diff --git a/GLOSSARY.md b/GLOSSARY.md
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+# TeachLink Project Glossary
+
+This document defines key terms and concepts used across the TeachLink ecosystem, including smart contracts, the indexer runtime, and the recommendation system.
+
+---
+
+## 🏗️ Core Architecture
+
+### Soroban
+Stellar's smart contract platform. TeachLink's core logic is implemented as Soroban smart contracts written in Rust.
+
+### Indexer Runtime
+A high-performance service that monitors the Stellar blockchain in real-time, processes events emitted by TeachLink contracts, and stores the data in a relational database for fast querying.
+
+### Recommendation System
+The intelligence layer of TeachLink that uses machine learning (TensorFlow/PyTorch) to personalize learning paths and suggest relevant content to users.
+
+---
+
+## 📜 Smart Contract Concepts
+
+### Tokenization
+The process of representing learning content, certificates, or achievements as digital tokens (NFTs or SFTs) on the blockchain.
+
+### Reputation Scoring
+A decentralized mechanism for calculating and storing user trust scores based on their contributions, learning history, and peer assessments.
+
+### Multi-sig Escrow
+A security feature where multiple signatures are required to authorize the release of funds or the execution of critical contract operations.
+
+### BFT Consensus
+Byzantine Fault Tolerance. Used in the context of decentralized governance or cross-chain bridge validation to ensure agreement even in the presence of malicious actors.
+
+### Slashing
+A penalty mechanism where a portion of a participant's staked tokens is confiscated due to malicious behavior or failure to meet protocol obligations.
+
+---
+
+## 🛡️ Insurance & Risk (Insurance Module)
+
+### Parametric Trigger
+A predefined condition (e.g., a specific event recorded on-chain) that automatically triggers an insurance claim payout without requiring manual assessment.
+
+### Risk Profile
+A data structure that quantifies the risk associated with a user, course, or pool, used to calculate insurance premiums.
+
+### Loss Ratio
+The ratio of claims paid out to premiums collected. A key metric for assessing the health of an insurance pool.
+
+### Reinsurance
+A mechanism where risk is shared with external partners or other pools to ensure the system can handle large, unexpected claims.
+
+---
+
+## 🌐 Cross-Chain & Integration
+
+### Cross-Chain Bridge
+The infrastructure that allows TeachLink to interact with and transfer assets or data to other blockchain networks beyond Stellar.
+
+### Oracle
+A service that provides external, real-world data to the smart contracts (e.g., verifying a student's completion of an external course).
+
+---
+
+## 🛠️ Development & Tooling
+
+### WASM (WebAssembly)
+The compilation target for Soroban smart contracts. Rust code is compiled to `.wasm` files for deployment on the Stellar network.
+
+### Friendbot
+A service on the Stellar Testnet that provides free test tokens (XLM) to developers for testing their applications and contracts.
+
+### Horizon / RPC
+The API layers used to interact with the Stellar network. Horizon provides a RESTful API, while Soroban RPC provides specialized methods for smart contract interaction.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ TeachLink is a Soroban smart contract that powers tokenized learning rewards on
 - Architecture
 - Development Workflow
 - Contribution Guidelines
+- Glossary
 - Changelog
 - Troubleshooting
 - License
@@ -366,6 +367,10 @@ We welcome contributions that improve contract quality, developer experience, an
 3. Run the full test and lint suite.
 4. Open a PR with a clear summary and testing notes.
 
+## Glossary
+
+For definitions of key terms and concepts used across the TeachLink ecosystem, see [GLOSSARY.md](GLOSSARY.md).
+
 ### Code example (contract + test)
 
 When adding contract entrypoints, include unit tests in the same module or under `#[cfg(test)]`: