Terminology

454 terms, tools, patterns and metrics an architect is expected to use precisely. Each one gets a short explanation of what it is, and — where it matters — what it is commonly confused with. Search filters as you type; the column headers sort.

All areas454 Architecture Fundamentals16 Distributed Systems73 Data Architecture71 Cloud Architecture55 Networking13 API & Integration Architecture17 Reliability & Resilience16 Observability14 Performance & Capacity Engineering13 Security Architecture50 Cost Architecture & FinOps12 Business Architecture9 Architecture Communication8 Enterprise Architecture8 Legacy Modernization11 AI-Era Architecture15 Software Architecture & Engineering19 Architecture Patterns15 Architecture Decision-Making11 The Architect's Meta-Skills8

Kind Any concept166 practice107 pattern93 case-study26 tool26 protocol22 metric14

3 terms shown.

Term	Kind	Topic	What it is
Covering Index Index-Only Scan	concept	Indexing	An index that contains every column a query needs, so the query is answered from the index without reading the table at all.
Index Selectivity	metric	Indexing	The fraction of rows a predicate eliminates — the property that determines whether an index is worth using at all.
Partial Index Filtered Index	concept	Indexing	An index built over only the rows matching a predicate, so it is far smaller and cheaper to maintain than a full index.