My concern is about what I currently call "dictionary tables", that are database tables containing a list of controlled vocabulary.

Let's use an example: Suppose you have a table User containing fields:

• user_id : primary key
• first_name
• last_name
• user_type_id : foreign key to the UserType table

and another table UserType with just two fields:

• user_type_id : primary key
• name : the name/value of a particular type of user.

For instance, the UserType table may contain (1, Administrator), (2, PowerUser), (3, Normal)...

My question is: what is the canonical term for a table like UserType, that only contains a list of (dictinct) words. I want to publish some code that help managing this kind of tables, but first I have to name them !

Thanks for your help.

Current state of thought: For now I feel Lookup Tables is a good term. It is also used with the same meaning in these posts:

• http://dbix-class.35028.n2.nabble.com/RFC-Component-for-Lookup-tables-td3504085.html
• http://tonyandrews.blogspot.de/2004/10/otlt-and-eav-two-big-design-mistakes.html
• Lookup Tables Best Practices: DB Tables... or Enumerations

The only problem is that lookup table is also sometimes used to name a junction table.