AI Glossary Quick Reference

Why you need this

AI conversations are full of jargon—LLMs, tokens, embeddings, RAG, fine-tuning. If you're constantly Googling terms during meetings or feeling lost in AI articles, this glossary solves that.

One printable page. 25 essential terms. Plain English.

Perfect for:

• Professionals entering AI-related roles
• Managers overseeing AI projects (without a technical background)
• Students studying AI or machine learning
• Anyone tired of nodding along when they don't understand

What's inside

25 Essential Terms, Organized by Topic

Core Concepts:

• LLM (Large Language Model), Prompt, Token, Context Window, Temperature

Training & Customization:

• Fine-tuning, Pre-training, Transfer Learning, Few-shot Learning, Zero-shot Learning

Advanced Techniques:

• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), Embeddings, Vector Database, Chain-of-Thought, Prompt Engineering

Output & Behavior:

• Hallucination, Grounding, Guardrails, Bias, Determinism

Performance & Cost:

• Latency, Throughput, API, Inference, Model Size

Each Definition Includes:

• The term — With pronunciation if needed (e.g., "RAG" = rag, not R-A-G)
• Plain-English definition — No academic jargon
• Real-world example — See the term in context

How to use it

• Keep on your desk — Quick reference during meetings or research
• Share with your team — Get everyone speaking the same language
• Use in onboarding — Help new hires ramp up faster
• Study before interviews — Nail AI-related questions with confidence

Example entry

Token
What: A chunk of text (like a word or part of a word) that AI processes. Models count input and output in tokens, not words.
Example: "Hello world" = 2 tokens. "ChatGPT" = 2 tokens (Chat + GPT). Most APIs charge per token.

Want to go deeper?

This quick reference covers the basics. For detailed explanations, context, and "explain like I'm 12" versions, explore our full glossary:

• Complete AI Glossary — 50+ terms with deep dives
• Glossary: LLM — What large language models are and how they work
• Glossary: Hallucination — AI's biggest reliability problem

License & Attribution

This resource is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY). You're free to:

• Share with colleagues, students, or online communities
• Print for workshops or training sessions
• Adapt for your organization's needs

Just include this attribution:

"AI Glossary Quick Reference" by Field Guide to AI (fieldguidetoai.com) is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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