Listing categories and terms with get_terms

get_terms() is how you output a list of categories or custom taxonomy terms (a filter menu, a tag cloud). What comes back is an array of term objects, so you loop over it with foreach.

<?php
$terms = get_terms([
  'taxonomy'   => 'season',
  'hide_empty' => true,
]);
?>
<?php if ($terms && !is_wp_error($terms)) : ?>
  <ul class="term-list">
    <?php foreach ($terms as $term) : ?>
      <li>
        <a href="<?php echo esc_url(get_term_link($term)); ?>">
          <?php echo esc_html($term->name); ?> (<?php echo esc_html($term->count); ?>)
        </a>
      </li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
  </ul>
<?php endif; ?>

What you can get from a term object

From $term inside the foreach, these five are the ones you’ll use.

Build URLs with get_term_link($term). The trick is not to assemble a string like /season/winter/ yourself—that way nothing breaks when permalink settings or the taxonomy’s rewrite change.

Cheat sheet of arguments

Marking the term you’re currently viewing

A filter menu is much easier to use when you can see which one you’re on.

<?php
$terms   = get_terms(['taxonomy' => 'season', 'hide_empty' => false]);
$current = get_queried_object();   // on a taxonomy archive, the current term
?>
<ul class="filter">
  <?php foreach ($terms as $term) : ?>
    <?php $is_current = (!empty($current->term_id) && $current->term_id === $term->term_id); ?>
    <li class="<?php echo $is_current ? 'is-current' : ''; ?>">
      <a href="<?php echo esc_url(get_term_link($term)); ?>"><?php echo esc_html($term->name); ?></a>
    </li>
  <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

For categories you can also check with the conditional tag is_category($term->term_id).

Hierarchical taxonomies

For taxonomies with hierarchy, like categories, fetching the parents first and then the children builds a nested list.

<?php $parents = get_terms(['taxonomy' => 'category', 'parent' => 0]); ?>
<ul>
  <?php foreach ($parents as $parent) : ?>
    <li>
      <a href="<?php echo esc_url(get_term_link($parent)); ?>"><?php echo esc_html($parent->name); ?></a>
      <?php $children = get_terms(['taxonomy' => 'category', 'parent' => $parent->term_id]); ?>
      <?php if ($children) : ?>
        <ul>
          <?php foreach ($children as $child) : ?>
            <li><a href="<?php echo esc_url(get_term_link($child)); ?>"><?php echo esc_html($child->name); ?></a></li>
          <?php endforeach; ?>
        </ul>
      <?php endif; ?>
    </li>
  <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>

Choosing among the similar functions

The names look alike and blur together, so remember them by their role.

“Building a list = get_terms; showing this article’s tags = get_the_terms”—mix those up and you get the visual bug where every category on the site is listed on an article.

Showing a post’s terms (get_the_terms)

<?php $terms = get_the_terms(get_the_ID(), 'season'); ?>
<?php if ($terms && !is_wp_error($terms)) : ?>
  <ul class="tags">
    <?php foreach ($terms as $term) : ?>
      <li><a href="<?php echo esc_url(get_term_link($term)); ?>"><?php echo esc_html($term->name); ?></a></li>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
  </ul>
<?php endif; ?>

Where you don’t need to build the HTML yourself, the_terms() does it in one line.

<?php the_terms(get_the_ID(), 'season', 'Season: ', ', '); ?>

Letting WordPress build the HTML (wp_list_categories)

If you just want something in the sidebar quickly, a function that generates the HTML too is the easy route.

<?php
wp_list_categories([
  'taxonomy'   => 'season',
  'title_li'   => '',        // remove the "Categories" heading li
  'show_count' => true,      // show counts
  'hide_empty' => false,
]);
?>

The split is: get_terms() when you want to decide the markup yourself, wp_list_categories() when speed matters most.

Summary

1. Term lists come from get_terms(). What comes back is an array of objects, so loop with foreach
2. Build URLs with get_term_link($term). Don’t assemble URL strings yourself
3. hide_empty defaults to true—terms with zero posts not appearing is normal behavior
4. get_terms is the whole site, get_the_terms is that post. For speed, wp_list_categories()

Once you can output lists, you can design your own navigation—filter menus, tag clouds and other paths for people to move around.