I am currently learning to deal with Natural Language Processing (NLP) using spaCy. These are the terms that I often end up having to look up.

I wrote a small bash helper function for myself:

# spaCy explain term
function explain() {
    _query=$1
    # activate virtualenv here, if necessary
    python -c "from spacy import explain; print(explain('"$_query"'))"
}

Glossary

Extracted from spaCy: glossary.py and polished up a bit. spaCy license: MIT.

POS tags: Universal POS Tags

See universaldependencies.org/u/pos/

Term	Explanation
`ADJ`	adjective
`ADP`	adposition
`ADV`	adverb
`AUX`	auxiliary
`CONJ`	conjunction
`CCONJ`	coordinating conjunction
`DET`	determiner
`INTJ`	interjection
`NOUN`	noun
`NUM`	numeral
`PART`	particle
`PRON`	pronoun
`PROPN`	proper noun
`PUNCT`	punctuation
`SCONJ`	subordinating conjunction
`SYM`	symbol
`VERB`	verb
`X`	other
`EOL`	end of line
`SPACE`	space

POS tags (English)

From OntoNotes 5 / Penn Treebank, see ling.upenn.edu

Term	Explanation
`.`	punctuation mark, sentence closer
`,`	punctuation mark, comma
`-LRB-`	left round bracket
`-RRB-`	right round bracket
`\```	opening quotation mark
`"`	: closing quotation mark
`''`	closing quotation mark
`:`	punctuation mark, colon or ellipsis
`$`	symbol, currency
`#`	symbol, number sign
`AFX`	affix
`CC`	conjunction, coordinating
`CD`	cardinal number
`DT`	determiner
`EX`	existential there
`FW`	foreign word
`HYPH`	punctuation mark, hyphen
`IN`	conjunction, subordinating or preposition
`JJ`	adjective (English), other noun-modifier (Chinese)
`JJR`	adjective, comparative
`JJS`	adjective, superlative
`LS`	list item marker
`MD`	verb, modal auxiliary
`NIL`	missing tag
`NN`	noun, singular or mass
`NNP`	noun, proper singular
`NNPS`	noun, proper plural
`NNS`	noun, plural
`PDT`	predeterminer
`POS`	possessive ending
`PRP`	pronoun, personal
`PRP$`	pronoun, possessive
`RB`	adverb
`RBR`	adverb, comparative
`RBS`	adverb, superlative
`RP`	adverb, particle
`TO`	‘infinitival to
`UH`	interjection
`VB`	verb, base form
`VBD`	verb, past tense
`VBG`	verb, gerund or present participle
`VBN`	verb, past participle
`VBP`	verb, non-3rd person singular present
`VBZ`	verb, 3rd person singular present
`WDT`	wh-determiner
`WP`	wh-pronoun, personal
`WP$`	wh-pronoun, possessive
`WRB`	wh-adverb
`SP`	space (English), sentence-final particle (Chinese)
`ADD`	email
`NFP`	superfluous punctuation
`GW`	additional word in multi-word expression
`XX`	unknown
`BES`	auxiliary ‘be’
`HVS`	forms of ‘have’
`_SP`	whitespace

POS Tags (German)

From TIGER Treebank, see ims.uni-stuttgart.de

Term	Explanation
`$(`	other sentence-internal punctuation mark
`$,`	comma
`$.`	sentence-final punctuation mark
`ADJA`	adjective, attributive
`ADJD`	adjective, adverbial or predicative
`APPO`	postposition
`APPR`	preposition; circumposition left
`APPRART`	preposition with article
`APZR`	circumposition right
`ART`	definite or indefinite article
`CARD`	cardinal number
`FM`	foreign language material
`ITJ`	interjection
`KOKOM`	comparative conjunction
`KON`	coordinate conjunction
`KOUI`	‘subordinate conjunction with zu
`KOUS`	subordinate conjunction with sentence
`NE`	proper noun
`NNE`	proper noun
`PAV`	pronominal adverb
`PROAV`	pronominal adverb
`PDAT`	attributive demonstrative pronoun
`PDS`	substituting demonstrative pronoun
`PIAT`	attributive indefinite pronoun without determiner
`PIDAT`	attributive indefinite pronoun with determiner
`PIS`	substituting indefinite pronoun
`PPER`	non-reflexive personal pronoun
`PPOSAT`	attributive possessive pronoun
`PPOSS`	substituting possessive pronoun
`PRELAT`	attributive relative pronoun
`PRELS`	substituting relative pronoun
`PRF`	reflexive personal pronoun
`PTKA`	particle with adjective or adverb
`PTKANT`	answer particle
`PTKNEG`	negative particle
`PTKVZ`	separable verbal particle
`PTKZU`	‘zu
`PWAT`	attributive interrogative pronoun
`PWAV`	adverbial interrogative or relative pronoun
`PWS`	substituting interrogative pronoun
`TRUNC`	word remnant
`VAFIN`	finite verb, auxiliary
`VAIMP`	imperative, auxiliary
`VAINF`	infinitive, auxiliary
`VAPP`	perfect participle, auxiliary
`VMFIN`	finite verb, modal
`VMINF`	infinitive, modal
`VMPP`	perfect participle, modal
`VVFIN`	finite verb, full
`VVIMP`	imperative, full
`VVINF`	infinitive, full
`VVIZU`	‘infinitive with zu
`VVPP`	perfect participle, full
`XY`	non-word containing non-letter

POS Tags (Chinese)

From OntoNotes / Chinese Penn Treebank, see repository.upenn.edu

Term	Explanation
`AD`	adverb
`AS`	aspect marker
`BA`	把 in ba-construction
`CS`	subordinating conjunction
`DEC`	的 in a relative clause
`DEG`	associative 的
`DER`	得 in V-de const. and V-de-R
`DEV`	地 before VP
`ETC`	for words 等, 等等
`IJ`	interjection
`LB`	被 in long bei-const
`LC`	localizer
`M`	measure word
`MSP`	other particle
`NR`	proper noun
`NT`	temporal noun
`OD`	ordinal number
`ON`	onomatopoeia
`P`	preposition excluding 把 and 被
`PN`	pronoun
`PU`	punctuation
`SB`	被 in short bei-const
`VA`	predicative adjective
`VC`	是 (copula)
`VE`	有 as the main verb
`VV`	other verb

Noun chunks

Term	Explanation
`NP`	noun phrase
`PP`	prepositional phrase
`VP`	verb phrase
`ADVP`	adverb phrase
`ADJP`	adjective phrase
`SBAR`	subordinating conjunction
`PRT`	particle
`PNP`	prepositional noun phrase

Dependency Labels (English)

From ClearNLP / Universal Dependencies, see github.com/clir/clearnlp-guidelines

Term	Explanation
`acl`	clausal modifier of noun (adjectival clause)
`acomp`	adjectival complement
`advcl`	adverbial clause modifier
`advmod`	adverbial modifier
`agent`	agent
`amod`	adjectival modifier
`appos`	appositional modifier
`attr`	attribute
`aux`	auxiliary
`auxpass`	auxiliary (passive)
`case`	case marking
`cc`	coordinating conjunction
`ccomp`	clausal complement
`clf`	classifier
`complm`	complementizer
`compound`	compound
`conj`	conjunct
`cop`	copula
`csubj`	clausal subject
`csubjpass`	clausal subject (passive)
`dative`	dative
`dep`	unclassified dependent
`det`	determiner
`discourse`	discourse element
`dislocated`	dislocated elements
`dobj`	direct object
`expl`	expletive
`fixed`	fixed multiword expression
`flat`	flat multiword expression
`goeswith`	goes with
`hmod`	modifier in hyphenation
`hyph`	hyphen
`infmod`	infinitival modifier
`intj`	interjection
`iobj`	indirect object
`list`	list
`mark`	marker
`meta`	meta modifier
`neg`	negation modifier
`nmod`	modifier of nominal
`nn`	noun compound modifier
`npadvmod`	noun phrase as adverbial modifier
`nsubj`	nominal subject
`nsubjpass`	nominal subject (passive)
`nounmod`	modifier of nominal
`npmod`	noun phrase as adverbial modifier
`num`	number modifier
`number`	number compound modifier
`nummod`	numeric modifier
`oprd`	object predicate
`obj`	object
`obl`	oblique nominal
`orphan`	orphan
`parataxis`	parataxis
`partmod`	participal modifier
`pcomp`	complement of preposition
`pobj`	object of preposition
`poss`	possession modifier
`possessive`	possessive modifier
`preconj`	pre-correlative conjunction
`prep`	prepositional modifier
`prt`	particle
`punct`	punctuation
`quantmod`	modifier of quantifier
`rcmod`	relative clause modifier
`relcl`	relative clause modifier
`reparandum`	overridden disfluency
`root`	root
`ROOT`	root
`vocative`	vocative
`xcomp`	open clausal complement

Dependency labels (German)

From TIGER Treebank, see ims.uni-stuttgart.de

currently missing: ‘cc’ (comparative complement) because of conflict with English labels

Term	Explanation
`ac`	adpositional case marker
`adc`	adjective component
`ag`	genitive attribute
`ams`	measure argument of adjective
`app`	apposition
`avc`	adverbial phrase component
`cd`	coordinating conjunction
`cj`	conjunct
`cm`	comparative conjunction
`cp`	complementizer
`cvc`	collocational verb construction
`da`	dative
`dh`	discourse-level head
`dm`	discourse marker
`ep`	expletive es
`hd`	head
`ju`	junctor
`mnr`	postnominal modifier
`mo`	modifier
`ng`	negation
`nk`	noun kernel element
`nmc`	numerical component
`oa`	accusative object
`oc`	clausal object
`og`	genitive object
`op`	prepositional object
`par`	parenthetical element
`pd`	predicate
`pg`	phrasal genitive
`ph`	placeholder
`pm`	morphological particle
`pnc`	proper noun component
`rc`	relative clause
`re`	repeated element
`rs`	reported speech
`sb`	subject
`sbp`	passivized subject (PP)
`sp`	subject or predicate
`svp`	separable verb prefix
`uc`	unit component
`vo`	vocative

Named Entity Recognition

From OntoNotes 5, see catalog.ldc.upenn.edu

Term	Explanation
`PERSON`	People, including fictional
`NORP`	Nationalities or religious or political groups
`FACILITY`	Buildings, airports, highways, bridges, etc.
`FAC`	Buildings, airports, highways, bridges, etc.
`ORG`	Companies, agencies, institutions, etc.
`GPE`	Countries, cities, states
`LOC`	Non-GPE locations, mountain ranges, bodies of water
`PRODUCT`	Objects, vehicles, foods, etc. (not services)
`EVENT`	Named hurricanes, battles, wars, sports events, etc.
`WORK_OF_ART`	Titles of books, songs, etc.
`LAW`	Named documents made into laws.
`LANGUAGE`	Any named language
`DATE`	Absolute or relative dates or periods
`TIME`	Times smaller than a day
`PERCENT`	‘Percentage, including %
`MONEY`	Monetary values, including unit
`QUANTITY`	Measurements, as of weight or distance
`ORDINAL`	‘first
`CARDINAL`	Numerals that do not fall under another type

Named Entity Recognition (Wikipedia)

See Article 1 and Article 2

Term	Explanation
`PER`	Named person or family.
`MISC`	Miscellaneous entities, e.g. events, nationalities, products or works of art

NER Miscellaneous

From github.com/ltgoslo/norne:

Term	Explanation
`EVT`	Festivals, cultural events, sports events, weather phenomena, wars, etc.
`PROD`	Product, i.e. artificially produced entities including speeches, radio shows, programming languages, contracts, laws and ideas
`DRV`	Words (and phrases?) that are dervied from a name, but not a name in themselves, e.g. ‘Oslo-mannen’ (’the man from Oslo’)
`GPE_LOC`	Geo-political entity, with a locative sense, e.g. ‘John lives in Spain’
`GPE_ORG`	Geo-political entity, with an organisation sense, e.g. ‘Spain declined to meet with Belgium’

spaCy Terms Cheat Sheet