Terminology Management

Terminology management is a core component of good quality translation. When done systematically, it increases translation accuracy, provides time savings for future language services, and reduces overall costs.

What is terminology management?

Terminology management is the process of documenting terms systematically in order to achieve consistency and accuracy when creating technical documentation, building up marketing material, designing user interfaces, or simply communicating with other colleagues. Proper terminology management guarantees that your organization speaks with one consistent and accurate voice.

Terminology management can be either a relatively simple process, such as building a list of terms, or a very complicated one, involving concept maps and diagrams of how terms are related to each other.

Why do you need to manage terminology?

When it comes to terminology, there is never one single source of truth, especially if multiple teams or employees work on the same project. Inconsistent terminology leads to internal and external communication problems in organizations and can occur more frequently than you might think.

Failing to manage terminology properly can confuse readers and even lead to poor product quality and usability. In heavily regulated industries like finance or life science, terminology issues could jeopardize customer safety or account for regulatory compliance risks.

Frequent Terminology Issues

False friends

False friends are terms in different languages that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning. Sympathy in English translates as compassione in Italian, while simpatia means something totally different (positive sentiment).
Untitled design (3)

Absence of adequate equivalent

How do you translate the untranslatable? When terms lack equivalence due to markedly different cultural contexts, what approach do you take: do you loan the word from the source language or do you use words that render the same meaning but which are intrinsically different?

Coining of new terms

In medical translation research such as clinical trials, it is very common to come up with new terminology that hasn’t yet been translated elsewhere.

Polysemy

The term cocomero in Italy can be referred to as “anguria” or “melone” depending on the region of the country.

Building up Terminology: Glossaries - Termbases

Terminology management is the process of documenting terms systematically in order to achieve consistency and accuracy when creating technical documentation, building up marketing material, designing user interfaces, or simply communicating with other colleagues. Proper terminology management guarantees that your organization speaks with one consistent and accurate voice.

Terminology management can be either a relatively simple process, such as building a list of terms, or a very complicated one, involving concept maps and diagrams of how terms are related to each other.

Glossary: meeting vocabulary

Riunione iniziale

Initial meeting

Riunione annuale

Annual meeting

Partecipanti

Participants

Effetti nocivi

Harmful effects

Benefici

Initial meeting

How Does Terminology Management Work?

Term Extraction

Collecting relevant and specialized terms and concepts that are frequently used across an organization.

Verification of Terms

The list of collected terms has to be verified and expanded upon, adding semantic information such as definition, grammatical information, and usage examples. At this stage, it is also recommended to mine legacy terms from previous sources.

Building up the termbase

Collecting core terms in a centralized, accessible environment and translating them.

Updating corporate material

The organization must update all materials to accurately reflect the terminology as well as maintain and expand the glossary itself.

Term Extraction

Collecting relevant and specialized terms and concepts that are frequently used across an organization.

Verification of Terms

The list of collected terms has to be verified and expanded upon, adding semantic information such as definition, grammatical information, and usage examples. At this stage, it is also recommended to mine legacy terms from previous sources.

Building up the termbase

Collecting core terms in a centralized, accessible environment and translating them.

Updating corporate material

The organization must update all materials to accurately reflect the terminology as well as maintain and expand the glossary itself.

Our Expertise: Proactive terminology management