The Web Development Glossary 4K

Published on Mar 24, 2026, filed under books, development. (Share this post, e.g. on Mastodon or on Bluesky.)

If you want a speed-run through web development, web design, and adjacent fields, you want this brand-new edition of The Web Development Glossary—there’s probably no better way to grasp the web ecosystem and uncover your unknown unknowns:

In the Book’s Own Words

The Web Development Glossary is the largest of its kind. With more than 4,000 terms and explanations (“4K”), it is the book to extend your web development and web platform knowledge.

The glossary covers key terms and concepts of the Web, beginning with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, accessibility, security, performance, code quality and testing, internationalization, localization, frameworks and editors and tooling.

The glossary then includes other disciplines of interest and relevance to the modern developer, like computer science, design, typography, usability and user experience, information and project management and more.

It goes beyond web development to feed all your curiosity, about the Web and the technologies and processes used to build it. And still it is a glossary, of several thousand terms for developers, based on careful research as well as established sources, like Wikipedia and MDN Web Docs.

This third edition of The Web Development Glossary includes many updated definitions—and almost a thousand additional terms.

_ I’ve been working on this for months, I’m incredibly grateful to everyone involved in the making, and I’m proud of the result. Here it is: The Web Development Glossary 4K!

The ebook is living, which means that it will receive updates. While the book is typically ahead (and never behind) them, the WebGlossary.info website and the glossary JetBrains plugin will eventually be based on this new edition, too.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you use every day (like Google) and companies you’ve never heard of, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also with respect to politics and philosophy. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my experiences and perspectives. (Please share feedback: Interpret charitably, but do be critical.)