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Wordnest icon
Maintained Tested up to 7.0.6 #8 in definitions

Wordnest

A lightweight WordPress glossary tooltip plugin with zero frontend dependencies, native Chinese support, and English term matching.

Active installs<10New
Downloads · 30d50▲ +11.1% vs prev. 30d
Rating—0 reviews
Health score49/100Fair
All-time downloads268Since Jun 2026
Support resolved—No recent threads
RequiresWP 5.0PHP 8.0+
Downloads · 7d9▼ -25% week over week
Our verdict

Use with caution

Wordnest works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 3 months ago, and scores 49/100 on our health check.

  • Small user base (<10 active installs)
  • Very few reviews so far

How does it stack up?

Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support

Daily downloads

135Jul 2Aug 15Sep 29
Yesterday2
Daily average (1y)3
Peak day53Jun 24, 2026
Last 12 months272

Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.

Rankings

Where Wordnest stands today

WordPress.org search rankings

Live position in the plugin search, top 100
KeywordPositionCompeting pluginsCategory
definitions >100 1,070 Best definitions plugins →
dictionary #86 228 Best dictionary plugins →
glossary #85 214 Best glossary plugins →
terms >100 10,000 Best terms plugins →
tooltip >100 1,946 Best tooltip plugins →

About Wordnest

From the official readme · v1.1.3

Description

详情请查看:GitHub https://github.com/Simon-xuan/Wordnest

English

Wordnest is a minimalist glossary tooltip plugin built for WordPress. It automatically detects terms in your posts or pages and shows their definitions on hover, keyboard focus, or tap/click.

The frontend is intentionally small: pure CSS plus Vanilla JavaScript, with no jQuery and no third-party frontend dependencies. Wordnest is designed for documentation sites, course sites, knowledge bases, technical blogs, language-learning content, product documentation, and any WordPress site that needs to explain terms inside article content.

Features

  • Dedicated admin panel: manage all terms centrally through a custom post type.
  • Smart matching: automatically detects terms in post/page content while skipping links, headings, code blocks, scripts, styles, and form text areas.
  • Accessible tooltips: supports hover, keyboard focus, tap/click, outside click dismissal, blur dismissal, and Esc dismissal.
  • First-occurrence mode: optionally highlight only the first occurrence of each term per post.
  • Native frontend: pure CSS + Vanilla JavaScript, zero frontend dependencies, no jQuery.
  • Bulk import: paste CSV text to add or update many terms at once.
  • Alias support: use the Term|Alias title format so multiple names share one definition.
  • High performance: caches both the glossary term list and processed post output with WordPress Transients.
  • Native Chinese support and English term matching.

Why Wordnest

Many glossary and tooltip plugins are powerful, but they often load more frontend assets than small documentation or education sites need. Wordnest focuses on one job: explain terms inside content while staying lightweight, predictable, and easy to maintain.

Wordnest parses content with DOMDocument and rewrites text nodes instead of running a raw regex over HTML. This helps avoid corrupting tags, attributes, links, headings, and code examples.

Usage

  1. Add a single term

Go to Glossary -> Add New Glossary Term.

  • Title field: enter the term name. Aliases are supported with the full-width vertical bar |.
  • Content field: enter the term definition. This becomes the tooltip text.

Examples:

Phone
TV|Television
  1. Bulk import terms

Go to Settings -> Wordnest -> Import and paste CSV text, one term per line:

ABC|John,John - Class 1
DEF|Jane,Jane - Class 2
Phone,A mobile phone
TV|Television,A television set

Existing terms with the same title are updated automatically rather than duplicated.

  1. Settings and management
  • Settings tab: enable “Only highlight the first occurrence of each term” if you want cleaner long-form pages.
  • Manage Terms tab: view, edit, delete individual terms, or bulk-delete selected terms.

Customizing the appearance

Tooltip styles live in assets/css/tooltip.css. You can edit the bubble background, text color, font size, spacing, border radius, focus outline, and responsive behavior there.

Example:

.wordnest-tooltip {
    background-color: #333;
    color: #fff;
    border-radius: 4px;
    font-size: 14px;
}

Internationalization

Wordnest is fully internationalized. The interface language follows your WordPress site language automatically.

  • Simplified Chinese: built-in default.
  • English: translation provided in languages/wordnest-en_US.mo.

To add another language, use languages/wordnest.pot as the template, save the translation as wordnest-{locale}.po, compile it to .mo, and place it in languages/.

Chinese

Wordnest 是一款专为 WordPress 打造的极简术语工具提示插件。它会自动识别文章或页面正文中的术语,并在鼠标悬停、键盘聚焦或触摸点击时显示释义。

前端使用纯 CSS + Vanilla JavaScript,无 jQuery、无第三方前端依赖。Wordnest 适合文档站、课程站、知识库、技术博客、语言学习内容、产品说明页,以及任何需要在正文中解释专业名词的 WordPress 站点。

功能特点

  • 专用管理面板:通过自定义文章类型集中管理所有术语。
  • 智能匹配算法:自动识别正文术语,并跳过链接、标题、代码块、脚本、样式和表单文本区域。
  • 可访问工具提示:支持悬停、键盘聚焦、触摸点击、外部点击关闭、失焦关闭与 Esc 关闭。
  • 首词高亮模式:可选择只高亮每篇文章中首次出现的术语,让长文章更清爽。
  • 原生轻量前端:纯 CSS + Vanilla JavaScript,零前端依赖,无 jQuery。
  • 批量导入:支持粘贴 CSV 文本,一次添加或更新大量术语。
  • 别名支持:使用 术语|别名 标题格式,让多个名称共享同一释义。
  • 高性能缓存:使用 WordPress Transient 缓存术语列表和处理后正文。
  • 原生中文支持,兼容英文术语匹配。

为什么选择 Wordnest

很多术语表或 tooltip 插件功能很全,但也会加载较重的前端资源。Wordnest 的目标更简单:只做一件事,把文章里的术语解释清楚,并尽量保持轻量、可控、易维护。

Wordnest 使用 DOMDocument 解析正文并改写文本节点,而不是直接对原始 HTML 跑正则。这能尽量避免破坏标签、属性、链接、标题和代码示例。

使用指南

  1. 添加单个术语

进入 词汇表 -> 添加新术语。

  • 标题栏:填写术语名称,支持用全角竖线 | 分隔别名。
  • 正文栏:填写该术语释义,也就是工具提示内容。

示例:

Phone
TV|Television
  1. 批量导入术语

进入 设置 -> 轻量级词汇表 -> 导入,粘贴 CSV 文本,每行一条:

ABC|张三,张三 - 一班
DEF|李四,李四 - 二班
Phone,手机
TV|Television,电视

已存在的同名术语会自动更新,不会重复创建。

  1. 设置与管理
  • 设置标签页:勾选“仅高亮内容中首次出现的术语”即可开启首词高亮模式。
  • 术语管理标签页:查看、编辑、单条删除或批量删除术语。

自定义外观

工具提示样式位于 assets/css/tooltip.css。你可以在这里调整气泡背景色、文字颜色、字号、间距、圆角、键盘焦点样式和响应式表现。

示例:

.wordnest-tooltip {
    background-color: #333;
    color: #fff;
    border-radius: 4px;
    font-size: 14px;
}

多语言

Wordnest 已完整国际化,界面语言会自动跟随 WordPress 站点语言。

  • 简体中文:默认内置。
  • English:已提供 languages/wordnest-en_US.mo。

如需新增其他语言,可用 languages/wordnest.pot 作为模板,翻译后命名为 wordnest-{locale}.po,编译成 .mo 后放入 languages/。

Installation

English

  1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins -> Add New.
  2. Search for “Wordnest”.
  3. Install and activate the plugin.
  4. After activation, a “Glossary” menu appears in the admin sidebar.
  5. Add terms under “Glossary”, and configure highlighting or CSV import under Settings -> Wordnest.

Chinese

  1. 在 WordPress 后台进入“插件” -> “安装插件”。
  2. 搜索 “Wordnest”。
  3. 点击“安装”,然后启用插件。
  4. 启用后,后台侧边栏会出现“词汇表”菜单。
  5. 在“词汇表”中添加术语,在“设置 -> Wordnest”中配置高亮方式或批量导入。

Frequently asked questions

Does Wordnest support Chinese and English terms?

Yes. Wordnest provides native Chinese support and English term matching.

Does it work on touch screens and with keyboards?

Yes. Tooltips work on hover, keyboard focus, and tap/click. They can be dismissed with Esc, blur, or outside click.

Will it modify links, headings, or code blocks?

No. Wordnest skips existing links, headings, code blocks, scripts, style areas, and form text areas.

Can I bulk import terms?

Yes. Paste CSV text into the import area on the settings page. Example: Phone,A mobile phone TV|Television,A television set

Can I highlight only the first occurrence of each term?

Yes. Enable the first-occurrence-only option on the settings page.

Can I customize the tooltip style?

Yes. The tooltip styles live in assets/css/tooltip.css.

Activation fails with a fatal error. What should I check?

This usually means two copies of the plugin are installed under wp-content/plugins/. Keep only one copy of Wordnest, remove old duplicate folders such as lite-glossary or wordnest-old, then activate again.

支持中文和英文术语吗?

支持。Wordnest 原生支持中文术语,并兼容英文术语匹配。

触摸屏和键盘能用吗?

可以。工具提示支持悬停、键盘聚焦和触摸点击,也支持 Esc、失焦或外部点击关闭。

会修改文章中的链接、标题或代码块吗?

不会。插件会跳过链接、标题、代码块、脚本、样式区域和表单文本区域。

可以批量导入术语吗?

可以。在设置页的导入区域粘贴 CSV 文本即可。格式示例: Phone,手机 TV|Television,电视

可以只高亮第一次出现的术语吗?

可以。在设置页启用“仅高亮内容中首次出现的术语”即可。

可以自定义 tooltip 样式吗?

可以。样式位于插件目录的 assets/css/tooltip.css。

启用时报致命错误怎么办?

这通常是站点里装了两份本插件。请确认 wp-content/plugins/ 下只保留一份 Wordnest,删除旧的重复目录,例如 lite-glossary 或 wordnest-old,然后再启用。

Changelog

Tooltips now work better for keyboard and touch users, and processed post output is cached for better performance.

1.1.3

  • Accessibility: tooltips now support hover, keyboard focus, tap/click, outside click dismissal, blur dismissal, and Esc dismissal.
  • Accessibility: added ARIA state, tooltip roles, and visible keyboard focus styling.
  • Performance: added per-post processed content caching so DOM parsing and term rewriting are not repeated on every page load.
  • Listing: added WordPress.org screenshot descriptions for the existing plugin screenshots.

1.1.2

  • Compliance: prefixed the custom post type identifier with the plugin name (glossary -> wordnest) for WordPress.org review requirements.
  • Migration: added a version-gated upgrade routine so existing glossary terms are migrated to the new wordnest post type.

1.1.1

  • Compliance: added nonce verification improvements for admin notice flags and CSV import handling.

1.1.0

  • Renamed the plugin to Wordnest.
  • Added security and escaping improvements.
  • Improved content parsing robustness and tooltip rendering.
  • Added fallback handling for hosts without the mbstring extension.

1.0.0

  • Initial release with term matching, CSV import, caching, and Vanilla JS tooltips.

Full changelog on WordPress.org →

Screenshots

Front-end tooltip demo.
Front-end tooltip demo.
Add a glossary term.
Add a glossary term.
Import terms from CSV text.
Import terms from CSV text.
Manage glossary terms.
Manage glossary terms.

For developers

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Best Wordnest alternatives

All definitions plugins →

FAQ

Wordnest: quick answers

Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.

Live data from WordPress.org · checked Sep 30, 2026

Is Wordnest free?

Yes. Wordnest is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.

Is Wordnest safe to use in 2026?

Wordnest works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 3 months ago, and scores 49/100 on our health check.

How many websites use Wordnest?

Wordnest is active on <10 WordPress websites and has been downloaded 268 times since it launched in June 2026. It was downloaded 50 times in the last 30 days.

Does Wordnest work with WordPress 7.1?

Wordnest is officially tested up to WordPress 7.0.6, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.

What PHP version does Wordnest need?

Wordnest requires PHP 8.0 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.

When was Wordnest last updated?

The latest version, 1.1.3, was released on June 26, 2026 (3 months ago).

Who makes Wordnest?

Wordnest is developed and maintained by simonxuan.

What are the best alternatives to Wordnest?

The most popular alternatives to Wordnest are TooltipGlossary (30+ installs), Glossary (10+ installs) and Dexonline Searchbox (10+ installs).

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