---
layout: docs
page_title: Glossary
description: >-
  The glossary is a list of technical terms with a specific meaning in Consul. Use the glossary to understand Consul concepts and study for the certification exam.
---

# Glossary

This page defines terms used in Consul and provides links to its supporting documentation.

## Access logs

@include 'text/descriptions/access-log.mdx'

## Agent

@include 'text/descriptions/agent.mdx'

## Admin partitions

@include 'text/descriptions/admin-partition.mdx'

## API gateways

@include 'text/descriptions/api-gateway.mdx'

## Application load balancing

@include 'text/descriptions/load-balancer.mdx'

## Blocking queries

@include 'text/descriptions/blocking-query.mdx'

## Certificate authority

@include 'text/descriptions/certificate-authority.mdx'

## Clusters

@include 'text/descriptions/cluster.mdx'

## Cluster peering

@include 'text/descriptions/cluster-peering.mdx'

## Consul DNS

@include 'text/descriptions/consul-dns.mdx'

## Consul template

@include 'text/descriptions/consul-template.mdx'

## Datacenters

@include 'text/descriptions/datacenter.mdx'

## Distributed tracing

@include 'text/descriptions/distributed-tracing.mdx'

## Key/value store

@include 'text/descriptions/kv/store.mdx'

## Ingress gateways

@include 'text/descriptions/ingress-gateway.mdx'

## Mesh gateways

@include 'text/descriptions/mesh-gateway.mdx'

## Namespaces

@include 'text/descriptions/namespace.mdx'

## Network areas

@include 'text/descriptions/network-area.mdx'

## Network infrastructure automation

@include 'text/descriptions/network-infrastructure-automation.mdx'

## Network segments

@include 'text/descriptions/network-segment.mdx'

## Prepared queries

@include 'text/descriptions/prepared-query.mdx'

## Sameness groups

@include 'text/descriptions/sameness-group.mdx'

## Service definitions

@include 'text/descriptions/service-definition.mdx'

## Service discovery

@include 'text/descriptions/service-discovery.mdx'

## Service intentions

@include 'text/descriptions/service-intention.mdx'

## Service mesh

@include 'text/descriptions/service-mesh.mdx'

## Service mesh telemetry metrics

@include 'text/descriptions/telemetry.mdx'

## Sessions

@include 'text/descriptions/kv/session.mdx'

## Static lookups

@include 'text/descriptions/static-query.mdx'

## Terminating gateways

@include 'text/descriptions/terminating-gateway.mdx'

## WAN federation

@include 'text/descriptions/wan-federation.mdx'

## Watches

@include 'text/descriptions/kv/watch.mdx'
