Glossaries and Acronyms

Note

The recommended package for creating glossaries and lists of acronyms is glossaries.

LaTeX has a package for elegant handling of glossaries and acronyms, called glossaries. It is a powerful package that can be used to create a glossary or list of acronyms. The package is highly customizable and can be used to create a glossary or list of acronyms in different styles.

Use the following code to create a glossary or list of acronyms:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{glossaries}

\makeglossaries

\newglossaryentry{latex}
{
    name=LaTeX,
    description={A document preparation system}
}

\newglossaryentry{maths}
{
    name=mathematics,
    description={Mathematics is the study of numbers, quantities, and shapes}
}

\newacronym{gcd}{GCD}{Greatest Common Divisor}
\newacronym{lcm}{LCM}{Least Common Multiple}

\begin{document}

\printglossaries

\gls{latex} is a typesetting system commonly used for mathematical documents. If you want to find the \gls{gcd} of 
two numbers, you need to find the \gls{lcm} first.

\end{document}

In the above code, the \newglossaryentry command is used to define a new glossary entry. The name key is used to specify the term, and the description key is used to provide a description of the term. The \newacronym command is used to define a new acronym. The first argument is the label, the second argument is the short form of the acronym, and the third argument is the long form of the acronym.

The \printglossaries command is used to print the glossary or list of acronyms in the document. The \gls command is used to reference a glossary entry or acronym in the text. The first time a glossary entry or acronym is referenced, the full term is displayed along with the abbreviation in parentheses. Subsequent references only display the abbreviation.

Using the glossaries package, you can easily create and manage glossaries and lists of acronyms in your LaTeX documents, without ever having to worry about where you first defined them in the document. The package takes care of sorting and formatting the glossary or list of acronyms for you.