Online Tool Store
Glossary Extractor
Paste an article, spec, or brief and pull out a term/definition glossary — catching "X is/means/refers to" sentences and repeated Capitalized Terms. Runs entirely in your browser.
🔒 This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to a server.
Example shown — paste a spec, article, or brief. Sentences like "X is/means/refers to …" and Capitalized Terms are both picked up.
| Term | Definition | Source |
|---|
This is a pattern-matching heuristic, not language understanding — it looks for defining sentences and repeated capitalized terms. Review the results before publishing; it will miss definitions phrased unusually and can pick up proper nouns that are not actually glossary terms. Nothing you paste leaves the page.
How it works
- Paste a document — a spec, an article, onboarding notes, anything with defined terms.
- The tool scans every sentence for "X is/means/refers to" patterns and for Capitalized Terms that repeat.
- Review the resulting term/definition table — the source column tells you which heuristic found each row.
- Copy the list or download it as a plain-text file to paste into your own glossary.
Why two heuristics instead of one
A defining sentence is the strongest signal a document gives you, so it always wins when present — the tool takes the subject as the term and everything after "is/means/refers to" as the definition. Documents rarely define every term that way, though, so a second pass catches Capitalized Terms that keep recurring without an explicit definition, and shows the sentence they first appear in so you have somewhere to start writing one.
Proper nouns, product names, and sentence-initial words that happen to be capitalized can all slip into the capitalized-term list without being real glossary entries — that is why they are flagged separately from defined terms rather than merged in silently. It is a starting point for a glossary, not a substitute for reading the document.
FAQ
How does it decide what counts as a term?
Two ways. First it looks for defining sentences — "X is …", "X means …", "X refers to …" — and takes the subject as the term and the rest as the definition. Then it looks for Capitalized Words that appear more than once but were not already caught by a defining sentence, and lists the sentence they first appear in as context.
Will it catch every definition in my document?
No. It only matches sentences phrased with "is/are/means/refers to" directly after the term, so a definition buried in a longer sentence or phrased as a question or list item will be missed. Treat the output as a first pass to edit, not a finished glossary.
Why does it sometimes list a term with no real definition?
That happens with the capitalized-term fallback — it has no defining sentence to work with, so it shows the first sentence the term appears in as context instead of a definition. Those rows are flagged "repeated capitalized term" in the source column so you know to write the definition yourself.
Does it understand acronyms or synonyms?
No — it matches text patterns, not meaning. "API" and "Application Programming Interface" are treated as unrelated terms unless your document explicitly defines each one.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. The extraction runs in your browser as you type, and nothing is sent to a server or stored — useful for an unpublished spec or an internal document.
How we compare
| Feature | Online Tool Store | Manual highlighting | AI summarizers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finds explicit definitions automatically | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Shows exactly why each term was picked | ✓ | You decide as you go | ✗ |
| Nothing uploaded, no account | ✓ | ✓ | Usually needs an API call |
| Instant, no per-document cost | ✓ | ✓ | Varies by provider |
| Rewrites definitions in plainer language | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Fast for pulling an explicit glossary out of a document that already defines its terms, with the matching logic visible rather than hidden behind a model call. If you need definitions rewritten or terms without an explicit "X is …" sentence explained, an AI summarizer is the better fit.