Retrieve a Glossary Term

Get a glossary term by ID or fully qualified name

GET /v1/glossaryTerms/{id}

GET /v1/glossaryTerms/{id}

Python

from metadata.sdk import configure
from metadata.sdk.entities import GlossaryTerms

configure(
    host="https://your-company.open-metadata.org/api",
    jwt_token="your-jwt-token"
)

# Get by ID
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve("d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4")
print(f"{term.fullyQualifiedName}: {term.description}")

# Get by ID with fields
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve(
    "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
    fields=["owners", "tags", "relatedTerms", "children"]
)

# Get by fully qualified name
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve_by_name("BusinessGlossary.Revenue")

# Get by name with fields
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve_by_name(
    "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
    fields=["owners", "tags", "relatedTerms", "children"]
)

Response

{
  "id": "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "name": "Revenue",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
  "displayName": "Revenue",
  "description": "Total income generated from business operations",
  "synonyms": ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales"],
  "glossary": {
    "id": "c2940a98-f147-6g46-cdef-31f0c4406dc3",
    "type": "glossary",
    "name": "BusinessGlossary",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary",
    "deleted": false
  },
  "version": 0.1,
  "updatedAt": 1769984330261,
  "updatedBy": "admin",
  "href": "http://localhost:8585/api/v1/glossaryTerms/d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "deleted": false,
  "owners": [],
  "tags": [],
  "children": [],
  "relatedTerms": []
}

Retrieve a Glossary Term

Get a single glossary term by its unique ID or fully qualified name.

Get by ID

id · string · required

UUID of the glossary term to retrieve.

fields · string

Comma-separated list of fields to include (e.g., owners,tags,domains,relatedTerms,reviewers,children).

include · string · default: "non-deleted"

Include all, deleted, or non-deleted entities.

Get by Fully Qualified Name

Use GET /v1/glossaryTerms/name/{fqn} to retrieve by fully qualified name.

fqn · string · required

Fully qualified name of the glossary term (e.g., BusinessGlossary.Revenue).

fields · string

Comma-separated list of fields to include: owners, tags, domains, relatedTerms, reviewers, children.

include · string · default: "non-deleted"

Include all, deleted, or non-deleted entities.

GET /v1/glossaryTerms/{id}

Python

from metadata.sdk import configure
from metadata.sdk.entities import GlossaryTerms

configure(
    host="https://your-company.open-metadata.org/api",
    jwt_token="your-jwt-token"
)

# Get by ID
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve("d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4")
print(f"{term.fullyQualifiedName}: {term.description}")

# Get by ID with fields
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve(
    "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
    fields=["owners", "tags", "relatedTerms", "children"]
)

# Get by fully qualified name
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve_by_name("BusinessGlossary.Revenue")

# Get by name with fields
term = GlossaryTerms.retrieve_by_name(
    "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
    fields=["owners", "tags", "relatedTerms", "children"]
)

Response

{
  "id": "d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "name": "Revenue",
  "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary.Revenue",
  "displayName": "Revenue",
  "description": "Total income generated from business operations",
  "synonyms": ["Income", "Earnings", "Sales"],
  "glossary": {
    "id": "c2940a98-f147-6g46-cdef-31f0c4406dc3",
    "type": "glossary",
    "name": "BusinessGlossary",
    "fullyQualifiedName": "BusinessGlossary",
    "deleted": false
  },
  "version": 0.1,
  "updatedAt": 1769984330261,
  "updatedBy": "admin",
  "href": "http://localhost:8585/api/v1/glossaryTerms/d3a50b09-g258-7h57-defg-42g1d5517ed4",
  "deleted": false,
  "owners": [],
  "tags": [],
  "children": [],
  "relatedTerms": []
}

---

Returns

Returns a glossary term object with all requested fields populated.

Response

id · string

Unique identifier for the glossary term (UUID format).

name · string

Glossary term name.

fullyQualifiedName · string

Fully qualified name of the glossary term.

displayName · string

Human-readable display name.

description · string

Description of the glossary term in Markdown format.

synonyms · array

List of synonym strings.

glossary · object

Reference to the parent glossary.

children · array

Child term references. Only included when fields contains children.

relatedTerms · array

Related term references. Only included when fields contains relatedTerms.

owners · array

List of owners. Only included when fields contains owners.

tags · array

Classification tags. Only included when fields contains tags.

version · number

Version number for the entity.

---

Error Handling

Code	Error Type	Description
401	UNAUTHORIZED	Invalid or missing authentication token
403	FORBIDDEN	User lacks permission to view this glossary term
404	NOT_FOUND	Glossary term with given ID or FQN does not exist