A glossary is an alphabetical list of terms used in the book with their definitions. It belongs in the back matter, after any appendix and before the endnotes and bibliography. It exists for terms the reader genuinely needs and will not otherwise know, which in fiction usually means invented vocabulary and in non-fiction means technical terms.
Where It Goes
The Chicago Manual of Style's back matter sequence places it fourth, in this order:
- Acknowledgments, if not in the front matter
- Appendixes
- Chronology or genealogy
- Glossary
- Endnotes
- Bibliography or reference list
- List of contributors
- Illustration credits
- Index
Two university presses publish the same relative position. Columbia University Press lists "glossary (if applicable)" between the list of abbreviations and the notes, and Yale University Press does the same. All three agree on the core sequence: appendix, then glossary, then notes, then bibliography, then index.
Back matter is numbered in the same arabic sequence as the text, so a glossary does not restart its page numbering. The full ordering is in ordering front matter and back matter.
A Correction Worth Making
You will read that glossary placement varies by genre, with some books putting it at the front. I could not find any authority that says this.
What does vary is the list of abbreviations, which is a different element and probably the source of the belief. Yale University Press states the rule for it explicitly: if abbreviations are used in the notes and bibliography, the list goes in the back matter; if they are used only in the notes, it becomes the first subsection of the endnotes; and "if abbreviations are used in the text itself, put the list in the front matter, not the back matter."
That is a real conditional placement rule, and it applies to abbreviations, not to glossaries. A glossary's home is the back matter.
What the Manuals Do Not Specify
Here is a genuine gap, and it is worth naming rather than filling in.
No authority I could reach specifies how to alphabetise a glossary. This is striking, because index alphabetisation is specified in exhaustive detail by three separate authorities, who disagree with each other about it. The Chicago Manual of Style now prefers word by word as of the 18th edition. Columbia University Press mandates letter by letter. NISO, the American standards body, states that the systems "are incompatible with one another" and that "a single standard should be chosen as the authority for an index."
Writers reasonably borrow those index rules for glossaries by analogy. No source authorises that, so treat it as a sensible default rather than a rule: pick one system, apply it consistently, and be aware that your word processor's automatic sort will silently choose one for you.
One related rule that is sourced, from Columbia University Press: indexing terms that already appear in the glossary "is superfluous". If a term is defined in the glossary, it does not also need an index entry pointing at its definition.
When a Novel Needs One
Fiction glossaries are common in fantasy and science fiction, in historical novels using period vocabulary, and in translated or dialect-heavy work. Some judgement applies:
A glossary is useful when the terms are genuinely opaque on first encounter, appear often enough to matter, and cannot be defined in the prose without stopping the story.
A glossary is a warning sign when the reader needs it to follow the plot. If a reader has to flip to the back to understand a scene, the scene is doing something the prose should have done. Established fantasy convention is that invented terms should be comprehensible from context, with the glossary as a convenience for a reader who wants to check a detail later, not as a decoder ring.
An ebook adds a practical wrinkle. A reader on a phone cannot flip to the back and keep their place easily, so glossary entries in a reflowable file are much more useful when they are linked from the text.
What Deckle Does
Deckle has a Glossary document type, created from the Binder's Back Matter menu, alongside About the Author, Acknowledgments, Also by the Author, Coming Next and Book Club Questions.
The glossary is an ordinary document you type into, so entries and their order are yours to control. Deckle does not alphabetise it for you, does not build it from terms used in the manuscript, and does not link entries from the text automatically.
Position it in the Binder where you want it to appear, because export order follows Binder order. To match the convention above, that means after any appendix material you have written as a document and before your endnotes.
If your glossary defines characters, places or invented terms that you also track while writing, those are two separate jobs. The Codex is where you keep the working reference for yourself; the glossary is the edited, reader-facing subset of it. Copying the whole Codex into a glossary is a common instinct and usually produces something far longer than a reader wants.
For the rest of the set, see what is back matter in a book.
Common Mistakes
- Putting it at the front. The conditional placement rule applies to lists of abbreviations, not glossaries.
- Defining terms the context already explains. A glossary is a fallback, not a substitute for clear prose.
- Copying your entire story bible into it. The working reference and the reader-facing list are different documents.
- Letting the word processor pick the sort order. It will default to one alphabetisation system without telling you.
- Indexing glossary terms as well. Columbia calls that superfluous.
- Leaving it unlinked in an ebook. A reader on a phone cannot flip back and forth.
FAQ
Q: Front or back? A: Back matter, after any appendix and before the notes.
Q: Alphabetical or grouped by category? A: Alphabetical is the norm. No authority specifies the alphabetisation system, so choose one and be consistent.
Q: Does a novel need a glossary? A: Only if invented or period vocabulary genuinely needs it. If the reader needs it to follow the plot, fix the prose instead.
Q: Should glossary entries be linked in an ebook? A: It is not required, but a reflowable file makes flipping to the back awkward, so linking is a real improvement.
Q: Is a glossary the same as a list of characters? A: No. A dramatis personae is its own element and is conventionally placed in the front matter.