𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦: 4 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴🕒
Want consistency across your multilingual content? A translation glossary is one of the simplest and most powerful tools you can use.
If you’ve ever found your brand name written five different ways across markets, or seen a key technical term suddenly “reinterpreted”, you’ll know how damaging inconsistency can be.
That’s where a translation glossary comes in.
In a nutshell, it helps ensure your most important terms, whether brand-specific, technical or regulatory, are used accurately and consistently across every language.
In this blog, we’ll explain in more detail what a translation glossary is, how it works, and why it matters for quality, speed and brand integrity.
What is a translation glossary?
A translation glossary is a multilingual list of key terms and their approved translations.
It’s usually created at the start of a project and shared with translators and reviewers throughout the process.
An effective glossary typically includes:
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Industry-specific or technical terms
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Product names or service titles
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Abbreviations or acronyms
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Words or phrases that must not be translated
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Notes on context, usage or formatting
At Wolfestone, we create glossaries as part of our onboarding process for many clients, especially in technical, legal, life sciences and marketing projects.
What’s the difference between a glossary and a style guide?
Both translation glossaries and brand style guides are essential for translation consistency, but they serve different purposes:
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A glossary is focused on terminology — specific words and their approved translations
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A style guide covers tone, grammar, formatting, punctuation and voice
Together, they help translation agencies deliver content that is accurate and globally on-brand.
Why is a translation glossary important?
It ensures consistency
If you’re translating at scale (across teams, platforms or regions), a glossary keeps everyone aligned.
The same term will always be translated the same way.
It protects brand identity
Your brand, product names and taglines need to be treated carefully in every market.
A glossary makes sure they’re used correctly, or not translated at all, if that’s your preference.
For example, Nike might want the term 'Air Forces' used in all countries and languages.
It speeds up translation
With key terms already defined, translators can work faster and more confidently.
That means fewer queries, quicker turnaround, and less room for wrong interpretations.
It reduces costly errors
In regulated industries, mistranslating a technical or legal term can cause compliance issues. A glossary prevents this by removing ambiguity.
When should you use a glossary?
We would highly recommend using a glossary if:
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You're translating technical, legal, medical or marketing content
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You want to protect brand language
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You have repeated projects across multiple languages
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You’re managing large teams or multiple vendors
Even a small glossary can have a big impact on consistency and quality.
How is a glossary created?
- Initial term extraction – We pull key terms from your content or style guides.
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Client review – You review, approve or adjust translations, with our support.
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Integration – We upload the glossary into our CAT tools and TMS, so linguists are automatically prompted with correct terms.
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Ongoing updates – We add new terms as your content evolves.
You can also supply an existing glossary if you have one. We’re happy to use or work to improve it.
When you’re scaling content across markets, a translation glossary is essential. It protects your brand voice, speeds up delivery, and ensures your message stays consistent no matter the language.
A translation glossary might seem like a small thing, but it can make a huge difference.
At Wolfestone, we treat glossaries as part of our wider quality framework. It’s just one of the tools we use to help clients scale their content globally without losing control of their message.
Need help creating your first glossary? We’re happy to build one for you or run a terminology audit on your existing translations.
Get in touch for a free consultation.
𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 2021 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘨𝘰 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵. 𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴.
