Create and manage business glossaries

Business glossaries let you define a shared vocabulary for your organization's data. A glossary is a collection of terms, each with a name, description, and optional documentation. For example, you might create a glossary called "Revenue Metrics" with terms like "ARR," "MRR," and "Net Revenue Retention," each with a precise definition of how the metric is calculated, what data sources feed into it, and how it should be interpreted. Once created, these terms can be attached to tables and columns during metadata curation. When someone browses the catalog and sees a column tagged with "ARR," they can choose the term and read the exact definition rather than guessing what it means. This is especially valuable when different teams use the same words to mean different things, or when abbreviations and acronyms are common in column names.

The Business glossaries page in the admin portal shows all glossaries in the domain. Each glossary card shows the glossary name, description, creation date, term count, and a preview of the terms it contains. You can search across glossaries and terms using the search bar, use the View by dropdown to switch between viewing by Glossary or by Term.

Create a glossary

To create a glossary

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose Create glossary.

4. For Name, enter a name for the glossary (for example, "Compliance Standards" or "Revenue Metrics").

5. For Description, enter a description that explains what this glossary covers and when to use it. This field is optional but recommended.

6. Choose Create glossary.

The glossary detail page opens, showing the glossary name, description, creation date, an Actions menu, and an empty terms table. Glossaries are created in an Enabled state by default. See Enable or disable a glossary for details on what the enabled state controls and how to change it.

Edit a glossary

To edit a glossary

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary you want to edit.

4. Choose Actions, then choose Edit.

5. Update the name or description.

6. Choose Save.

Enable or disable a glossary

Each glossary has an Enabled toggle on its detail page. When a glossary is enabled, it appears as an available option when someone adds a Business glossary field type to a metadata form (see Add a field to a form). Its enabled terms can also be attached to assets during metadata curation. When a glossary is disabled, it cannot be added to new forms and its terms cannot be attached to new assets. Disabling a glossary does not remove it from forms or assets where it is already in use.

Individual terms also have an Enabled toggle. See Enable or disable a term in the Glossary terms section for details.

To enable or disable a glossary

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary you want to enable or disable.

4. On the glossary detail page, toggle the Enabled switch.

Delete a glossary

Before you can delete a glossary, you must first disable it and remove all of its terms. See Delete a term for the steps to remove individual terms.

To delete a glossary

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary you want to delete.

4. Delete all terms in the glossary (see Delete a term).

5. Choose Actions, then choose Delete.

6. Confirm the deletion.

Note

You cannot delete a glossary that is still enabled or contains terms. Disable the glossary and remove all terms first.

Glossary terms

Terms are the individual entries within a glossary. Each term has a name, description, and an optional README where you can add detailed documentation using Markdown. Terms can be enabled or disabled independently of the parent glossary, giving you control over which terms are available for use.

The glossary detail page shows all terms in a table with columns for the term name, description, status (enabled or disabled), and a delete action.

Create a term

To create a term

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary where you want to add the term.

4. Choose Create term.

5. For Name, enter the term name (for example, "GDPR" or "Annual Recurring Revenue").

6. For Description, enter a definition that explains what this term means and how it should be interpreted. This field is optional but recommended.

7. The Enabled toggle is on by default. Turn it off if you want to finalize the term before making it available.

8. Choose Create term.

The term detail page opens, showing the term name, description, creation date, a link back to the parent glossary, the Enabled toggle, an Actions menu, a README section, and a Terms relationships section.

Edit a term

To edit a term

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary that contains the term.

4. Choose the term you want to edit.

5. Choose Actions, then choose Edit.

6. Update the name or description.

7. Choose Save.

Add a README to a term

Each term has a README section where you can add documentation using Markdown syntax. This is useful for providing detailed context that goes beyond the short description, such as calculation methodology, data sources, or usage guidelines. The README supports up to 4,096 characters and includes a side-by-side preview so you can see how the formatted content will look.

To add a README to a term

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary that contains the term.

4. Choose the term.

5. In the README section, choose Edit.

6. Enter your documentation using Markdown syntax.

7. Choose Save.

Enable or disable a term

Each term has an Enabled toggle on its detail page. When a term is enabled, it can be attached to assets during metadata curation. When disabled, it cannot be attached to new assets but remains on any assets where it was previously attached.

To enable or disable a term

1. On the glossary detail page, choose the term you want to enable or disable.

2. On the term detail page, toggle the Enabled switch.

Delete a term

You can delete a term from the glossary detail page or from the term detail page.

From the glossary detail page, choose the delete icon (trash) in the Actions column next to the term you want to remove.

From the term detail page, follow these steps.

To delete a term from the term detail page

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary that contains the term.

4. Choose the term you want to delete.

5. Turn off the Enabled toggle (you must disable a term before deleting it).

6. Choose Actions, then choose Delete.

7. Confirm the deletion.

Note

You must disable a term before you can delete it. Turn off the Enabled toggle on the term detail page first. The term must also not be attached to any assets or have any term relationships. Remove all asset associations and term relationships before deleting.

Term relationships

You can define relationships between terms to show how they relate to each other. Relationships use a parent-child model with two types. Is A Type of means the current term is a more specific version of the related term. Has Types means the current term is a broader category that includes the related term. For example, if you set "Credit Card" as "Is A Type of" "Payment Method," then Payment Method automatically shows Credit Card under its "Has Types" relationships. Relationships are always bidirectional in this way.

Relationships can be created between terms in the same glossary or across different glossaries. A term can have a maximum of 10 relationships per relationship type, and a term can be attached to a maximum of 10 assets.

To add a term relationship

1. Navigate to Amazon SageMaker Unified Studio and choose Domain management to open the admin portal.

2. In the left navigation pane under Catalog, choose Business glossaries.

3. Choose the glossary that contains the term, then choose the term.

4. In the Terms relationships section, choose Add terms.

5. In the Add term relationships panel, for Relationship, choose Is A Type of or Has Types.

6. Use the search bar to find the term you want to relate to. You can also use the Filter by glossary dropdown to narrow results to a specific glossary.

7. Select the checkbox next to one or more terms.

8. Choose Add terms to confirm your selection.

9. In the Manage term relationships panel, review the relationships and choose Save changes.

To edit or remove existing relationships, choose Edit in the Terms relationships section on the term detail page. This opens the Manage term relationships panel where you can remove relationships using the delete icon or add new ones using the Add terms button.