Explainer
Define a term properly. The answer lands in the first two sentences, then the article goes deeper - one source-backed piece per term, or a whole glossary in one run.
Use an Explainer when someone has searched "what is X" and wants a straight answer. You give it a term; it comes back as one article that defines the term in its first two sentences and then goes deeper.
Explainers are some of the most useful pages a site can have. They answer the questions readers actually type, and they are the pages your other articles link to when they use a word a reader might not know.
On this page
Type the term as a reader would say it
bond ladder, not BOND_LADDER_STRATEGY. The term goes into the headline
as typed, so the article is titled the way someone would search for it.
One term, or a list of them
Type one term for one article. Press Enter for a second line and the field becomes numbered rows: each term gets its own article on the same shape. Pasting a list does the same.
There is no switch to pick between one and many - you type, and the field follows. Delete back to one line and it is a single explainer again. A run is up to 25 terms, and anything past the cap stays in the box for your next run.
This makes Explainer the easiest way to build a glossary: paste the terms your readers ask about, send once, and get one article per term.
The definition comes first
The article answers the question in its opening two sentences, before any history, background or context. Readers who arrive from a search box leave if the answer is in paragraph four. Those who want more keep reading.
The shape
An explainer has six sections: the definition up front, then the detail, and it closes on the neighbouring terms and how each one differs. That closing section is what turns a single definition into a page worth linking to from the rest of your writing.
Like every way in, the shape is shown to you before you spend, and you can edit it.
Sourced like everything else
An explainer is researched and checked by the same ten editorial desks as any article. Definitions are written from real pages the desks read, and the Fact Desk checks every number, date and name against them.
When to use something else
- Comparing two things is Head to head.
- Ranking several is a Ranked list.
- A list of different topics, not terms, is an Assignment.
Related: Assignment · Ranked list · Ask for an article