Title: WP_Term
Published: December 9, 2015
Last modified: May 20, 2026

---

# class WP_Term {}

## In this article

 * [Methods](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#methods)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#changelog)
 * [User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Core class used to implement the [WP_Term](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/)
object.

## 󠀁[Methods](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#methods)󠁿

| Name | Description | 
| [WP_Term::__construct](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/__construct/) | Constructor. | 
| [WP_Term::__get](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/__get/) | Getter. | 
| [WP_Term::filter](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/filter/) | Sanitizes term fields, according to the filter type provided. | 
| [WP_Term::get_instance](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/get_instance/) | Retrieve [WP_Term](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/) instance. | 
| [WP_Term::to_array](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/to_array/) | Converts an object to array. |

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    #[AllowDynamicProperties]
    final class WP_Term {

    	/**
    	 * Term ID.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var int
    	 */
    	public $term_id;

    	/**
    	 * The term's name.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var string
    	 */
    	public $name = '';

    	/**
    	 * The term's slug.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var string
    	 */
    	public $slug = '';

    	/**
    	 * The term's term_group.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var int
    	 */
    	public $term_group = '';

    	/**
    	 * Term Taxonomy ID.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var int
    	 */
    	public $term_taxonomy_id = 0;

    	/**
    	 * The term's taxonomy name.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var string
    	 */
    	public $taxonomy = '';

    	/**
    	 * The term's description.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var string
    	 */
    	public $description = '';

    	/**
    	 * ID of a term's parent term.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var int
    	 */
    	public $parent = 0;

    	/**
    	 * Cached object count for this term.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var int
    	 */
    	public $count = 0;

    	/**
    	 * Stores the term object's sanitization level.
    	 *
    	 * Does not correspond to a database field.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 * @var string
    	 */
    	public $filter = 'raw';

    	/**
    	 * Retrieve WP_Term instance.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 *
    	 * @global wpdb $wpdb WordPress database abstraction object.
    	 *
    	 * @param int    $term_id  Term ID.
    	 * @param string $taxonomy Optional. Limit matched terms to those matching `$taxonomy`. Only used for
    	 *                         disambiguating potentially shared terms.
    	 * @return WP_Term|WP_Error|false Term object, if found. WP_Error if `$term_id` is shared between taxonomies and
    	 *                                there's insufficient data to distinguish which term is intended.
    	 *                                False for other failures.
    	 */
    	public static function get_instance( $term_id, $taxonomy = null ) {
    		global $wpdb;

    		$term_id = (int) $term_id;
    		if ( ! $term_id ) {
    			return false;
    		}

    		$_term = wp_cache_get( $term_id, 'terms' );

    		// If there isn't a cached version, hit the database.
    		if ( ! $_term || ( $taxonomy && $taxonomy !== $_term->taxonomy ) ) {
    			// Any term found in the cache is not a match, so don't use it.
    			$_term = false;

    			// Grab all matching terms, in case any are shared between taxonomies.
    			$terms = $wpdb->get_results( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT t.*, tt.* FROM $wpdb->terms AS t INNER JOIN $wpdb->term_taxonomy AS tt ON t.term_id = tt.term_id WHERE t.term_id = %d", $term_id ) );
    			if ( ! $terms ) {
    				return false;
    			}

    			// If a taxonomy was specified, find a match.
    			if ( $taxonomy ) {
    				foreach ( $terms as $match ) {
    					if ( $taxonomy === $match->taxonomy ) {
    						$_term = $match;
    						break;
    					}
    				}

    				// If only one match was found, it's the one we want.
    			} elseif ( 1 === count( $terms ) ) {
    				$_term = reset( $terms );

    				// Otherwise, the term must be shared between taxonomies.
    			} else {
    				// If the term is shared only with invalid taxonomies, return the one valid term.
    				foreach ( $terms as $t ) {
    					if ( ! taxonomy_exists( $t->taxonomy ) ) {
    						continue;
    					}

    					// Only hit if we've already identified a term in a valid taxonomy.
    					if ( $_term ) {
    						return new WP_Error( 'ambiguous_term_id', __( 'Term ID is shared between multiple taxonomies' ), $term_id );
    					}

    					$_term = $t;
    				}
    			}

    			if ( ! $_term ) {
    				return false;
    			}

    			// Don't return terms from invalid taxonomies.
    			if ( ! taxonomy_exists( $_term->taxonomy ) ) {
    				return new WP_Error( 'invalid_taxonomy', __( 'Invalid taxonomy.' ) );
    			}

    			$_term = sanitize_term( $_term, $_term->taxonomy, 'raw' );

    			// Don't cache terms that are shared between taxonomies.
    			if ( 1 === count( $terms ) ) {
    				wp_cache_add( $term_id, $_term, 'terms' );
    			}
    		}

    		$term_obj = new WP_Term( $_term );
    		$term_obj->filter( $term_obj->filter );

    		return $term_obj;
    	}

    	/**
    	 * Constructor.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 *
    	 * @param object $term Term object.
    	 */
    	public function __construct( $term ) {
    		foreach ( get_object_vars( $term ) as $key => $value ) {
    			$this->$key = $value;
    		}
    	}

    	/**
    	 * Sanitizes term fields, according to the filter type provided.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 *
    	 * @param string $filter Filter context. Accepts 'edit', 'db', 'display', 'attribute', 'js', 'rss', or 'raw'.
    	 */
    	public function filter( $filter ) {
    		sanitize_term( $this, $this->taxonomy, $filter );
    	}

    	/**
    	 * Converts an object to array.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 *
    	 * @return array Object as array.
    	 */
    	public function to_array() {
    		return get_object_vars( $this );
    	}

    	/**
    	 * Getter.
    	 *
    	 * @since 4.4.0
    	 *
    	 * @param string $key Property to get.
    	 * @return mixed Property value.
    	 */
    	public function __get( $key ) {
    		switch ( $key ) {
    			case 'data':
    				$data    = new stdClass();
    				$columns = array( 'term_id', 'name', 'slug', 'term_group', 'term_taxonomy_id', 'taxonomy', 'description', 'parent', 'count' );
    				foreach ( $columns as $column ) {
    					$data->{$column} = $this->{$column} ?? null;
    				}

    				return sanitize_term( $data, $data->taxonomy, 'raw' );
    		}
    	}
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wp-term.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.0/src/wp-includes/class-wp-term.php#L17)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.0/src/wp-includes/class-wp-term.php#L17-L245)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [4.4.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/4.4.0/) | Introduced. |

## 󠀁[User Contributed Notes](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#user-contributed-notes)󠁿

 1.  [Skip to note 2 content](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/WP_Term/?output_format=md#comment-content-2653)
 2.   [Aurovrata Venet](https://profiles.wordpress.org/aurovrata/)  [  8 years ago  ](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/#comment-2653)
 3. [You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_term%2F%23comment-2653)
    Vote results for this note: 31[You must log in to vote on the helpfulness of this note](https://login.wordpress.org?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_term%2F%23comment-2653)
 4. A [WP_Term](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/) object,
 5.     ```php
        object(WP_Term) (11) {
            ["term_id"]=>  //int
            ["name"]=>   //string 
            ["slug"]=>  //string 
            ["term_group"]=>  //int
            ["term_taxonomy_id"]=> //int
            ["taxonomy"]=>   //string
            ["description"]=>    //string
            ["parent"]=> //int
            ["count"]=>  // int
            ["filter"]= //string
            ["meta"]= array(0) {} //an array of meta fields.
        ```
    
 6.  * Looking at the source, that `meta` property isn’t a standard property in the`
       WP_Term` object. However, a plugin/theme can add custom properties to the object
       using the `get_term` or `get_{taxonomy}` filter:
     *     ```php
           add_filter( 'get_term', function( $term ) { $term->meta = get_term_meta( $term->term_id ); return $term; } );
           ```
       
     * [thdnunes](https://profiles.wordpress.org/thdnunes/) [5 years ago](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_term/#comment-4861)
 7.  [Log in to add feedback](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fdeveloper.wordpress.org%2Freference%2Fclasses%2Fwp_term%2F%3Freplytocom%3D2653%23feedback-editor-2653)

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