Re: setup and usage for glossaries

Hi Kirk,

There are more than one method to achieve what you want (i. e. 
glossaries). A very simple way to begin with glossaries in ConTeXt is to 
use the standard register mechanism. In practice, a glossary can 
initially be treated as a specialized index.

For example (MWE):

\defineregister[glossary]

\def\Gloss#1{#1\glossary{#1}} % This is a macro which prints the 
argument normally in the text and, at the same time, sends the same 
argument to the glossary register.

\starttext

\subject{A Market Small Story}

Yesterday morning I went to the village market to buy some fresh fruit.
At the first stall I saw beautiful \Gloss{apples} from Normandy and ripe
\Gloss{pears} carefully arranged in wooden baskets.

Further away, a farmer was selling sweet \Gloss{peaches} and fragrant
\Gloss{apricots}. Nearby, another merchant offered excellent
\Gloss{cherries}, dark \Gloss{plums}, and golden \Gloss{mirabelles}.

Children were asking for \Gloss{bananas} and juicy \Gloss{oranges},
while older customers preferred \Gloss{grapes} and fresh
\Gloss{figs}. One woman was searching for \Gloss{lemons} to prepare a
dessert.

At the end of the market, I discovered exotic \Gloss{mangoes},
fresh \Gloss{pineapples}, and even a few \Gloss{pomegranates}.
A basket full of \Gloss{strawberries} attracted many people.

Before returning home, I bought some \Gloss{raspberries},
a small bag of \Gloss{blackberries}, and several \Gloss{melons}.

\page

\subject{Glossary}

\placeregister[glossary]

\stoptext

This gives you an automatically sorted alphabetical list, with page 
references, using only built-in ConTeXt mechanisms.

What makes this approach attractive for beginners is that:

  *

    no Lua is required;

  *

    no external database is needed;

  *

    sorting is automatic;

  *

    the setup is extremely lightweight;

  *

    it integrates naturally with ConTeXt’s indexing system.

It is therefore a good first step before moving toward more elaborate 
glossary systems with definitions, semantic metadata, custom sorting, 
multiple glossaries, or Lua-based collection.

One important point: ConTeXt does not really have a “glossary package” 
equivalent to LaTeX’s |glossaries| package. The ConTeXt philosophy is 
usually to build such structures from the more general mechanisms 
(|register|, XML, Lua, buffers, etc.).

So the documentation you want is often found indirectly through:

  *

    registers/indexes; like :
    https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Command/setupregister

You may want to look at:

  *

    the ConTeXt Garden pages on registers and indexing;

  *

    the “Registers” section in the ConTeXt manuals;

*_sed contra_* ! The register method is useful as glossary-index: useful 
for locating where a word appears. But, if you need an index that 
records terms or concepts together with nuances and explanations, you 
need to use a different method. In fact, the |register| method is simple 
and effective for creating a glossary-index, that is, an alphabetical 
list of terms with page references. Technically, a |register| 
essentially stores only a short entry (for example |apple|) together 
with its location in the document. It is therefore designed to answer 
the question: “where does this word appear?”. By contrast, it is not 
naturally suited to a true semantic glossary containing long 
definitions, nuances, comments, or conceptual relations, because it does 
not manipulate complex documentary structures but only indexing keys.

Best//JP


Le 16/05/2026 à 17:53, Kirk Lowery a écrit :
> Wolfgang,
>
> Thanks for your response. It led me to the linkhttps://tex.stackexchange.com/ and from there I found the file strc-syn.mkxl on the ConTeXt Garden site and read the source. There I found at the top of the file documentation for the module with a detailed example of "abbreviation". That provided a MWE for me to modify to my requirements. I should know to read the source code, I've been doing that for Linux and other software for years. For others on the ConTeXt learning curve, I hope my little journey will help you in yours.
>
> Although it is straightforward, if my MWE is of interest to the list, I can post it here.
>
> Thanks again. I'm grateful for the willingness of you devs and power users to help us newcomers.
>
> Kirk
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