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    • Use glossaries

    Learn how to add a glossary to a translation project in Smartcat to ensure consistent language and style, including enabling multiple glossaries and adjusting settings in the Linguistic assets tab for tailored project management.

    In this brief article, we'll look at how you can add a glossary to a translation project in Smartcat.

    What is a translation glossary?

    A glossary is an indexed list of terminology specific to the content that you translate. It typically includes terms – specific words and phrases – that your organization uses repeatedly.

    By including these terms in a preloaded index list – your glossary – you are able to optimize consistency of language and stylistic preferences. Both automatic AI translation engines and human translators can use glossaries to clarify use of the correct, on-brand term.

    How glossaries work in Smartcat

    If you enable a glossary on a project, Smartcat automatically suggests the glossary-saved translation term on Smartcat automatic AI translations.

    You can create and keep separate glossaries for different subjects and clients, and add terms with translations into other languages.

    Each time you create a project, you can specify a client or department for it. Smartcat automatically enables the relevant glossary from the list that you have already created in Smartcat for this client or department.

    Changing glossary settings in Smartcat

    You can make amendments to glossary settings in the Linguistic assets tab when setting up a new project or editing an existing one.

    Step one
    Go to the project Overview page and click on Linguistic assets.

    Step two
    In the page that opens, navigate to the glossaries section below.

    You will see one or more glossaries matching your language pair and your project. Select the glossary or glossaries that you want to enable and click Save.

    To disable a glossary, simply untick the box to the left in the same row and click Save.

    FAQ

    My translators can't add terms to the glossary

    Generally, linguists are not authorized to add terms to glossaries when they work in a file. They can only suggest new terms that will then need to be approved by an editor or a project manager. It is however possible to assign glossary content editing rights to linguists by creating custom access rights. Unfortunately, at this time a known issues still prevents translators from adding terms from within the editor. A workaround is to have the linguists suggest terms and then access the glossaries to approve these terms since they have access rights to the content.