University
HomeSearch⌘EDashboardTry Webflow — it's free
Learn
CoursesDocsInteractive LearningGlossaryCertificationsEngage
SupportCommunityEventsForumAccessibility
Switch to Light modeSwitch to Dark modeHigh contrast
Trusted by teams at
Glossary
Empty state
The state displayed when a Collection contains no Collection items, which gives you the opportunity to design for a situation where there's no content to display. Check out the Empty States blog for inspiration.
Browse our library of 400+ free lessons covering everything from layout and typography to interactions and 3D transforms.Visit Webflow University ↗
Relevant courses
Moving your business onlineA free course on how to take your business online. Serve more clients and generate more revenue in this new environment.
Webflow EcommerceLearn how to build and design your Webflow Ecommerce store. Customize every detail and launch a fully functional online store — without writing code.
Freelance web design boot campThe Freelancer’s Journey is a free, comprehensive course to help you build a successful, fulfilling freelance career in web design.
Accessibility on the webLearn about accessibility on the web and how to create inclusive and accessible sites without writing code.
Figma to WebflowLearn the entire design process from idea to final output as we take you through Figma, Cinema 4D and Octane, and Webflow.
Other glossary terms
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics)→PNG, short for Portable Network Graphics, is a lossless image format known for its transparency support and quality retention after compression.
Margin→Margins are an essential spacing element of web design, dictating the amount of whitespace between a box and its surroundings.
Video field→Available in CMS Collections. You can add videos via a link — not an embed code — from an online video host like Vimeo or YouTube. Just paste in the video link and it’ll appear in the native video format from the 3rd-party video player.
XML sitemap (sitemap.xml)→An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap is a text file that lists a website's pages to help search engines crawl and index them.
Valid→A valid CSS pseudo-class is a keyword that enables styling HTML elements based on their state or position in the document structure or web page.
Closed-loop marketing→Closed-loop marketing is an ecommerce marketing strategy that uses customer data to create and improve targeted content.
Display: inline→The display: inline CSS property is a display option that controls an element’s appearance and layout.
Background→A website background is a visual element behind webpage content, enhancing aesthetic appeal and user engagement.
Safe→"Safe" is a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) method that doesn't modify the server's state or resources.
External link→External links direct users to different websites and impact a site's search engine visibility and rankings.
Idempotent→Idempotency is a computing principle where multiple applications of a function or operation produce the same result as a single execution.
Null→“Null” represents the absence of a value or the presence of invalid objects in computer science and web development.
Form button→A form element that lets website visitorssubmit data to your form handler.
Urgency→Urgency is a marketing term and psychological trigger that incites potential customers and website visitors to act swiftly.
Dropdown→A dropdown, or dropdown menu, is a pre-built navigation element you can add to almost any part of a website.
Bug→A bug is an error, fault, or flaw in an application or software that causes the program to behave unexpectedly, often producing inaccurate and invalid output.
Backlink→A backlink, also referred to as an inbound link, is a hyperlink from one website to another website.
Total Form Submissions→The amount of times a site visitor submits data using your site's form(s).
Certificate authority→A certificate authority (CA), also known as a certification authority, issues digital certificates that verify a website’s owner.
Minimized CSS→A method of lowering the file size of your stylesheet(s) by removing all white space from your CSS files.
Cloneable site→Cloneable sites are open source (made available under the CC0 (“no rights reserved”) license). When you enable cloning, you allow any user to copy, modify, and use any part of your site for personal or commercial purposes.Sites with cloning turned off do not give others access to copy your site or open it in the Designer.
Wrapper→A wrapper is a programming language function for encapsulating and organizing elements within a well-defined interface.
Domain→A domain, or domain name, is the unique address that directs to a website on the internet.
Smoke test→A smoke test, also called build verification testing or confidence testing, is a preliminary examination to determine the basic functionality of a software, website, or application.
Account notifications→Account notifications update you about activity in your account. New notifications appear on your Webflow Dashboard after you log in.
Designer→The main interface where you can build sites.
Tutorials→The fastest way to learn how to use Webflow.
Flexbox→Flexbox is a CSS layout mechanism that offers precise alignment and stacking control for the content inside an element.
Parent→The element directly above in the hierarchy tree.
UI state→The UI state changes how Collection lists display when you’re designing. The Items state is the default option, and shows the items that you have within the Collection. The Empty state doesn’t show these items and gives the designer the opportunity to design for a circ*mstance if/when there is no data to be displayed in the Collection list.
Domain-Specific Language (DSL)→A Domain-Specific Language (DSL) is computer script that solves software problems in a specific domain.
Flex-justify→A flexbox property that lets you customize the alignment behavior of flex children, based on the main axis of the flex container — that is, whatever you defined as the flex-direction. Options include start, center, end, baseline, and stretch.
User interface (UI)→A user interface (UI) is any visual element humans interact with on a device, webpage, or application.
Display: block→Display properties tell browsers how an element should behave on the page. The most common display property keyword category is display: block.
Class→A class is a template that defines variables for objects with similar properties.
Custom font→A custom font is any non-system-default typeface you manually upload to your website.
Folder→A folder is a subdirectory of your site's root folder for organizing web pages.
Flex child→An element contained within a parent element that has display: flex set.
Array→An array is an ordered, random-access collection of data. This data can be either primitive or object, depending on the coding language.
Tabs→A Webflow component that displays a pane of content associated with a tab menu button.
Plugin→A plugin, also called an add-on or extension, is a software component that enhances the host or browser or application by adding new features or capabilities to it.
Delete element→To remove an element andits content from your website.
Facebook button→A Facebook button is a clickable element on a website that allows users to connect to or share content on the social media platform.
Subdomain indexing→When a search engine crawls your site's Webflow subdomain (e.g., your-site.webflow.io).
Total asset size→The total weight of your site's HTML, CSS, JS, and images.
Link block→A link block operates much like a div block, an HTML element for grouping and organizing other HTML elements (like text, images, and forms) into block-level containers. But in the case of a link block, what’s inside the block becomes a link.
IP address→An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique string of characters identifying devices connected to the internet.
Switch field→Available in CMS Collections. This field offers you a powerful filtering tool for Collection items. For example, you could create a switch labeled "Featured?" for Blog Posts, and then switch on the toggle to showcase particular posts.
Reference field→A CMS field used in Collections. This powerful field allows you to link to other Collections within your website to populate fields in Collection lists and Collection pages.
Transfer site→You can transfer sites from one Workspace to another Workspace.
Content-first design→A design approach that prioritizes content planning and production in the design process.
Ancestor→Any element that is further up the element hierarchy of the document tree. For example, the Body element is the ancestor of all elements on the Designer canvas.
Link→A link, short for hyperlink, is a clickable website element that enables navigation between different web resources.
Synchronous→Synchronous programming refers to sequentially executed operations.
Unbranded form submission notification→Form submission notifications that have no reference to Webflow (e.g., notifications sent from “no-reply@webforms.io” instead of “no-reply@webflow.com”).
Graphical User Interface (GUI)→A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is a visual medium that enables visual interaction with software applications or electronic devices through elements like icons, buttons, and menus.
Ligature→A ligature in typography groups adjacent letters or characters into one glyph.
Inline style→Inline style applies CSS to an individual HTML element using the "style" attribute within the HTML tag.
Site plan→A Webflow plan that you can add/apply to individual sites. You’ll receive access to different site and hosting features based on your Site plan.
URI→A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a string of characters identifying an online resource.
Flex-basis→Flex-basis is a CSS property used in flexboxes that sets the initial size of a flex item before it grows or shrinks.
Email template→Email templates — or pre-designed HTML layouts — ensure consistent branding and visual aesthetic in marketing campaigns.
Workspace→A space to hold and access sites, members, settings, and integrations. All users start with a Workspace that can become collaborative when and as needed.
Compile time→Compile time is the length of time it takes for a compiler to convert high-level code into low-level code.
Inheritance→Inheritance describes a principle where child elements adopt the style properties of parent elements.
Button→A button is an interactive element that facilitates user actions.
Node title→The type of element you're working with, i.e., H1, link, button, etc.
Control flow→The control flow is the order in which a computer program executes its instructions or statements, guided by control structures.
Canvas→The <canvas> tag in HTML5 creates a container for dynamic graphics and image rendering on a webpage.
CMS section→A section in the Add panel that contains elements associated with the CMS.
Syntax→Syntax is the name for the rules specifying a programming language's structure and formatting.
Element→Elements are individual HTML components that constitute a webpage’s structure and contents.
Layout section→A tab in the Add panel that houses prebuilt layouts for your Webflow site.
Text link→A typography element that is used to link to other pages or sections of a webpage.
Password protection→Password protection is a security feature restricting certain website areas to authorized users, requiring a secret phrase or key to access them.
Homepage→The page people see when they visit your site's root domain. Read more about the homepage.
Utility pages→Utility pages are default, customizable templates for your site’s 404 page, Password page, and Search results page.
Accessibility tree→A webpage’s accessibility tree indicates which parts of the page are compatible with assistive technologies such as braille displays, screen readers, and voice commands.
Left To Right (LTR)→Left To Right (LTR) describes a text layout that starts from the left and proceeds to the right.
Collection URL→The slug that represents the parent folder for your individual Collection item URLs. For example, if you created a Collection called “Blog posts,” the URL would be website.com/blog-posts, while a Collection item URL for a blog post called “Hello world” would be website.com/blog-posts/hello-world.
Checkout process→The checkout process in ecommerce is the process that online customers go through to complete a purchase.
Site→What you create in Webflow! You can publish sites to a webflow.io staging subdomain for free, export the code on a paid plan, add hosting on any paid plan, or add a Site plan to any site to connect your custom domain and unlock hosting features.
Pixel→A pixel (px) is the smallest unit of measure in a digital image or display, representing a single point of color or light.
Encapsulation→Encapsulation is an object-oriented programming (OOP) process that combines functions and the data they manipulate into a single entity.
URL→A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a standardized web address format that allows users to identify and access an online resource.
Typography section→A section in the Style panel that houses CSS properties related to how typography is displayed such as font, font size and height, and align.
RGB (Red-Green-Blue)→RGB, an acronym for Red, Green, Blue, is a color model that screen displays use to represent various colors.
Content network→A content network is a collection of websites where advertisers can pay to display digital ads.
Static content→Static content is content that’s not bound to any Collections or dynamic elements.
Abstraction→In object-oriented programming (OOP), abstraction conceals irrelevant details so they don’t interfere with the task at hand.
Webclip→A 256 x 256 px image associated with your website that shows up when your website link is saved to an iPhone home screen.
Traffic→Traffic, or web traffic, refers to the number of users who visit a website over a period of time.
Responsive design→Responsive web design (RWD) is a web development and design approach to create websites, applications, and user interfaces (UIs) that display and function effectively on any device or screen size.
Bottom bar→A bottom bar is a navigation bar at the bottom of an app or webpage.
Literal→In JavaScript, literals are fixed values written directly into the code.
Inline Frame (iframe)→An inline frame is an HTML element that embeds an HTML document within another webpage.
Alt text→Alt text, short for alternative text, refers to text that describes online images.
List item→A list is a Webflow element that displays multiple pieces of content in a structured, visually appealing way. The individual elements that make up the list are called list items.
Footer→A footer is a section at the bottom of a web page.
Sitemap URL→The location your sitemap is stored in relation to your site, and what’s used when submitting your sitemap to search engines.
Next
Hmm…we couldn’t find any results. Try a different search term or reset the filter.
Reset the filter
Load more
