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Last updated: 15 Sep 2025

govuk-design-guide: attribute


layout: landing-page sectionKey: Glossary eleventyNavigation: parent: Glossary title: Attribute details: 'Attributes describe the characteristics of a content type. For example, a news article has a title, summary, author, date, body, location and tags.

Attributes create consistent structure to make it easier to understand, manage, display and reuse content.

Attributes can be:

  • core content written by a person — for example, title, description, biography

  • metadata with structured values defined by the system or chosen from a predefined list — for example, date published, topic or country

Attributes are captured at a conceptual level in the content model.

Attributes become properties when the model is translated into a content schema.

Synonyms

  • Property — a term used in our schemas and codebase

  • Field — a term used by publishers to describe the input space in a Content Management System' theme: Information layer order: 4