wp term list

Overview

Query and list all terms in any WordPress taxonomy — built-in or custom. Filter, sort, and export for auditing, scripting, and content management.

What It Does

wp term list calls get_terms() and outputs term data for a given taxonomy.

Syntax

wp term list <taxonomy> [OPTIONS]

Arguments & Options

Flag	Description
--fields=FIELDS	Fields: term_id, name, slug, count, parent
--field=FIELD	Single field per line (for scripting)
--format=FORMAT	table, json, csv, ids
--hide_empty	Exclude terms with no posts (default: false)
--orderby=FIELD	name, count, slug
--order=ASC_OR_DESC	Sort direction
--number=N	Max number of terms
--search=TERM	Search terms by name

Basic Usage

List all categories

wp term list category

List tags sorted by post count (desc)

wp term list post_tag --orderby=count --order=desc

Get category slugs for scripting

wp term list category --field=slug

Export categories as CSV

wp term list category --fields=term_id,name,slug,count --format=csv > categories.csv

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Find empty terms to clean up

wp term list category --hide_empty=false \
  --fields=term_id,name,count \
  --format=table | grep " 0 "

Scenario 2: List all WooCommerce product categories

wp term list product_cat \
  --fields=term_id,name,slug,count \
  --format=table

Scenario 3: Count terms per taxonomy

for tax in $(wp taxonomy list --field=name); do
  COUNT=$(wp term list "$tax" --format=count 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
  echo "$tax: $COUNT terms"
done

Quick Reference

wp term list <taxonomy>                        # All terms
wp term list category --orderby=count          # By count
wp term list post_tag --field=slug             # Slugs only
wp term list category --format=csv > cats.csv

Next Steps

• wp term create — add new terms.
• wp term get — inspect a single term.
• wp post term — assign terms to posts.