Glossary of Common Web Terms

Bandwidth The amount of information your connection to the Internet can carry, usually measured in bits per second.
Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart CAPTCHA A common web technique used to help ensure that your respondents are real humans and not a program written to spam you.
Cascading Style Sheets CSS A style sheet language used to give style to an HTML document. This includes fonts, colors, sizes, spacing, borders, backgrounds and much more.
Client Side Any action that takes place on the user's (the client's) computer. This is also referred to as the front-end. The client of a website would be the web browser that is viewing it.
Cookies A small text file created by a website, stored in a visitor’s computer. They are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular client and website, such as login information.
Cyan Magenta Yellow Black CMYK A scheme for combining primary pigments, typically used for printing color images. The "K" is the key color, which in today's printing world is black.
Domain Name A unique name (e.g. google.com) used to identify the location of a website on a web server.
Domain Name Server DNS The Internet’s equivalent of a phone book or directory. The web keeps an updated list of domain names and translates them to IP addresses.
Error 404 An error indicating the page you're trying to reach cannot be found.
Hosting In order to get a website online, you need to host (or save) your website files on a Web server connected to the internet. GoDaddy is an example of a web hosting company.
Hyperlink An electronic connection between one web page and another. These are usually highlighted and underlined.
Hypertext Markup Language HTML A language used to create the content of a webpage. HTML webpages are usually viewed in a web browser, and can include text, links, images, sound and video.
Hypertext Preprocessor PHP A server side scripting language used for web development; can be embedded into HTML. PHP makes a webpage dynamic, such as processing user input from an HTML form.
HyperText Transfer Protocol HTTP The protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website you’re connected to.
HTTP Secure HTTPS The secure version of HTTP.
Internet Protocol Address IP A unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to the Internet, including computers, phones, tablets, servers, cars, and more.
Internet Service Provider ISP The company that provides you with access to the Internet.
Javascript js A client side programming language, meaning the source code is processed by the client’s web browser rather than on the Web server. This allows the language to run actions on a page after a page has been fully loaded. For example, gathering user input from an HTML form.
Nested When one object is embedded in another object of the same type. In the case of HTML or CSS, a nested tag or property takes on its parent's attributes, the parent takes on its parent's attributes, and so on.
Pixel The basic unit of programmable color on a computer display or in a computer image. The physical size of a pixel depends on how you've set the resolution for the display screen.
Red Green Blue RGB A system for representing the colors to be used on a computer display. Red, green, and blue can be combined in various proportions to obtain any color in the visible spectrum. Levels of R, G, and B can each range from 0 to 100 percent of full intensity.
Red Green Blue Alpha RGBA An extension of RGB where A (alpha) specifies the opacity. The opacity is a number between 0.0 (fully transparent) and 1.0 (fully opaque).
Server Side Any action that takes place on a web server. This is also referred to as the back-end.
Search Engine Optimazation SEO The process of improving the rankings of a web page (or website) in a search engine such as Google.
Uniform Resource Locator URL The file address of a resource on the Internet. A URL can represent a web page, an image, a video, and much more.
User Interface UI The design by which the user and a computer system interact. The UX decides what to paint, it's the UI that paints the canvas.
User Experience UX The process of creating products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users.
Web Browser A software application used for accessing information on the Web. Popular web browsers include Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Page appearances can vary depending on the browser.
Web Host A web host, or web hosting service provider, is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for a website or webpage to be viewed on the Internet.
Web Server Web Servers are special computers used to store, process and deliver web pages to clients.
Website One or more webpages connected to a common URL on the internet. A website requires both a domain name and a web host.