Microsoft SharePoint Glossary
This growing Microsoft SharePoint glossary explains current terminology for business leaders, IT directors, and SharePoint administrators. Each definition connects the technology to practical decisions about collaboration, intranets, content, search, security, governance, migration, automation, and AI.
Use SharePoint terminology to make better decisions
SharePoint terms often describe more than a feature. They define ownership, membership, access, findability, lifecycle, integration, and the boundaries between SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Microsoft Purview, Power Platform, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. The pages below put each term in business and administrative context while linking to deeper 6SC services where implementation help is appropriate.
Use search, the Topic filter, or the A–Z selector to find a term. The glossary is educational by design, so it supports rather than competes with 6SC's SharePoint consulting, migration, governance, security, intranet, search, automation, and support pages.
Browse All SharePoint Terms
Agents in SharePoint
Agents in SharePoint are AI-powered conversational assistants grounded in SharePoint content. Microsoft provides a ready-made agent for a site, and eligible users can create custom agents scoped to selected sites, pages, files, and folders. Agents answer questions and summarize information according to each person’s existing access to the source content.
Read the definition →Audience Targeting
Audience targeting in SharePoint is a presentation feature that prioritizes or displays selected navigation links, news, pages, files, folders, and supported web-part content for members of specified Microsoft 365 or security groups. It personalizes relevance, but it does not grant, remove, or enforce access. SharePoint permissions remain the security control for confidential content.
Read the definition →Autofill Columns
Autofill columns are AI-powered SharePoint library columns that analyze file contents and populate metadata according to a configured prompt. They can reduce manual tagging and make documents easier to search, filter, route, and govern. The underlying document-processing service is generally available, while a newer Copilot-guided creation experience remains in preview.
Read the definition →Block Download Policy
Block Download Policy is a SharePoint and OneDrive site-level control that can restrict users to browser-based access while preventing supported download, print, sync, and certain desktop-app actions. Organizations use it to reduce data exfiltration risk for selected high-sensitivity sites while leaving authorized users able to view content online.
Read the definition →Communication Site
A SharePoint communication site is a modern site designed for a small group of authors to publish news, resources, reports, and other information to a broad audience. Unlike a standard group-connected team site, creating a communication site does not create a Microsoft 365 Group, and its access is normally managed with SharePoint Owners, Members, and Visitors.
Read the definition →Conditional Access for SharePoint
Conditional Access for SharePoint uses Microsoft Entra policies to make access decisions based on signals such as identity, device state, location, client application, sign-in risk, and authentication strength. SharePoint can also use authentication contexts on selected sites so more demanding access requirements apply to sensitive content than to ordinary collaboration.
Read the definition →Content Assembly
Content Assembly is a Microsoft 365 document processing service that generates consistent business documents from modern Word templates and structured data. Users or workflows select a template, supply values, and create documents such as contracts, statements of work, letters, or agreements in SharePoint while preserving governed wording, formatting, and metadata.
Read the definition →Content Management Assessment
Content Management Assessment is a SharePoint Advanced Management capability that evaluates a SharePoint and OneDrive content estate against governance signals relevant to Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents. It helps administrators identify high-impact conditions involving site sprawl, ownership, inactivity, sharing, permissions, content quality, and lifecycle before choosing remediation priorities.
Read the definition →Content Type
A SharePoint content type is a reusable definition for a category of document, list item, or folder. It can combine columns, metadata, a document template, policies, and other behaviors so content is created and managed consistently. A library can support multiple content types, allowing different information classes to share one location without sharing identical requirements.
Read the definition →Copilot in SharePoint
Copilot in SharePoint is Microsoft’s preview conversational experience for working with SharePoint content and structures using natural-language requests. It can help eligible Microsoft 365 Copilot users ask questions, create or refine sites and pages, work with lists and libraries, generate content and reports, and initiate supported workflows from SharePoint.
Read the definition →Data Access Governance
Data Access Governance in SharePoint is the set of SharePoint Advanced Management reports and practices used to identify potentially excessive access, sharing, and permission conditions across SharePoint and OneDrive. It gives administrators evidence about who can reach content and why, so owners can review oversharing risk and choose targeted remediation.
Read the definition →Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Data Loss Prevention, or DLP, is a Microsoft Purview policy capability that detects sensitive information and risky handling across SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Exchange, endpoints, and other supported locations. In SharePoint, a matching rule can audit activity, notify users, show policy tips, restrict access or sharing, and create incidents without replacing permissions or sensitivity labels.
Read the definition →Document Library
A SharePoint document library is a specialized content area for storing, organizing, sharing, and governing files. Unlike a basic network folder, a library can apply columns and metadata, content types, views, version history, approvals, retention settings, automation, and permission controls so documents can participate in search and business processes across Microsoft 365.
Read the definition →Document Translation
Document Translation is a Microsoft 365 document processing service that creates a translated copy of a supported file in a SharePoint document library while preserving much of the original document's layout and structure. It helps teams produce working translations without manually copying content into a separate consumer translation tool.
Read the definition →eSignature for SharePoint
eSignature for SharePoint is a Microsoft 365 document processing service that lets authorized users send supported Word or PDF documents for electronic signature while the content remains in Microsoft 365. It provides request tracking and an audit trail, supports internal and external signers, and can integrate with Microsoft and approved third-party signature providers.
Read the definition →External Sharing
External sharing in SharePoint is the controlled ability to give people outside an organization's Microsoft 365 tenant access to sites, files, folders, libraries, or list items. It combines SharePoint organization and site settings, sharing-link choices, Microsoft Entra B2B guest authentication, and underlying permissions. The most restrictive applicable organization or site setting governs availability.
Read the definition →Freeform Document Processing
Freeform Document Processing is a Microsoft 365 document processing approach for extracting defined fields from documents whose values can appear in different positions or layouts. It is suited to semi-structured invoices, contracts, statements, and forms that share recognizable information but are not consistent enough for a fixed-layout structured model.
Read the definition →Global Navigation
Global navigation is the organization-wide navigation configured from a SharePoint home site and exposed through the SharePoint app bar and related Microsoft 365 employee experiences. It provides a consistent menu for important intranet destinations across sites, helping employees move between departments, services, resources, and task areas without relying on local site navigation.
Read the definition →Home Site
A SharePoint home site is a communication site designated as an organization's primary intranet landing experience and gateway to other portals. It reflects organizational brand, voice, news, and resources, and its technology powers the employee experience in Teams now branded by Microsoft as the SharePoint app in Teams, formerly Viva Connections.
Read the definition →Hub Site
A SharePoint hub site connects a family of related team sites and communication sites through shared navigation, branding, scoped search, and content rollups. Hub association expresses a relationship between separate sites; it does not create a fixed parent-child hierarchy, merge the sites into one site collection, or automatically grant users access to associated content.
Read the definition →Image Tagging
Image Tagging is a Microsoft 365 document processing service that uses AI to identify visual objects, scenes, actions, or concepts in supported images and writes descriptive labels into SharePoint metadata. The tags make image libraries easier to search, filter, organize, and reuse without requiring authors to describe every asset manually.
Read the definition →Inactive Site Policy
Inactive Site Policy is a SharePoint Advanced Management lifecycle capability that identifies SharePoint sites with little or no qualifying activity over a configured period and supports owner review or lifecycle action. It helps organizations address content sprawl while separating genuinely obsolete workspaces from quiet sites that remain legally, operationally, or historically important.
Read the definition →Managed Metadata
Managed metadata in SharePoint is a governed set of reusable terms that people select when classifying documents, list items, and pages. The terms come from a term set in the SharePoint Term Store, helping an organization use consistent labels, synonyms, translations, and hierarchical categories across sites instead of relying on uncontrolled free-text tags.
Read the definition →Metadata
Metadata in SharePoint is structured information that describes a document, list item, page, or other content, such as document type, department, owner, status, date, location, or confidentiality. SharePoint stores metadata in columns so people and systems can filter, group, search, automate, govern, and present content without relying only on filenames and folders.
Read the definition →Microsoft 365 Group
A Microsoft 365 Group is a shared membership and permissions service used across Microsoft 365. A group-connected SharePoint team site uses the group's Owners and Members to grant site access, and the same membership can support connected resources such as Teams, a group mailbox, a shared calendar, and Planner, depending on how the workspace is configured.
Read the definition →Microsoft Graph for SharePoint
Microsoft Graph for SharePoint is the unified Microsoft 365 API surface used to work with SharePoint sites, lists, libraries, files, pages, permissions, search, and related Microsoft 365 identities and groups. Applications use Graph endpoints and Microsoft Entra permissions to integrate SharePoint content with services across the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
Read the definition →Microsoft Search in SharePoint
Microsoft Search in SharePoint is the modern, permission-aware search experience that helps people find sites, files, pages, news, people, and other work content. Results can be personalized by context and Microsoft 365 activity, and users see only items they are permitted to access. Search quality still depends on content structure, metadata, permissions, and indexing.
Read the definition →Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Integration
Microsoft Teams and SharePoint integration is the connected architecture in which a team uses SharePoint to store, secure, organize, and coauthor its channel files. Creating a standard team provisions or connects a Microsoft 365 Group and SharePoint team site, while private and shared channels use separate SharePoint sites with specialized membership management.
Read the definition →Migration Manager
Migration Manager is Microsoft’s centralized service in the SharePoint admin center for scanning and migrating file shares to SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams-connected locations. Administrators deploy lightweight agents near source data, create migration tasks, monitor progress, and coordinate large or distributed file-share migration programs from one interface.
Read the definition →Modern SharePoint Page
A modern SharePoint page is a responsive publishing canvas stored in a site's Site Pages library and assembled with sections and web parts. Authors use modern pages for homepages, news, guidance, dashboards, and intranet content that adapts across devices, supports accessible design, and can surface information from SharePoint and connected Microsoft 365 services.
Read the definition →Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, is a Microsoft 365 document processing service that extracts printed or handwritten text from supported images, scanned PDFs, hybrid PDFs, TIFFs, and embedded Office-file images. In SharePoint, the extracted text can improve search and make previously image-only content available to supported compliance controls.
Read the definition →Organization Assets Library
An Organization Assets Library is a SharePoint document library registered by an administrator as an approved source of reusable organizational content. Depending on its configured type, it can make images, Office templates, or other brand assets easier for employees to discover and reuse across supported SharePoint and Microsoft 365 creation experiences.
Read the definition →Permission Inheritance
Permission inheritance in SharePoint is the default behavior in which a site, list, library, folder, item, or file receives access settings from its parent container. Breaking inheritance creates a unique permission scope with its own access control list. Inheritance simplifies administration; excessive unique scopes increase review effort, performance risk, and the chance of unintended access.
Read the definition →Power Automate for SharePoint
Power Automate for SharePoint is the use of Microsoft Power Automate flows with the SharePoint connector to respond to list or library events and perform actions across Microsoft 365 and other services. Common scenarios include approvals, notifications, document routing, metadata updates, reminders, synchronization, and controlled business-process automation.
Read the definition →Restricted Access Control
Restricted Access Control, or RAC, is a SharePoint Advanced Management policy that limits access to a SharePoint or OneDrive site to members of specified Microsoft 365 groups or Microsoft Entra security groups. Users outside the configured groups are blocked even if they previously had site permission or received a shared link.
Read the definition →Restricted Content Discovery
Restricted Content Discovery, or RCD, is a site-level SharePoint control that limits content from selected sites in organization-wide search and Microsoft 365 Copilot discovery experiences. It does not change the site's permissions: authorized users can still open content directly or find it through supported site-context experiences, subject to their existing access.
Read the definition →Restricted SharePoint Search
Restricted SharePoint Search is a temporary tenant-level mode that limits organization-wide SharePoint search and Microsoft 365 Copilot grounding to a curated allowed list of up to 100 SharePoint sites, plus content users own or recently accessed. It is a Copilot-readiness measure, not a permission control or permanent information architecture.
Read the definition →Retention Label
A retention label is a Microsoft Purview control applied to an individual document, folder, list item, email, or other supported item to govern retention and deletion. It can retain content, delete it after a period, retain then delete it, trigger disposition review, or mark it as a record. It differs from a container-wide retention policy.
Read the definition →Search Schema
The SharePoint search schema is the configuration that determines which crawled content and metadata become managed properties in the search index and how those properties can be queried or presented. It connects source fields to search behavior, including whether values are searchable, queryable, retrievable, sortable, or refinable within supported SharePoint experiences.
Read the definition →Sensitivity Label
A sensitivity label is a Microsoft Purview Information Protection classification that can identify and protect sensitive files, emails, meetings, Microsoft 365 groups, Teams, and SharePoint sites. Depending on scope and configuration, a label can apply encryption, markings, sharing defaults, privacy, guest, or device-access controls. A site label does not automatically label files stored inside it.
Read the definition →SharePoint Add-In
A SharePoint Add-In is a legacy extensibility package, formerly called an app for SharePoint, built with the SharePoint Add-In model. Add-Ins could be SharePoint-hosted or provider-hosted and use app identities, permissions, pages, remote services, and APIs. The model retired in SharePoint Online on April 2, 2026.
Read the definition →SharePoint Admin Agent
The SharePoint Admin Agent is an AI-powered governance experience in the SharePoint admin center. It lets authorized administrators ask natural-language questions about SharePoint and OneDrive content, permissions, storage, and lifecycle, then uses SharePoint Advanced Management data and reports to summarize conditions, explain likely causes, and recommend guided remediation steps.
Read the definition →SharePoint Admin Center
The SharePoint admin center is the Microsoft 365 management interface for tenant-level SharePoint and OneDrive administration. Authorized administrators use it to manage active and deleted sites, sharing, access, storage, settings, migration, content services, governance reports, policies, and other controls that apply across the organization rather than within one site.
Read the definition →SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM)
SharePoint Advanced Management, commonly shortened to SAM, is Microsoft's set of administrative governance controls for SharePoint and OneDrive. It helps administrators manage content sprawl, govern the content lifecycle, and prevent oversharing through policies, reports, assessments, access controls, and insights that support secure Microsoft 365 Copilot and agent deployments.
Read the definition →SharePoint App Bar
The SharePoint app bar is the persistent navigation rail in modern SharePoint that gives users access to global navigation, sites, news, files, and creation experiences. It connects organization-wide intranet navigation with personalized Microsoft 365 content, allowing people to move beyond the current site without replacing that site's own navigation.
Read the definition →SharePoint App in Teams (Viva Connections)
The SharePoint app in Teams is the employee-experience application formerly named Microsoft Viva Connections. It brings an organization's SharePoint home site, dashboard, resources, and news into Microsoft Teams so employees can reach intranet content and task-oriented cards without leaving the Teams environment where they already collaborate.
Read the definition →SharePoint Brand Center
The SharePoint Brand Center is a centralized Microsoft 365 brand-management application hosted in SharePoint. Authorized brand managers use it to organize approved fonts, colors, themes, logos, and related brand assets so site owners and content creators can apply consistent organization-approved choices across supported SharePoint and Microsoft 365 experiences.
Read the definition →SharePoint Embedded
SharePoint Embedded is an API-only Microsoft 365 file and document management platform for custom applications. It lets enterprise developers and software vendors store each application's documents in isolated File Storage Containers inside the customer's Microsoft 365 tenant while using Microsoft Graph, Office collaboration, SharePoint content services, and Microsoft Purview protections.
Read the definition →SharePoint Framework (SPFx)
The SharePoint Framework (SPFx) is Microsoft’s supported client-side extensibility model for building custom SharePoint and Microsoft 365 experiences with modern web technologies. Developers package web parts, extensions, libraries, and related components for controlled deployment through an app catalog while respecting the permissions and hosting patterns of Microsoft 365.
Read the definition →SharePoint Information Architecture
SharePoint information architecture is the intentional design of how sites, hubs, pages, navigation, metadata, search, security, and personalized experiences organize and expose information. It connects business language and ownership to technical structures so people can find trustworthy content, understand where it belongs, and use it within appropriate permissions, compliance rules, and lifecycle controls.
Read the definition →SharePoint Intranet
A SharePoint intranet is an internal digital workplace built with SharePoint sites, pages, navigation, search, news, content, permissions, and Microsoft 365 integrations. It gives employees a governed place to find authoritative information, complete common tasks, discover expertise, and connect with departments, locations, leadership, and organizational resources.
Read the definition →SharePoint List
A SharePoint list is a structured collection of items organized by columns, similar to a lightweight business table with forms, views, rules, permissions, and versioning. Organizations use lists to track requests, assets, tasks, issues, contacts, approvals, and other repeatable information, often connecting them to Power Automate, Power Apps, pages, Teams, and reporting tools.
Read the definition →SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT)
The SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) is Microsoft’s free migration utility for moving supported on-premises SharePoint content and file-share content into SharePoint in Microsoft 365, OneDrive, and Teams-connected destinations. It provides scanning, task configuration, incremental reruns, reporting, and identity mapping for controlled migration waves.
Read the definition →SharePoint Online
SharePoint Online is Microsoft's cloud-based content, collaboration, and intranet service within Microsoft 365. Organizations use it to create sites, publish pages, manage documents and structured lists, support search, and connect information with Teams, Power Automate, Copilot, and other Microsoft 365 services without operating their own SharePoint servers.
Read the definition →SharePoint Online Management Shell
The SharePoint Online Management Shell is Microsoft's PowerShell module for administering SharePoint Online and OneDrive at tenant and site-collection scope. Its cmdlets, commonly using the SPO noun prefix, support site creation, settings, sharing, storage, users, groups, templates, governance policies, and bulk operations that are inefficient or unavailable in the SharePoint admin center.
Read the definition →SharePoint Page Template
A SharePoint Page Template is a reusable modern page or news-post starting point saved within a SharePoint site. It preserves an approved layout, sections, web parts, and sample content so authors can create consistent pages faster without modifying the template or other pages that were previously created from it.
Read the definition →SharePoint Permissions
SharePoint permissions are the access rights that determine what a person or group can view, add, edit, delete, share, approve, or administer across sites and content. Rights are commonly assigned through Microsoft 365 groups or SharePoint groups using permission levels. Effective permission design favors groups, inheritance, least privilege, clear ownership, and regular access review.
Read the definition →SharePoint Premium
SharePoint Premium is Microsoft’s umbrella vision and product family for advanced content experiences, AI-assisted content processing, and content governance on the SharePoint platform. It evolved from Microsoft Syntex, but it should not be treated as one universal license: current capabilities are packaged, named, licensed, and administered through specific services.
Read the definition →SharePoint REST API
The SharePoint REST API is the web service exposed through SharePoint's _api endpoints for creating, reading, updating, and deleting SharePoint sites, lists, libraries, items, files, users, permissions, search settings, and other supported objects. It uses HTTP requests and OData conventions so applications can work with SharePoint without a server-side SharePoint object model.
Read the definition →SharePoint Site
A SharePoint site is a governed workspace or publishing destination that brings together pages, document libraries, lists, navigation, search context, and permissions for a defined purpose and audience. Modern SharePoint sites are commonly created as team sites for collaboration or communication sites for broad information publishing, and they can be associated with hub sites.
Read the definition →SharePoint Site Attestation
SharePoint Site Attestation is a recurring governance process in SharePoint Advanced Management that asks site owners to confirm that a site is still needed and that key facts such as ownership, access, purpose, and content status remain accurate. It creates auditable owner accountability instead of relying on passive, permanently trusted site configuration.
Read the definition →SharePoint Site Script
A SharePoint Site Script is a JSON definition containing an ordered list of supported actions that configure a modern SharePoint site. One or more registered scripts are associated with a SharePoint Site Template and can create or configure lists, fields, content types, themes, navigation, sharing, regional settings, roles, Power Automate triggers, and deployed solutions.
Read the definition →SharePoint Site Template
A SharePoint Site Template is a reusable configuration that applies a defined set of actions to a new or existing modern SharePoint site. Custom organizational templates use one or more JSON site scripts to create lists, columns, content types, navigation, themes, sharing settings, and other supported elements so sites begin with consistent structure and governance.
Read the definition →Site Access Review
Site Access Review is a SharePoint Advanced Management workflow that gives a designated site owner or reviewer evidence about potentially broad or risky access and asks that person to confirm or remediate it. It connects tenant-level permission insights with the business owner who understands the site's purpose, audience, and legitimate collaboration needs.
Read the definition →Site Collection
A site collection is a SharePoint administrative and content boundary built around a top-level site and, in older or specific designs, any subsites beneath it. In modern SharePoint Online, each team site and communication site is normally its own site collection, and hub sites connect related collections without turning them into one permission hierarchy.
Read the definition →Site Lifecycle Management
SharePoint Site Lifecycle Management is the governance discipline and SharePoint Advanced Management policy set used to keep sites owned, active, necessary, and reviewable over time. Current policy types address site ownership, inactive sites, and recurring site attestations, with reporting, notifications, simulation, and configurable enforcement available for supported scenarios.
Read the definition →Site Ownership Policy
Site Ownership Policy is a SharePoint Advanced Management lifecycle policy that identifies sites without a sufficient number of valid owners and prompts the organization to restore accountable ownership. It helps administrators reduce ownerless sites, distribute lifecycle decisions to the business, and maintain a reliable contact for access, content, and governance questions.
Read the definition →Structured Document Processing
Structured Document Processing is a Microsoft 365 document processing approach for extracting defined values from documents with stable, predictable layouts. A model learns where fields appear on representative forms, invoices, applications, or similar templates, then writes extracted values to SharePoint columns so people and workflows can review, filter, and act on them.
Read the definition →Taxonomy Tagging
Taxonomy Tagging is a Microsoft 365 document processing service that uses AI to apply terms from a configured SharePoint term set to files in a document library. It turns the organization's managed vocabulary into automated metadata, helping users classify content consistently for search, filtering, navigation, governance, and downstream automation.
Read the definition →Team Site
A SharePoint team site is a workspace designed for a defined group of people to collaborate on files, lists, pages, and shared work. In SharePoint Online, a standard modern team site is commonly connected to a Microsoft 365 Group, so group owners and members receive corresponding access to the site and related collaboration services.
Read the definition →Term Store
The SharePoint Term Store is the centralized service and management interface for governed taxonomies used by managed metadata. It organizes terms into term sets and security-based groups, supports synonyms and translations, and assigns roles for taxonomy administration. Sites and content owners can then reuse approved vocabulary instead of creating disconnected labels in every library.
Read the definition →Version History
Version history in SharePoint is the record of earlier states of a file, list item, page, or news post created as content changes. Authorized users can review details and restore a prior version. Administrators control version settings and limits, balancing recovery needs, collaboration, retention requirements, and the storage consumed by accumulated versions.
Read the definition →Web Part
A SharePoint web part is a modular component placed on a modern page to display content, data, navigation, media, or interactive functionality. Microsoft supplies standard web parts for common needs, and developers can build supported custom web parts with the SharePoint Framework when a validated requirement cannot be met through configuration or an existing component.
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