outputclass
Specifies a role that the element is playing. The role must be consistent with the basic semantic and expectations for the element. In particular, the @outputclass attribute can be used for styling during output processing; HTML output will typically preserve @outputclass for CSS processing.
@rev
Specifies a revision level of an element that identifies when the element was added or modified. It can be used to flag outputs when it matches a run-time parameter. It cannot be used for filtering nor is it sufficient to be used for version control. If no value is specified but the attribute is specified on a containing element within a map or within the related-links section, the value cascades from the closest containing element.
@translate
Specifies whether the content of the element should be translated. The following values are valid: yes, no, and -dita-use-conref-target.

See Element-by-element recommendations for translators for suggested processing defaults for each element.

@xml:lang
Specifies the language and optional locale of the content that is contained in an element. Valid values are language tokens or the null string. The @xml:lang attribute and its values are described in the Extensible Markup Language 1.0 specification, fifth edition.

Example

This section is non-normative.

The following code sample shows how the <glossterm> element specifies the term that is defined in the <glossentry> topic:

<glossentry id="css">
    <glossterm>cascading style sheets</glossterm>
    <glossdef>Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language that is used
    for rendering the presentation of a document written in a markup
    language such as HTML or XML</glossdef>
  <glossBody>
    <glossSurfaceForm>cascading style sheets (CSS)</glossSurfaceForm>
    <glossAlt>
      <glossAcronym>CSS</glossAcronym>
    </glossAlt>
    <glossAlt>
      <glossSynonym>web style sheets</glossSynonym>
    </glossAlt>
  </glossBody>
</glossentry>