Glossary data

The clinical-to-plain-English term list as a flat, searchable table. It is the machine twin of the Plain-English A to Z.

How this is generated

Source: tokens/glossary.json, which is the same file the <Term> component reads at runtime, so a term that renders in a product is a term that appears here. Script: scripts/build-reference.mts. Command: pnpm run generate.

This is not the page you want if you are reading. Plain-English A to Z is canonical: it is written to be read, it groups terms, it explains the judgement behind each replacement, and it is where a change to the guidance is made. This page is its flat twin, and the twin carries one row per term with every field of the source exposed. It exists so that search, the .md twins and /r all cover the glossary without anybody writing a second copy of it by hand.

Five columns. Term is the clinical or technical word. Plain is the replacement to use in an interface. Definition is the one-sentence explanation shown when a reader expands a <Term>. Aliases are the other spellings and abbreviations a search should match. Notes carries the caveat, where the plain word is not an exact synonym and the difference could matter. Those rows are the ones worth reading twice.

Provenance. Every definition here is written for this project. Nothing is copied from the NHS A to Z or any other Crown-copyright source; where a source informed a definition it is cited on the canonical page, not pasted here. A glossary is exactly the kind of asset that gets copied without checking, so the rule is absolute.

A-Z

Term	Say this instead	Show both	Why
acute	sudden, or short-lasting	first-use	Often misread as 'severe'. It describes how quickly something started, not how bad it is.
adherence	taking a medicine the way it was prescribed	plain-only	'Compliance' frames the reader as obedient or not; 'adherence' is better but still clinical. Write what actually happened instead.
adverse effect	an unwanted effect of a medicine	first-use	'Adverse' is not everyday English. 'Side effect' is understood, but it can make a serious effect sound minor, so say what the effect is.
benign	not cancer	always	This word appears on reports and is one of the few whose plain meaning is genuinely reassuring, so the reader should be able to match the two.
biomarker	something measurable in your body that says something about your health	first-use	Common in product copy, almost never understood outside research.
blood pressure	the pressure of blood pushing against the walls of your arteries, written as two numbers	first-use	The words are familiar but the two-number format is not. Always explain which number is which where both are shown.
BMI	a number worked out from your height and weight	always	The abbreviation is widespread and the calculation is not. Anywhere BMI is shown, say that it does not distinguish muscle from fat and is a poor guide for some people.
bradycardia	a slower than usual heart rate	first-use	Appears in device output. Also note that a slow resting heart rate is expected in many fit people.
cholesterol	a fatty substance carried in your blood	first-use	Widely known as a word, widely misunderstood as a single number. Most reports give several.
chronic	long-lasting, or ongoing	first-use	Often heard as 'severe'. It describes duration.
contraindication	a reason this treatment is not safe for you	plain-only	A word with no everyday equivalent that readers guess at. Never show it.
diastolic	the pressure between heartbeats, which is the lower of the two blood pressure numbers	always	The reader's own record shows the clinical word, so both are needed to match them up.
eGFR	an estimate of how well your kidneys are filtering	always	Appears on results with no explanation. The word 'estimated' matters and should never be dropped.
false positive	a result that says something was found when it was not there	first-use	Essential for interpreting any screening result honestly, and impossible to explain after the fact if the first screen did not mention it.
fasting	not eating or drinking anything except water for a set time before a test	first-use	Readers frequently assume water is included. Say the time and say that water is allowed.
HbA1c	your average blood sugar over about the last three months	always	One of the most common results a consumer app displays and one of the least understood. Also flag that it is reported in two different units worldwide.
HDL	one of the types of cholesterol measured in a blood test	always	Frequently described to readers as 'good cholesterol'. Avoid that shorthand: it invites the reader to treat one number as a verdict.
hypertension	blood pressure that stays higher than the usual range	first-use	Frequently confused with 'tension' in the sense of stress.
hypoglycaemia	blood sugar that has dropped below the range you were given	always	Time-critical. The reader may already know it as 'a hypo', and both forms must be recognisable.
in range	inside the range this test uses for comparison	plain-only	The replacement for 'normal'. Always name whose range it is: a laboratory's range, a device maker's range, or a range a clinician set for this person.
LDL	one of the types of cholesterol measured in a blood test	always	Usually captioned 'bad cholesterol'. Same objection as HDL: it turns one number into a moral judgement.
malignant	cancer	always	Never soften this and never show it without a route to a person. See /docs/health/emergency-and-escalation.
mg/dL	milligrams per decilitre, which is a unit used for blood test results	always	See mmol/L. Converting between the two is a correctness surface, not a display preference.
mmol/L	millimoles per litre, which is a unit used for blood test results	always	The same measurement is reported in mmol/L in some countries and mg/dL in others, and the numbers are not close. Never show a value without its unit.
oedema	swelling caused by fluid building up	first-use	Spelled two ways depending on country; the plain wording avoids the problem entirely.
out of range	outside the range this test uses for comparison	plain-only	The replacement for 'abnormal'. It states a fact about a comparison and leaves the interpretation to whoever is entitled to make it.
prognosis	what is likely to happen next	plain-only	A word no component should ever need. If a product is showing a prognosis, a clinician wrote it.
reference range	the range a test result is compared against	always	The most important term in this glossary. A reference range is a comparison, not a target, and it belongs to a laboratory or a device rather than to the reader. Always name whose range it is and never call it a normal range.
remission	a period when the signs of an illness have reduced or gone	first-use	Often heard as 'cured'. The plain wording keeps the distinction.
resting heart rate	how many times your heart beats a minute when you are at rest	first-use	Understood as words but frequently confused with the heart rate shown during activity. Say when it was measured.
screening	a test offered to people with no symptoms, to look for a possible problem early	first-use	Readers commonly assume a screening test is diagnostic. It is not, and the difference determines what the result means.
SpO2	an estimate of how much oxygen your blood is carrying	always	Shown by consumer devices as a bare percentage. The word 'estimate' is not optional: the measurement is affected by movement, cold hands and skin tone, and the product must say so.
systolic	the pressure while your heart beats, which is the higher of the two blood pressure numbers	always	See diastolic.
tachycardia	a faster than usual heart rate	first-use	Appears in device output with no explanation and reliably alarms people.
titration	changing a dose in small steps until it is right for you	plain-only	No everyday equivalent; the plain wording is complete on its own.
triglycerides	a type of fat measured in a blood test	always	Appears on the same report as cholesterol and is routinely mistaken for it.

Words we do not use

Never	Instead	Why
abnormal	outside the usual range	The counterpart of the same problem, and the version that frightens people.
bad	the specific finding, stated plainly	Carries a verdict the system is not entitled to give.
diagnosis	say what the reading is and who can interpret it	opsinjs components never diagnose. Using the word implies they do.
don't worry	state what the reading means and what happens next	Reassurance the system cannot back up, and it reads as a reason to worry.
elevated	higher than	Clinical register; means little to a lay reader, and it sounds like a verdict to the readers who do recognise it.
failed	outside the range we expected	A reading is not a test the reader sat.
good	say the direction - higher, or lower	Moral framing of something largely outside the reader's control.
healthy	in the usual range	A verdict on a life, from one number. A reading can sit inside a range while the person is unwell, and outside it while they are fine.
just	delete it	'Just a bit high' minimises a reading the reader may need to act on.
negative	the test did not find <what it looked for>	Same collision, in the other direction.
normal	in the usual range, or the expected range for you	Outside a reference range is not abnormal in the everyday sense of the word, and inside one is not a clean bill of health. 'Normal' also carries a judgement about the person rather than about the reading. This word is banned outright across the system, including in code identifiers.
optimal	in the usual range	Sets up every future reading as a decline, in the register of a fitness tracker rather than a clinic.
perfect	in the usual range	Sets up every future reading as a decline.
poor	lower than the range for you	Judges the person, not the measurement.
positive	the test found <what it found>	In everyday English 'positive' means good news. In a test result it usually means the opposite, and the collision is dangerous.
unhealthy	higher than the usual range	The same verdict in the other direction. Say which way the reading sits and against whose range; the replacement wording assumes the common case, so where the reading is low, say 'lower than the usual range'.