Glossary

Explore commonly used web design and web development terms.

<h3>404 page</h3>→ A 404 page is an error page a visitor sees when they try to access a non-existent or broken URL on a website.

<h3>Abstraction</h3>→ In object-oriented programming (OOP), abstraction conceals irrelevant details so they don’t interfere with the task at hand.

<h3>A/B testing</h3>→ A/B testing compares two different versions of something — like a web page or campaign — to determine which performs better.

<h3>Accessibility tree</h3>→ A webpage’s accessibility tree indicates which parts of the page are compatible with assistive technologies such as braille displays, screen readers, and voice commands.

<h3>Account notifications</h3>→ Account notifications update you about activity in your account. New notifications appear on your Webflow Dashboard after you log in.

<h3>Adobe Fonts API token</h3>→ An Adobe Fonts API token protects and supports your data from Adobe Fonts with other programs you may be using to personalize your website’s fonts.

<h3>AEO</h3>→ AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing content so it gets surfaced and cited by AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, the AI-era counterpart to traditional SEO.

<h3>Agentic translation</h3>→ Agentic translation is when AI agents translate site content into other languages automatically, either as a one-time pass a person reviews or as continuous translation that keeps a locale in sync with the primary one.

<h3>Agent Instructions</h3>→ Agent Instructions are skills and rules that tell an AI agent how to work within a Webflow site or Workspace.

<h3>AI crawler</h3>→ An AI crawler is a bot that fetches web pages so AI companies can train models or answer questions with current information.

<h3>AI credits</h3>→ AI credits are the metered unit used to track usage of AI-powered features, with usage typically visible by user, project, or date range.

<h3>AJAX</h3>→ Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) is a web development approach that combines technologies to allow web content to update without reloading.

<h3>Algorithm</h3>→ An algorithm is a set of rules or steps that help solve problems or carry out specific tasks.

<h3>ALPN</h3>→ ALPN stands for Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation. It’s a Transport Layer Security (TLS) extension that aids client and server identification during secure data transfers.

<h3>Alt text</h3>→ Alt text, short for alternative text, refers to text that describes online images.

<h3>Ancestor</h3>→ Any element that is further up the element hierarchy of the document tree. For example, the Body element is the ancestor of all elements on the Designer canvas.

<h3>Anti-flicker</h3>→ Anti-flicker is a technique that hides content until it's ready to display correctly, preventing visitors from briefly seeing something that's about to change.

<h3>API</h3>→ APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are common code protocols that let apps safely exchange data with other apps, software, and hardware.

<h3>Application context</h3>→ An application context is a set of data that identifies an application’s tasks, where those tasks originate, and how those tasks are configured.

<h3>Argument</h3>→ An argument is an independent value a function receives to deliver a specific output.

<h3>Array</h3>→ An array is an ordered, random-access collection of data. This data can be either primitive or object, depending on the coding language.

<h3>ASCII</h3>→ The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is an encoding standard that assigns numerical values to characters and translates them into computer-readable code.

<h3>Asynchronous</h3>→ Asynchronous programming is an approach where programs simultaneously run multiple operations independently without waiting for previous tasks to complete.

<h3>ATAG</h3>→ Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) are a layered rule-set that influence how designers and developers create a more accessible internet.

<h3>Attribute</h3>→ An attribute in HTML is a term inside an opening tag of an element, such as a font or color, that provides additional information about the element.

<h3>Authorized applications</h3>→ Third-party applications that you've given access to your personal and/or website data.

<h3>Automagically</h3>→ Automagically describes complex content or functions that appear as if they were created using magic.

<h3>Background</h3>→ A website background is a visual element behind webpage content, enhancing aesthetic appeal and user engagement.

<h3>Backlink</h3>→ A backlink, also referred to as an inbound link, is a hyperlink from one website to another website.

<h3>Backup</h3>→ A backup is a copy of data stored in an alternate location, including hard drives, cloud servers, or network-attached storage (NAS) servers.

<h3>Bad neighborhood</h3>→ Bad neighborhoods are groups of websites that search engines have downgraded because they violate search engine guidelines.

<h3>Baseline</h3>→ The baseline is the fixed invisible line that serves as the base for letters. It’s used as a measurement for line height and x-height.

<h3>Base tag</h3>→ The base tag specifies the base URL for all relative links within HTML code for a specific page or document.

<h3>Basic section</h3>→ A section of the Add panel that contains the elements that act as a website's fundamental building blocks (e.g., div block, list, button, etc.).

<h3>Beacon</h3>→ A beacon — also called a web beacon or web bug — is an HTML-embedded object that tracks user behavior on a web page.

<h3>Behavioral targeting</h3>→ Behavioral targeting is a marketing technique that leverages user data to deliver personalized ads to drive conversions.

<h3>Below the fold</h3>→ Below the fold refers to the lower portion of a webpage that isn’t immediately visible to visitors upon loading until they scroll down.

<h3>BiDi</h3>→ BiDi stands for bidirectional. When a document is BiDi, it supports text that reads from right to left and left to right.

<h3>BigInt</h3>→ BigInt, which stands for “big integer,” is a JavaScript data type. JavaScript uses data types to decide how to treat a piece of data.

<h3>Blog</h3>→ A blog, short for weblog, is a website or webpage where an individual or group regularly shares content about specific topics, typically in reverse chronological order.

<h3>Borders</h3>→ The CSS border property delineates an HTML element.

<h3>Bottom bar</h3>→ A bottom bar is a navigation bar at the bottom of an app or webpage.

<h3>Bottom margin</h3>→ The spacing between the bottom border of an element and the element(s) below it.

<h3>Bottom padding</h3>→ Bottom padding is the space between the bottom of an element and its border.

<h3>Bounding box</h3>→ A bounding box is a rectangular border around a website element (e.g., a heading, paragraph, or image) that appears during the design process.

<h3>Breadcrumb</h3>→ A breadcrumb, or breadcrumb trail, is a navigational element representing a user’s current location within a website's hierarchical structure.

<h3>Browser</h3>→ A browser, or web browser, is a software program that allows users to access, navigate, and interact with websites on the internet.

<h3>Buffer</h3>→ A buffer is a temporary storage area that holds data while transferring it between different components or systems.

<h3>Bug</h3>→ A bug is an error, fault, or flaw in an application or software that causes the program to behave unexpectedly, often producing inaccurate and invalid output.

<h3>Bundling</h3>→ Bundling, or bundle pricing, is a pricing technique in which retailers sell products together at a lower price than they would be sold at individually.

<h3>Button</h3>→ A button is an interactive element that facilitates user actions.

<h3>calc() CSS function</h3>→ The calc() function is a CSS function that does math with mixed units, such as 100% minus 40px, to set a value.