Glossary

Creates three-column term, full-form and definition tables, optionally grouped. Suitable for terminology and abbreviation lists.

import { glossaryPlugin, type GlossaryEntry, type GlossaryOptions } from 'docx-kit'
// Standalone: import { glossaryPlugin } from '@docxkit/plugin-glossary'

The standalone package, docx-kit, and docx-kit/node export glossaryPlugin, GlossaryOptions, GlossaryEntry, GlossaryConfig, and GlossaryStyles.

Options

Option	Type	Default	Behavior
entries	GlossaryEntry[]	Required	Empty array returns no blocks, including no title
title	string	'Glossary'	'' omits the heading
sort	'term' | 'none'	'term'	Case-insensitive term and group sorting; none preserves first-appearance order
locale	string	'en'	Intl.Collator locale; invalid locales throw
groupBy	'group' | 'none'	'none'	One heading/table per group; unnamed group first when sorting
labels	{ term?, fullForm?, definition? }	Term, Full form, Definition	Optional string column labels
styles	GlossaryStyles	—	Part styles

GlossaryEntry

Field	Type	Behavior
term	string	Required nonblank term or abbreviation
definition	string	Required nonblank meaning
fullForm	string	Optional expansion; missing values leave the middle cell empty
group	string	Optional group name, used only with groupBy: 'group'

Input arrays are not mutated. Duplicate terms remain as separate rows. Sorting is stable; equal terms keep input order. Grouping gathers nonadjacent entries. With sort: 'none', groups follow first appearance and terms retain input order within each group. Ungrouped entries have no group heading. Headers repeat on following pages and long rows may split across pages.

Blank terms or definitions and invalid sort/groupBy values throw during rendering. Invalid collation locales throw RangeError; the compiler wraps render failures as PLUGIN_RENDER_FAILED.

Platforms

Node.js and browsers are supported with the ordinary @docxkit/core and docx peers and no additional dependency. Export with .toBlob(), or .save() from docx-kit/node. Tables and headings are visible in previews; final pagination depends on the document reader.

Style customization

The factory's styles sets instance defaults; options.styles sets invocation overrides. Precedence: built-in/theme defaults → factory styles → common node style → invocation part styles. Units and theme tokens are supported. Text parts use TextStyleRule, paragraph parts use ParagraphStyleRule, and cell parts use Omit<CellStyleRule, 'height'>.

Text parts	Paragraph parts	Cell parts
definition, fullForm, group, headerText, term, title	bodyParagraph, groupParagraph, headerParagraph, titleParagraph	bodyCell, headerCell

Titles use the theme primary color. Glossary header cells use surface and table borders use border. Explicit part styles override these defaults.

Complete example

Open in the Playground.

import {
  bibliographyPlugin,
  crossReferencePlugin,
  createDocx,
  glossaryPlugin,
  useTheme,
} from 'docx-kit'

const entries = [
  { id: 'architecture', authors: ['Alice Chen'], title: 'Document Architecture', year: '2026', publisher: 'Example Press' },
  { id: 'api', authors: ['Bob Lin'], title: 'API Design Notes', year: '2025', url: 'https://example.com/api' },
]

const doc = createDocx({ theme: useTheme('ocean') })
  .use(crossReferencePlugin())
  .use(bibliographyPlugin({ entries }))
  .use(glossaryPlugin())
  .h1('Research Report')
  .bookmark('overview', ['Architecture overview'])
  .p('The report describes the document generation interface.')
  .plugin('bibliography', { mode: 'citation', ids: ['architecture', 'api', 'architecture'], prefix: 'Based on ', suffix: '.' })
  .plugin('crossReference', { target: 'overview', prefix: 'See ', fallback: 'Architecture overview', suffix: '.' })
  .plugin('crossReference', { target: 'overview', kind: 'page', prefix: 'Overview is on page ', fallback: '1', suffix: '.' })
  .plugin('glossary', {
    groupBy: 'group',
    entries: [
      { term: 'DSL', fullForm: 'Domain Specific Language', definition: 'A language designed for a particular domain.', group: 'Software' },
      { term: 'API', fullForm: 'Application Programming Interface', definition: 'The contract used by document-generation clients.', group: 'Software' },
      { term: 'OOXML', fullForm: 'Office Open XML', definition: 'The XML format used inside DOCX files.', group: 'Formats' },
    ],
  })
  .plugin('bibliography', {})

doc.toBlob()