diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 2234f78f..a8c70edc 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
 
+S3method("$",glossary)
 S3method("[",glossary)
 S3method(as.data.frame,glossary)
 S3method(as.list,digits)
diff --git a/R/glossary.R b/R/glossary.R
index 3016dc95..84412933 100644
--- a/R/glossary.R
+++ b/R/glossary.R
@@ -365,6 +365,14 @@ c.glossary <- function(..., recursive = FALSE) {
   structure(NextMethod(), class = class(x))
 }
 
+#' @export
+`$.glossary` <- function(x, name, ...) {
+  if(!exists(name, x)) {
+    return(NULL)
+  }
+  x[[name]]
+}
+
 #' Select entries from a glossary object
 #'
 #' @param x a glossary object.
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-glossary.R b/tests/testthat/test-glossary.R
index 08d32e21..f9ca02c9 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-glossary.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-glossary.R
@@ -280,6 +280,15 @@ test_that("extract glossary entry", {
   expect_identical(names(g3), c("b", "c"))
 })
 
+test_that("no partial matching when extracting glossary entry", {
+  glo <- as_glossary(abc = "apple", xyz = "pear")
+  expect_null(glo$a)
+  expect_null(glo$xy)
+  expect_null(glo[["ab"]])
+  expect_is(glo$abc, "glossary_entry")
+  expect_identical(capture.output(glo$abc), "apple (abc)")
+})
+
 test_that("select glossary items", {
   g1 <- as_glossary(list(a = "apple", b = "banana", c = "cat", d = "dog"))
   g2 <- select_glossary(g1, b, d)