The following is a list of terms and phrases often used when referring to Joomla! websites.

Components —
Components are content elements or applications built on the Joomla! framework. Much like a program runs on Windows, a Component runs on Joomla!. Components make up the core elements of Joomla's functionality including banners, contact management, news feeds, polls, and web links.

Content Hierarchy —
In Joomla!, content is organized by a hierarchy Sections, Categories and Articles. A Section contains one or more categories, and each Category can contain multiple Articles. An Article can only be associated with one Category and Section.

The Content Hierarchy is easy to understand if you think of it as a filing system on your computer. A Section if the main folder, Categories are the subfolders and Articles are the files. If you have a large amount of articles on your website, this is a good way to organize them into simple groupings making it easy to locate them later.

• Articles — An Article is the content displayed on your website through a component or module. Articles may include text, images or other forms of content.
• Sections — Sections make up the highest level of Joomla!'s content hierarchy. Sections contain Categories, and Categories contain Articles.
• Categories — Categoriess make up the second level of Joomla!'s content hierarchy. Categories are contained within Sections, and Categories contain Articles.

Modules —
Modules perform additional functions on your website beyond the functionality of the Components. They typically perform necessary tasks that are not handled by Components such as displaying banners, menus, lists and other content items.

Plugins —
Plugins are typically used to extend the functionality of a component or components on your website.

SEF URL —
SEF URL stands for Search Engine Friendly URL. Joomla! provides a default SEF URL functionality to rewrite your website URLs to ones that are more descriptive and search engine friendly.

Template —
Templates are used to provide a layout and design framework for the display of all the elements on your website. Templates are basically blueprints for your website.