There are many terms around themes and the new functionality in WordPress as full site editing happens. This page is an attempt to define and collate links around those terms as I find them. These may change over time, and it’s a useful exercise to ensure using the same term currently and reducing confusion.

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Block: A single content form, the smallest type in WordPress, can come in many forms for example paragraph or quote. They can also be dynamic for example a playlist block or a map.

Block.json: A configuration file for blocks.

Block patterns: A collection of blocks.

Block styles: Style variations just for a block, can be defined in a block or theme. [handbook]

Block templates: A collection of block items. You can create these in the site editor or theme and customize them. For example, single or archive.

Block template parts: Reusable groups of blocks to place in templates, for example a header or footer.

Block theme: A term used to refer to a theme that has templates made up of blocks (also known as FSE themes).

Global styles: Styling that applies across the entire site.

Full site editing: The name for the editing experience that includes layout and templates from 5.8 in WordPress.

Template editing mode: The name for the minimal editor you see when in the page/post content and editing a template.

Theme.json: a file that a theme provides to configure global styles. [Handbook]

Theme blocks: Blocks that would have previously been template tags, for example featured post image, query, author block.

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Useful resources

Along with definitions here are some useful resources for theme making:

@wordpress/create-block: useful to create a block

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