The changes to WordPress are not only in the user experience and interface, but in the terminology as well. This glossary should help with the learning curve when navigating the new editor, as well help you to make sense of tutorials and be able to search for help more effectively.
Site Editor
Instead of the Customizer, or a proprietary theme options panel, all your controls will be in the site editor. This is found under Appearance.
Styles AKA Global Styles
This is where you can control typography, fonts, layout widths, block styles and other design elements, which apply across your whole site.
Templates
This is the same concept as in classic themes. Templates are the design layouts for types of pages on your site, such as the homepage, the blog homepage, a single post, a category page etc
Now you can use the block editor to more easily manage these layouts and customize your site.
Template parts
These are smaller, reusable parts within a template, which may be used across the site.
For example, the Header is a template part, as is the footer. It’s not a full page template, but a part of a page that you can now control in the site Editor.
Template Parts are a sub-section of Patterns. They are a bit different from standard patterns because template parts have an area property. That means they are assigned for use within a specific place on the site.
Theme blocks
These are core blocks which are designed for use with full site editing. Some examples are: Navigation, Query Loop, Site Logo
Block Theme
A block theme is one that is designed to take full advantage of full site editing. You’ll use the site editor instead of the customizer to manage your site.
A few examples of block themes are: TwentyTwenty Five, Ollie, Frost.
Block editor
This is the name for the content editing interface in WordPress. It replaces the old “classic editor” for your posts and pages. It was previously known as Gutenberg.
Patterns
Patterns are pre-configured groups of blocks that form a particular layout or feature. You can add them to your page and then edit the content of them. They are an easy and convenient way to make your site look professionally designed.
Patterns can be synced, unsynced or partially synced.
Block grammar / block markup
Block grammar, also known as block markup is a WordPress-specific type of HTML comment which is used in block theme template files and in the block editor.
It looks like this :
<!-- wp:template-part {"slug":"header"} /-->
<!-- wp:group {"tagName":"main","style":{"spacing":{"margin":{"top":"var:preset|spacing|60"}}},"layout":{"type":"constrained"}} -->
<main class="wp-block-group" style="margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)">
<!-- wp:pattern {"slug":"twentytwentyfive/hidden-blog-heading"} /-->
<!-- wp:pattern {"slug":"twentytwentyfive/template-query-loop"} /-->
</main>
<!-- /wp:group -->
<!-- wp:template-part {"slug":"footer"} /-->
Code language: HTML, XML (xml)List View
This is a feature of the block editor which makes it much easier to view the block structure of your page or template.
The List View panel on the left shows you all the blocks on the page, with a hierarchical structure. You can click on any element in the List and jump to it in the editor, making navigating the page much easier.
When there are grouped and nested elements, it can be hard to select the part you want in the main editing window. using the List View you can be much more precised with your selections.
You can also drag drop elements in the List View to move them around the page.
Theme.json
This file is the engine of block themes. It contains all the settings and configuration information.