Whats the difference between glossary and index?

Question

Whats the difference between glossary and index?

Answer 1

like on a pic?

Answer 2

the glossary is an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge [for example, you usually have one at the end of your physics textbook, geometry textbook, english textbook, etc.]

the index is also usually at the back of the book, but is an alphabetical listing of names and topics along with page numbers where they are discussed.

in the glossary, you'd look up important words, to find the definition.

in the index, you'd look up an important word, and it'd give you the page number(s) where that word or topic is talked about.

Answer 3

Once upon a time, complicated texts would have explanations written in the margins.  This was called a gloss.  A glossary is a collection of glosses.  Usually, these explanations are for words and phrases found in the main text, so we usually think of a glossary as a list of definitions, like a mini-dictionary.

An index, on the other hand, is something that points to something else.  Usually, these pointers are in the form of page numbers.

So, when you want to look up what a word means, you check the glossary.  When you want to find where the word shows up in the main text, you check the index.

Answer 4

glossary is an alphabetical list of terms and their definitions

index is a list of topics in alphabetical order with page numbers