A data glossary (or business glossary) is a repository containing the descriptions of commonly used business terms within an organisation or business sector.

The first difference between the data dictionary and the data glossary is that whilst the data dictionary is seen very much as an IT-owned document, data glossaries should be created and maintained by the business. Some people will tell you a data glossary should be used to create a 'common' set of definitions. Now I agree that would be sensible in a utopian data world, however, the vast majority of organizations are not yet mature enough in data governance terms to dive straight into this. Instead, I encourage my clients to use the development of a data glossary to identify where there are a number of differing definitions for the same term and conversely where a number of different terms have the same definition.