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This topic lists words and abbreviations that are commonly used in the Grafana documentation and community.
Dashboard
A set of one or more panels, organized and arranged into one or more rows, that provide an at-a-glance view of related information.
Data source
A file, database, or service providing the data. Grafana supports a several data sources by default, and can be extended to support additional ones through plugins.
Graph
A commonly-used visualization that displays data as points, lines, or bars.
Panel
Basic building block in Grafana, composed by a query and a visualization. Can be moved and resized within a dashboard.
Plugin
An extension of Grafana that allows users to provide additional functionality to enhance their experience. The types of plugins currently supported are:
App plugin: Extends Grafana with a customized experience. It includes a set of panel and data source plugins, as well as custom pages.
Data source plugin: Extends Grafana with support for additional data sources.
Panel plugin: Extends Grafana with additional visualization options.
Query
Used to request data from a data source. The structure and format of the query depend on the specific data source.
Time series
A series of measurements, ordered by time. Time series are stored in data sources and returned as the result of a query.