Glossaries, also known as term bases, are a key part of delivering high-quality, consistent translations. In Polyglot, glossary terms help ensure client-specific vocabulary is used correctly and consistently throughout the translation process.
What Are Glossary Terms?
Glossary terms are words that a client has defined as preferred translations. These terms are pre-approved and must be used exactly as specified, unless there's a strong linguistic reason to make a change (e.g., for gender, number, or grammar alignment).
Glossary terms typically serve the following purposes:
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Reflect a client’s brand voice, terminology, or industry-specific language
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Maintain consistency across projects
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Ensure correct usage specific to language pair and context
How Glossary Terms Appear in Polyglot
In the editor, glossary terms are clearly marked in-segment with a blue underline.
Clicking on a segment that contains glossary terms will:
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Update the side panel to display glossary information.
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Display the source term, the expected target, and the description.
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Allow you to return to the Instructions tab by clicking the “Instructions” button at the top of the side panel.
Glossary Changes
If a glossary term is edited or removed between human translation steps—or if you edit or delete a glossary term, save the task, and then reopen it—Polyglot will display a message in the side panel indicating the change:
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If a term has been edited, the message highlights that the glossary has been modified.
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If a term has been removed, you’ll see a message prompting you to review the affected target segment carefully.
Remember: glossary terms must be used exactly as defined by the client, unless there is a strong linguistic reason to modify them.
In the screenshot above, the term "performance" was incorrectly translated as "desempenhoo", containing a spelling error (an extra "o"). Additionally, the term "speed" was changed to "rapidez", which does not match the glossary-defined target term.
These messages help you track changes made in previous steps and assess whether the glossary term was used correctly.
By clearly signaling when a term has been changed or removed, Polyglot provides you the context needed to decide whether to retain, revert, or adjust the term in your current step.
When a glossary term is removed from the target and then reintroduced, Polyglot will highlight the word again, as long as the term appears only once in the target segment.
Exception: If the glossary term appears more than once in the target (e.g., "I spilled apple juice on my Apple Watch"), the system won’t highlight the term because it cannot determine which instance corresponds to the glossary entry. For example, if "apple" is a glossary term referring to the fruit, Polyglot won’t know whether it applies to the juice or the brand.
Context-Dependent Glossaries (CDGs)
Some glossary entries have multiple possible target terms depending on the sentence context. These are called Context-Dependent Glossaries (CDGs).
In Polyglot:
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CDGs are shown with all available options in the side panel
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You can choose the most appropriate term for the sentence
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Clicking a term will insert it automatically into the target
If the correct target isn’t underlined, check the options in the side panel for guidance.
If a CDG term is removed and reintroduced, it will no longer be highlighted, and the message prompting you to pay close attention to the target translation will not appear.
When a CDG term is removed, the side panel will display copy icons instead of radio buttons. This is because the system loses the link between the source and target terms.
To retain the correct glossary alignment, we recommend using the radio buttons to select the right CDG term instead of manually editing the word in the segment.