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Create and manage glossary terms

Glossary terms in Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog provide a vocabulary for business users. These terms allow users to discover and work with data in the vocabulary that is more familiar to them, rather than using abstract technical jargon inherited from data sources.

Use business terms to define a shared vocabulary for your organization. By creating terms, identifying their synonyms, acronyms, related terms, and more, you can create a flexible controlled taxonomy organized in a hierarchical way. Glossaries of terms help bridge the communication gap between various departments in your company by providing consistent definitions for concepts, metrics, and other important elements across the organization.

This article describes how to manage glossary terms in Microsoft Purview. It provides steps to create a business glossary term in a governance domain. It also shows you how to link data product to your terms.

Prerequisites

  • Any users can read published glossary terms.
  • To create and edit glossary terms, you need the steward role.

Access glossary terms

  1. In the Microsoft Purview portal, open Unified Catalog.
  2. Under Catalog management, select Governance domains.
  3. Select the governance domain you'd like to see glossary terms for.
  4. On the glossary terms card, select View all.

You see a list of all the glossary terms for that governance domain. You can search or sort through these glossary terms, filter them, or change the view between a list, a compact list, or a tree.

Note

There may be multiple pages of terms. Toggle between these pages using the arrow buttons and the page selector.

You can also view a list of all glossary terms:

  1. In Unified Catalog, under Discovery, select Enterprise glossary.
  2. Select the Glossary terms tab.
  3. Select the name of a glossary term to open its details page.

Filter your view by custom attribute

You can use business concept attributes as a filter when exploring glossary terms.

  1. In Unified Catalog, go to Discovery > Enterprise glossary.
  2. On the Glossary terms tab, select Add filter.
  3. At Filter, select an attribute name from the dropdown list.
  4. At Operator, select a condition, such as Equals or Starts with, which will vary based on the kinds of values allowed by the attribute.
  5. At Value, enter your value.
  6. Select Apply.

Glossary term details

Select a term from the list to view its details page. You can create and manage access policies for the critical data element by selecting Manage policies.

Overview

The Overview tab contains a description of the term.

Custom attributes

Under Custom attributes, you can see any custom attribute groups and attributes within groups, and the values set for each attribute. Only attributes with values are shown by default, but you can toggle Show attributes without a value on to view all attributes.

The Related tab displays any related elements, such as acronyms, synonyms, resources, and data products.

Observability

If you set up data observability (preview), the Data observability tab is where you see its visualizations.

Create glossary term

Note

To create a glossary term, you need the steward role.

  1. In Unified Catalog, select Catalog management, then select Governance domains.
  2. Select the name governance domain you'd like to add a term to.
  3. On the Details tab for the domain, find the Glossary terms card and select View all.
  4. To create a single new term, select New term.
  5. On the Basic details page, enter a name and a definition for your term. If you use a name that already exists, you'll see a warning during the creation process. While duplicating names isn't recommended, you won't be blocked from using a duplicate name.
  6. Select an owner, or several owners for the term.
  7. For Parent term, you can select an existing term within the same domain as a parent term. Then select Next.

    Note

    Parent/child relationships can be visualized in a tree-like hierarchy within the terms list page by selecting Tree in the views drop-down.

  8. On the Acronyms page, add any related acronyms or leave blank, then select Next.
  9. On the Resources page, add any related resources, such as links to documentation or other sources that provide context for your term, or leave blank. Then select Next.
  10. On the Custom attributes page, you can set values for all custom attributes defined by your admin in the Custom attributes section of the catalog. If the attribute is marked as required, you need to fill out all values on this page before you can complete the process.
  11. When done, select Create.

Your term is created in a draft state, where only stewards and domain owners can see it. To make it visible to all users, you need to publish the term. You're taken to the details page for your new glossary term, where you can edit or manage your term, publish your term, or link the term to data products.

Publish

Once your term is ready to be used in your governance domain, you can publish your term by:

  1. Select the domain where your term resides.
  2. Select the Glossary terms button.
  3. Search or browse for the glossary term and select it.
  4. Select the Publish button next to the Edit button.

Note

Ensure your governance domain is published before you publish your glossary terms.

Manage term policies

To manage term policies, you need data steward permissions.

  1. On your glossary term page, select Manage policies.
  2. From the policy configuration window, you're able to create and manage your term policies. For more information, see the documentation about managing access policies.

Add, remove, and view data product links all from within your glossary term.

  1. Select the governance domain where your term resides.
  2. Select the Glossary terms button.
  3. Search or browse for the glossary term and select it.
  4. Select the Related tab.
  5. To link your term to a data product, select the + Add data product button.
  6. Search for the data product, or data products, you want to link and select them.
  7. To add your selected data products, select Add.

Tip

There might be multiple pages in your data product search results. Check the page selector to view all pages.

View linked data products

You can view all your linked data products from within your glossary term. The Related tab lists the first 10 linked data products. Select View all data products to see and search the entire list.

Remove linked data products

To remove a linked data product:

  1. Open the term where the data product is linked.
  2. Select the Related tab.
  3. Find the data product on the details page or select View all data products to search for it.
  4. Select the ellipsis button (...) next to the data product and select Remove link.

You can also link or remove glossary terms from the data product details page. For more information, see the data product documentation.

Related glossary terms from across all your governance domains can be added to a term to connect similar terms.

  1. Select the governance domain where your term resides.

  2. Select the Glossary terms button.

  3. Search or browse for the glossary term and select it.

  4. Select the Related tab.

  5. To add a term, select the + Add term button, and choose whether to add the term as a synonym, or a related term.

    Note

    Terms from across governance domains can be linked.

  6. To remove a related term, select the X button next to the term.

You can link a glossary term to critical data elements across governance domains to provide better business context.

  1. Select the governance domain where your term resides.
  2. Select the Glossary terms button.
  3. Search or browse for the glossary term and select it.
  4. Select the Related tab.
  5. To link your term to a critical data element, select the + Add critical data element button.
  6. Search for the critical data element, or critical data elements, you want to link and select them.
  7. To add your selected critical data elements, select Add.
  8. To remove a related critical data element, select the element, then select the ... ellipsis button, and then the Remove button.

Edit glossary term

  1. Select the domain where you'd like to edit one of the terms.
  2. Select the Glossary terms button.
  3. Search or browse for the glossary term and select it.
  4. Select Unpublish, then select Edit to edit the name, definition, owners, or custom attributes. If you change the name to one that already exists, you'll see a warning about the duplication but you can proceed to use the duplicate name.
  5. To update status, select the ellipsis button (...), and select the new desired status.
  6. When done editing, publish the term.

Expire glossary term

Expiring a glossary term limits its visibility to stewards and governance domain owners.

  1. Select the governance domain you'd like to remove or retire a term from.
  2. Select the Glossary terms button.
  3. Search or browse for the glossary term and select it.
  4. Select the ... ellipsis button.
  5. Select Set to Expired.
  6. Select Save.

Delete glossary term

To delete a glossary term, you need to first unpublish it and remove any links to related business concepts such as glossary terms, data products, and critical data elements. You can then select the Delete button and proceed with deleting the term.

Can you still access the classic business glossary?

Yes, you can access the classic business glossary.

  1. In the Microsoft Purview portal, open Unified Catalog.
  2. Select the Catalog management drop-down.
  3. Select Classic types.
  4. Select the Glossaries tab.