TooltipGlossary
Parses posts for defined glossary terms and adds links to the static glossary page containing the definition and a tooltip with the definition.
By Consider an alternative
TooltipGlossary shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 30+ sites and was last updated 16 years ago, and scores 24/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (30+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 16 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 3.0 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where TooltipGlossary stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| definitions | >100 |
| glossary | >100 |
| pages | >100 |
| posts | >100 |
| tooltip | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About TooltipGlossary
From the official readme · v1.2Description
Parses posts for defined glossary terms and adds links to the static glossary page containing the definition. The plugin also creates a tooltip containing the definition which is displayed when users mouseover the term. Based on automatic-glossary.
The code has been optimised from automatic-glossary and unnecessary code has been stripped to keep the plugin lean. However, support for php 4 has been removed and if you are looking for a php 4 glossary, please do download automatic-glossary (although I believe there is a little extra tweaking required).
The tooltip is created with JavaScript based on the article written by Michael Leigeber here and can be customized and styled through the tooltip.css and tooltip.js files.
Users of WordPress versions less than 3.0 should use version 1.1 of this plugin.
Installation
- Upload the plugin folder to the
/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Define your glossary terms under the glossary menu item in the administration interface. The title of the page should be the term. The body content should be the definition.
- Create a main glossary page (example “Glossary”) with no body content if you wish to. If you do not create this page then your terms will still be highlighted but there will not be a central listing of all your terms.
- In the plugin’s dashboard preferences, enter the main glossary page’s id (optional as above)
- There are a handful of other optional preferences available in the dashboard.
Note: You must have a call to wp_head() in your template in order for the tooltip js and css to work properly. If your theme does not support this you will need to link to these files manually in your theme (not recommended).
Changelog
1.3
- Bug fixes
- Parser is now less greedy – will now only match the exact term defined (give or take an ‘s’ for plurals in English)
- Users can define the permalink name in the plugin options
- Option to return only the first match on a page/post added
1.2
- Added custom_post_type for the glossary for WP 3.0
- Main glossary page is now optional
1.1
- Cleaned up administration interface
- Added style options in admin area
1.0
- First release
- Optimised code from automatic-glossary
- Added tooltip functionality
For developers
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Best TooltipGlossary alternatives
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FAQ
TooltipGlossary: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 30, 2026
Is TooltipGlossary free?
Yes. TooltipGlossary is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is TooltipGlossary safe to use in 2026?
TooltipGlossary shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 30+ sites and was last updated 16 years ago, and scores 24/100 on our health check.
How many websites use TooltipGlossary?
TooltipGlossary is active on 30+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 6,285 times since it launched in May 2010. It was downloaded 165 times in the last 30 days.
Does TooltipGlossary work with WordPress 7.1?
TooltipGlossary is officially tested up to WordPress 3.0.5, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was TooltipGlossary last updated?
The latest version, 1.2, was released on June 23, 2010 (16 years ago).
What are the best alternatives to TooltipGlossary?
The most popular alternatives to TooltipGlossary are Glossary (10+ installs), Dexonline Searchbox (10+ installs) and mowsterGlossary (10+ installs).
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