The first edition of this health promotion glossary of terms was published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1986 as a guide to readers of WHO documents and publications. It met a useful purpose in clarifying the meaning and relationship between the many terms which were not in common usage at that time. This first edition of the glossary has been translated into several languages (French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Italian), and the terms defined have been widely used both within and outside WHO. The glossary was adapted and republished in German in 1990. Much has happened since the publication of the glossary a decade ago. Most notably, in October 1986 the First International Conference on Health Promotion was held in Ottawa, Canada, producing what is now widely known as the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. This conference was followed by others which explored the major themes of the Ottawa Charter on healthy public policy (in Adelaide, 1988), and on supportive environments for health (in Sundsvall, 1991). These conferences have added greatly to our understanding of health promotion strategies and their practical application, as well as more fully accounting for issues of relevance to developing countries. This was taken a step further at the 4th International Conference on Health PromotionÐNew Players for a New Era: Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century, which was held in Jakarta, Indonesia in July 1997. Several WHO programmes and projects have been developed and implemented which have sought to translate health promotion concepts and strategies into practical action. These include: the `Healthy Cities, Villages, Municipalities' and `Healthy Islands' projects; the networks of `Health Promoting Schools' and `Health Promoting Hospitals'; the `Healthy Marketplaces and `Health Promoting Workplaces' projects; as well as WHO action plans on alcohol and tobacco, active living and healthy ageing. Recent developments in health systems around the world have given new prominence to health promotion approaches. The increasing focus on health outcomes reconfirms the priority placed on investment in the determinants of health through health promotion. Continually asking the question `where is health created?' links health promotion to two major reform debates: the formulation of new public health strategies, and the need to re-orient health services. The foresight shown in the Ottawa Charter has been adopted by many countries and organizations around the worldÐa process which was taken one step further through the 4th International Conference on Health Promotion in Jakarta, July 1997. This Conference adopted the Jakarta Declaration on Leading Health Promotion into the 21st Century. A number of terms that are HEALTH PROMOTION INTERNATIONAL Vol. 13, No. 4 # Oxford University Press 1998 Printed in Great Britain