Serves the NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms — the authoritative plain-language and health-professional definitions used across cancer.gov and by the NCI Dictionary Widget. Supports autosuggest, full-text search, alphabetical expansion and per-term retrieval by id or pretty URL name, in English and Spanish, for both Patient and HealthProfessional audiences. No credential required.
Every API here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.
One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.
https://apis.io/mcp
find_apisBrowse and filter every API in the catalog.get_api_artifactsOne API's artifacts, grouped by type.get_openapiThe primary OpenAPI for this API.find_similar_apisAPIs that look like this one.apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/apis/glossary-api"curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/apis?limit=25"Discovery needs no key. Ratings and market analysis are Pro.
Free tier, no form to fill in. Signing in shares your email address with us — we store it to create your key and to recognise you if you sign in with another provider. See our Privacy Policy and Terms.
A second provider on the same verified email joins the account you already have.
x-generator: NSwag v13.20.0.0 (NJsonSchema v10.9.0.0 (Newtonsoft.Json v13.0.0.0))
openapi: 3.0.0
info:
title: Glossary Term API
description: API for Glossary Term
version: 1.0.0
x-apis-io-source: https://webapis.cancer.gov/glossary/v1/swagger/v1/swagger.json
x-apis-io-harvested: '2026-09-05'
x-apis-io-method: searched
servers:
- url: https://webapis.cancer.gov/glossary/v1
description: Production host (resolved from the URL this specification was served from; the published document
carries '/glossary/v1')
paths:
/Autosuggest/{dictionary}/{audience}/{language}/{searchText}:
get:
tags:
- Autosuggest
summary: Search for Terms based on autosuggest criteria
operationId: Autosuggest_GetSuggestions
parameters:
- name: dictionary
in: path
required: true
description: The specific dictionary to retrieve from.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 1
- name: audience
in: path
required: true
description: The target audience.
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
x-position: 2
- name: language
in: path
required: true
description: Language (English - en; Spanish - es).
schema:
type: string
x-position: 3
- name: searchText
in: path
required: true
description: Text to match against
schema:
type: string
x-position: 4
- name: matchType
in: query
description: Should the search match items beginning with the search text (Begin), or containing it (Contains)?
schema:
default: Begins
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/MatchType'
x-position: 5
- name: size
in: query
description: The number of records to retrieve.
schema:
type: integer
format: int32
default: 20
x-position: 6
responses:
'200':
description: An array GlossaryTerm objects
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: array
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/Suggestion'
/HealthCheck/status:
get:
tags:
- HealthCheck
summary: 'Provides an endpoint for checking that the glossary API and underlying Elasticsearch instance
are in a good operational state.'
operationId: HealthCheck_IsHealthy
responses:
'200':
description: "Status 200 and the message \"alive!\" if the service is healthy.\n \n \
\ Status 500 and the message \"Service not healthy.\" otherwise."
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: string
/Terms/{dictionary}/{audience}/{language}/{id}:
get:
tags:
- Terms
summary: Retrieve the details of a Glossary Term by ID value.
operationId: Terms_GetById
parameters:
- name: dictionary
in: path
required: true
description: "The dictionary to use. Valid values are \"cancer.gov\" for the Dictionary of Cancer Terms\n\
\ and \"genetics\" for the Dictionary of Genetics Terms."
schema:
type: string
x-position: 1
- name: audience
in: path
required: true
description: The intended audience.
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
x-position: 2
- name: language
in: path
required: true
description: The language in which to fetch the details. Valid values are "en" for English and "es" for
Spanish.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 3
- name: id
in: path
required: true
description: The term's ID
schema:
type: integer
format: int64
x-position: 4
- name: useFallback
in: query
description: Set true to use falback logic if the term isn't available for the specified combination of
audience and dictionary.
schema:
type: boolean
default: false
x-position: 5
responses:
'200':
description: GlossaryTerm object
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/GlossaryTerm'
/Terms/{dictionary}/{audience}/{language}/{prettyUrlName}:
get:
tags:
- Terms
summary: Get the Glossary Term based on Pretty URL Name.
operationId: Terms_GetByName
parameters:
- name: dictionary
in: path
required: true
description: "The dictionary to use. Valid values are \"cancer.gov\" for the Dictionary of Cancer Terms\n\
\ and \"genetics\" for the Dictionary of Genetics Terms."
schema:
type: string
x-position: 1
- name: audience
in: path
required: true
description: The intended audience.
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
x-position: 2
- name: language
in: path
required: true
description: The language in which to fetch the details. Valid values are "en" for English and "es" for
Spanish.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 3
- name: prettyUrlName
in: path
required: true
description: The term's name as a path segment.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 4
- name: useFallback
in: query
description: Set true to use falback logic if the term isn't available for the specified combination of
audience and dictionary.
schema:
type: boolean
default: false
x-position: 5
responses:
'200':
description: GlossaryTerm object
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/GlossaryTerm'
/Terms/{dictionary}/{audience}/{language}:
get:
tags:
- Terms
summary: Retrieves a portion of the overall set of glossary terms for a given combination of dictionary, audience,
and language.
operationId: Terms_GetAll
parameters:
- name: dictionary
in: path
required: true
description: "The dictionary to use. Valid values are \"cancer.gov\" for the Dictionary of Cancer Terms\n\
\ and \"genetics\" for the Dictionary of Genetics Terms."
schema:
type: string
x-position: 1
- name: audience
in: path
required: true
description: The target audience.
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
x-position: 2
- name: language
in: path
required: true
description: Language (English - en; Spanish - es).
schema:
type: string
x-position: 3
- name: size
in: query
description: The number of records to retrieve.
schema:
type: integer
format: int32
default: 100
x-position: 4
- name: from
in: query
description: The offset into the overall set to use for the first record.
schema:
type: integer
format: int32
default: 0
x-position: 5
- name: includeAdditionalInfo
in: query
description: If true, the RelatedResources and Media fields will be populated. Else, they will be empty.
schema:
type: boolean
default: false
x-position: 6
responses:
'200':
description: A GlossaryTermResults object containing the desired records.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/GlossaryTermResults'
/Terms/search/{dictionary}/{audience}/{language}/{query}:
get:
tags:
- Terms
summary: Search for Terms based on search criteria
operationId: Terms_Search
parameters:
- name: dictionary
in: path
required: true
description: The specific dictionary to retrieve from.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 1
- name: audience
in: path
required: true
description: The target audience.
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
x-position: 2
- name: language
in: path
required: true
description: Language (English - en; Spanish - es).
schema:
type: string
x-position: 3
- name: query
in: path
required: true
description: The string to search for.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 4
- name: matchType
in: query
description: "Should the search match items beginning with the search text (Begins),\n containing\
\ it (Contains), or an exact match (Exact)?"
schema:
default: Begins
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/MatchType'
x-position: 5
- name: size
in: query
description: The number of records to retrieve.
schema:
type: integer
format: int32
default: 100
x-position: 6
- name: from
in: query
description: The offset into the overall set to use for the first record.
schema:
type: integer
format: int32
default: 0
x-position: 7
- name: includeAdditionalInfo
in: query
description: If true, the RelatedResources and Media fields will be populated. Else, they will be empty.
schema:
type: boolean
default: false
x-position: 8
responses:
'200':
description: A GlossaryTermResults object containing the desired records.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/GlossaryTermResults'
/Terms/expand/{dictionary}/{audience}/{language}/{character}:
get:
tags:
- Terms
summary: Get all Terms starting with the character passed.
operationId: Terms_Expand
parameters:
- name: dictionary
in: path
required: true
description: The specific dictionary to retrieve from.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 1
- name: audience
in: path
required: true
description: The target audience.
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
x-position: 2
- name: language
in: path
required: true
description: Language (English - en; Spanish - es).
schema:
type: string
x-position: 3
- name: character
in: path
required: true
description: The character to search the query
schema:
type: string
x-position: 4
- name: size
in: query
description: The number of records to retrieve.
schema:
type: integer
format: int32
default: 100
x-position: 5
- name: from
in: query
description: The offset into the overall set to use for the first record.
schema:
type: integer
format: int32
default: 0
x-position: 6
- name: includeAdditionalInfo
in: query
description: If true, the RelatedResources and Media fields will be populated. Else, they will be empty.
schema:
type: boolean
default: false
x-position: 7
responses:
'200':
description: A GlossaryTermResults object containing the desired records.
content:
application/json:
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/GlossaryTermResults'
/Terms/count/{dictionary}/{audience}/{language}:
get:
tags:
- Terms
summary: Get the total number of terms available in the version of a dictionary matching a specific audience
and language.
operationId: Terms_GetCount
parameters:
- name: dictionary
in: path
required: true
description: The specific dictionary to retrieve from.
schema:
type: string
x-position: 1
- name: audience
in: path
required: true
description: The target audience.
schema:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
x-position: 2
- name: language
in: path
required: true
description: Language (English - en; Spanish - es).
schema:
type: string
x-position: 3
responses:
'200':
description: The number of terms available.
content:
application/json:
schema:
type: integer
format: int64
components:
schemas:
Suggestion:
type: object
description: Describes a single suggestion from autosuggest
additionalProperties: false
properties:
termId:
type: integer
description: The term's CDR ID.
format: int64
termName:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the Name of the Glosary Term.
nullable: true
AudienceType:
type: string
description: Friendly names for the specific audience a glossary term is intended for.
x-enumNames:
- Patient
- HealthProfessional
enum:
- Patient
- HealthProfessional
MatchType:
type: string
description: Friendly names for the ways to perform a match.
x-enumNames:
- Begins
- Contains
- Exact
enum:
- Begins
- Contains
- Exact
GlossaryTerm:
type: object
description: The GlossaryTerm class
additionalProperties: false
properties:
termId:
type: integer
description: Gets or sets the Id for the Glosary Term
format: int64
language:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the Language for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
dictionary:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the Dictionary for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
audience:
description: Gets or sets the AudienceType for the Glosary Term
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/AudienceType'
termName:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the TermName for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
firstLetter:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the FirstLetter for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
prettyUrlName:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the prettyUrlName for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
pronunciation:
description: Gets or sets the pronunciation for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/Pronunciation'
definition:
description: Gets or sets the Definition for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/Definition'
otherLanguages:
type: array
description: Gets or sets the translations of this term.
nullable: true
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/TermOtherLanguage'
relatedResources:
type: array
description: Gets or sets the Definition for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/IRelatedResource'
media:
type: array
description: Gets or sets the Definition for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/IMedia'
Pronunciation:
type: object
description: Class representing the details required for Pronunciation
additionalProperties: false
properties:
key:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the Key for Pronunciation
nullable: true
audio:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the value for Audio for Pronunciation
nullable: true
Definition:
type: object
description: AudienceType enum
additionalProperties: false
properties:
html:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the html value for the definition
nullable: true
text:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the text for the definition
nullable: true
TermOtherLanguage:
type: object
description: Represets a glossary term in another language
additionalProperties: false
properties:
language:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the Language for the Glosary Term
nullable: true
termName:
type: string
description: Gets or sets the TermName for the translation
nullable: true
prettyUrlName:
type: string
description: If available, the translation's human readable name, rendered in a URL-friendly format.
nullable: true
IRelatedResource:
type: object
description: Describes a GlossaryTerm's related resource.
x-abstract: true
additionalProperties: false
properties:
type:
description: Notes the related resource type.
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/RelatedResourceType'
text:
type: string
description: Short text description or name of the resource.
nullable: true
RelatedResourceType:
type: integer
description: RelatedResourceType enum
x-enumNames:
- DrugSummary
- Summary
- External
- GlossaryTerm
enum:
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
IMedia:
type: object
description: Notes a media item, type determined by the Type property.
x-abstract: true
additionalProperties: false
properties:
type:
description: type of media to be used
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/MediaType'
MediaType:
type: integer
description: MediaType enum
x-enumNames:
- Image
- Video
enum:
- 0
- 1
GlossaryTermResults:
type: object
description: Represents the results of a glossary search operation.
additionalProperties: false
properties:
meta:
description: Metadata about the results.
nullable: true
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/ResultsMetadata'
results:
type: array
description: Array of GlossaryTerm objects matching the search. May be empty.
nullable: true
items:
$ref: '#/components/schemas/GlossaryTerm'
links:
description: Link to ????
nullable: true
oneOf:
- $ref: '#/components/schemas/Metalink'
ResultsMetadata:
type: object
description: Metadata about a GlossaryResults object.
additionalProperties: false
properties:
totalResults:
type: integer
description: The total number of results available.
format: int32
from:
type: integer
description: Offset into the overall list where the current set begins.
format: int32
Metalink:
type: object
description: Metalink
additionalProperties: false
properties:
self:
type: string
description: url
format: uri
nullable: true