Glossary — Keeping Terminology Consistent

The Glossary is a curated list of terms and their approved translations that Lang Forge enforces across all translation methods — AI translation, manual translation, and bulk operations. Without a glossary, different translators or different AI runs might translate the same term in different ways, leading to an inconsistent and unprofessional multilingual site. The Glossary solves this by ensuring that key terms are always translated the same way (or not translated at all, in the case of brand names).

Even a small glossary of 15-20 well-chosen terms can significantly improve translation quality. For businesses with specific product names, industry terminology, or brand guidelines, the Glossary is one of the most important features to set up before running any translations.

Why consistency matters: A real-world example

Imagine you run a technology company that sells a product called “CloudSync Pro” with features named “SmartBackup” and “AutoRestore”. Without a glossary:

With a glossary entry marking “CloudSync Pro” as Do Not Translate, every single page — translated by AI or by any human translator — will consistently show “CloudSync Pro” without exception.

Step-by-step: Building your glossary

1. Go to Lang Forge > Glossary in the WordPress admin menu
2. The glossary page shows a table of all existing terms (empty when you first start)
3. Click Add Term to create a new entry
4. Fill in the fields for each term:

> Glossary entries are stored per language pair. The page header has a From → To filter (for example, English → Spanish). Switch the pair before adding terms — each entry only applies to the pair that was active when you saved it. To add the same brand-name rule to every language, repeat the Add Term step once per pair, or import a CSV that lists the same source term for every target language (see the Import / Export section below).

1. Click Save to add the term
2. Continue adding terms. Here are categories of terms you should include:

1. After adding all initial terms, review the list to make sure nothing is missing
2. Click Export to save a backup of your glossary as a CSV file

How the glossary is enforced

The glossary is automatically applied across all translation methods:

• During AI translation: The terms for the active From → To pair are sent to the AI on every translate request. This applies to every AI path — full-post bulk translate (Lang Forge → Bulk Translate), Visual Editor “AI Translate All” and the per-segment AI re-generate buttons, the Frontend Visual Editor, comment translation, and SEO meta translations done by the SEO Forge bridge. Terms marked Do Not Translate are sent as term → term so the AI keeps them verbatim; terms with a custom translation are sent as source → preferred translation so the AI uses your wording instead of its own
• In the Visual Editor source column: Every glossary term that appears in the source text is highlighted with a teal underline the moment you open the editor. Hover over a highlighted term and a tooltip shows the required translation (for example, Glossary → Облачная Синхронизация Про). Terms marked Do Not Translate are highlighted in red with a strikethrough and the tooltip reads Glossary: do not translate — so translators see at a glance which terms must stay in the source language
• In the Visual Editor target column: When a translator types a translation that contradicts a glossary rule, a warning highlight appears on that segment with a tooltip showing the correct term. The translator can choose to follow the suggestion or override it with a justification
• In the Frontend Visual Editor: The same warning system applies when editing translations on the live page

> A note on Do Not Translate enforcement. Brand names and acronyms in Latin script (WordPress, iPhone, API) are reliably kept verbatim by the AI. Common dictionary words (e.g. “platform”, “user”) marked as Do Not Translate are best-effort — large language models sometimes still translate them when the surrounding sentence makes the original word feel out of place. If a common word must stay in source language, prefer a custom translation entry that wraps it (e.g. translation = "platform" with quotes) over Do Not Translate.

Step-by-step: Importing or exporting a terminology list (CSV)

If you have a glossary from a previous project, a translation agency, or a brand guideline document, you can move it in and out of Lang Forge using the Import / Export card at the bottom of the Glossary page. The CSV operates on the active From → To pair shown in the filter at the top of the page — change the pair first if you’re working with a different language combination.

source_term,translated_term,description,do_not_translate,case_sensitive
CloudSync Pro,CloudSync Pro,Brand name — keep verbatim,1,1
backlog,lista de pendientes,,0,0

Columns are positional: source_term, translated_term, description, do_not_translate (0 or 1), case_sensitive (0 or 1). The first row may be a header (it’s auto-skipped if the first cell starts with the word “source”). Older 4-column files (without the case_sensitive column) still import — those rows come in with case_sensitive=0.

1. Confirm the From → To pair in the filter at the top is the pair the CSV applies to. If not, change it and click Filter
2. Scroll to the Import / Export card at the bottom of the page
3. Click the file picker, choose your CSV, and click Import CSV
4. A success notice tells you how many terms were imported. The new rows appear in the table immediately
5. Re-run the import for each additional language pair — the file format is the same; just change the From → To filter and re-upload

1. Set the From → To pair you want to back up
2. Scroll to the Import / Export card
3. Click Export CSV — a file named langforge-glossary-{from}-to-{to}-{date}.csv downloads to your computer
4. The file is ready to share with translators or to re-import on another site

Real-world example: Building a glossary for a software company

A SaaS company sells project management software. Their glossary includes: “TaskFlow” (product name — Do Not Translate), “Sprint Board” (feature name — Do Not Translate), “backlog” (translate as “lista de pendientes” in Spanish, “arrieres” in French), “stakeholder” (keep as “stakeholder” in Spanish where it is commonly used as a loanword, translate to “partie prenante” in French), and “Terms of Service” (translate specifically as “Terminos de Servicio” in Spanish, not the AI’s sometimes-used “Condiciones del Servicio”). With 25 glossary entries, every AI translation run and every manual translator produces consistent results.

Glossary on Free vs PRO

The Glossary is a core Free feature: the menu item is visible, and you can add, import, and export terms — including “Do Not Translate” rules — on every plan. Glossary terms act as a reference all your translators can follow consistently. The only difference is the automatic enforcement layer: because AI translation, the Visual Editor, and bulk operations are PRO, the glossary’s automatic term application and in-editor highlighting are exercised only when one of those AI-capable PRO features is in use. Teams on Free still get full glossary management and use it as a shared terminology reference for manual translation.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Adding too many common words. The glossary is for specific terms that need enforced translations, not for general vocabulary. Adding “house” or “car” clutters the glossary and slows down translation
• Forgetting to add terms for all languages. If you add a Spanish translation for “CloudSync Pro” but forget German, the German AI translation might still translate it. Use “All languages” with “Do Not Translate” for universal rules
• Not sharing the glossary with external translators. If you work with a translation agency, export the glossary as CSV and send it to them so they follow the same rules

> Tip: Start your glossary with brand names and product names before running any AI translations. You can always add more terms later as you notice inconsistencies, but getting the critical ones right from the start saves the most correction work.

> Good to know: Glossary terms can be multi-word phrases, not just single words. You can add “Terms of Service”, “money-back guarantee”, or “free shipping worldwide” as complete phrases with their approved translations.

[Screenshot: The Glossary page showing a table of terms with columns for Original, Language, Translation, Do Not Translate checkbox, and Notes]

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