Terminology

2185 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 areas2185 Architecture Fundamentals77 Distributed Systems107 Data Architecture110 Cloud Architecture89 Networking88 API & Integration Architecture82 Reliability & Resilience75 Observability70 Performance & Capacity Engineering72 Security Architecture81 Cost Architecture & FinOps66 Business Architecture67 Architecture Communication67 Enterprise Architecture66 Legacy Modernization66 AI-Era Architecture69 Software Architecture & Engineering71 Architecture Patterns71 Architecture Decision-Making63 The Architect's Meta-Skills61 Delivery & Release Engineering66 Platform Engineering & Developer Experience70 Testing & Quality Architecture66 Data Platform Architecture64 Streaming & Real-Time Data69 Data Governance & Semantics69 Frontend & Experience Architecture66 Edge, Mobile & IoT68 Regulatory & Data Protection Architecture65 Assurance, Audit & Model Risk64

Kind Any concept785 practice729 pattern362 metric125 case-study77 tool62 protocol45

6 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.
Freshness Tiering Hot Index, Recent-Document Tier	pattern	Indexing	Splitting a search corpus into a small aggressively-refreshed index of recent documents and a large lazily-refreshed main index, so sub-second freshness is paid for only on the documents that need it.
Index Selectivity	metric	Indexing	The fraction of rows a predicate eliminates — the property that determines whether an index is worth using at all.
Indexing	concept	Indexing	Auxiliary structures that turn a scan into a lookup — the highest-leverage database intervention and the one most often applied blindly.
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.
Uber H3: Hexagonal Spatial Indexing H3, Hexagonal Hierarchical Index	case-study	Indexing	Uber built and open-sourced a hexagonal grid index because uniform neighbour distance matters when you are analysing supply and demand across space.