A glossary, or termbase, is a database of approved translations for specific words and phrases that must be used consistently across all translated content.
Why Glossary Matters
A glossary matters because it is prescriptive where translation memory is descriptive. Translation memory shows how a full sentence was translated before; a glossary states, in advance, exactly how an individual term must be translated every time it appears — a product name, a UI label, a piece of technical jargon, a target-market SEO keyword. That distinction matters most for words that a generic translation would render correctly in isolation but inconsistently across a document: without a glossary, “Dashboard” might come back as three different words in three different files.
Glossaries protect brand terms and technical vocabulary from mistranslation. A brand name that should never be translated, a feature name that must match the product UI, or a legal term with one approved rendering per language pair all need to be locked down rather than left to the translator’s or the AI’s judgment on a given day. This matters equally for AI translation and professional services: a wrong or inconsistent term is a real quality defect either way, not a cosmetic one.
Taia’s canonical entity description groups translation memory, glossary, and style guide as its three linguistic resources, applied together — a glossary alone controls terminology, but pairing it with translation memory and a style guide is what produces fully consistent, on-brand output across every language.
A Concrete Example
An English-to-Spanish glossary defines “Dashboard” as “Panel de control,” with a usage note that a competing translation, “tablero,” should never be used. Every time “Dashboard” appears — in the product UI, in help articles, in marketing pages — the glossary enforces that same rendering, regardless of which linguist or which AI translation run produced the surrounding text.
How Glossary Works in Taia
In Taia, a glossary can be attached at the organization, team, or project level, and AI translation prioritizes its approved terms over generic phrasing automatically; linguists working in the CAT editor see glossary terms highlighted with the approved translation and any usage notes. Glossaries import and export as XLSX spreadsheets and are available starting on the Pro plan.