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Glossaries: an efficient and cost-effective way to stay consistent

Update: it's official—the DeepL glossary is now available in Korean! Since its launch in 2023, there's been a strong demand for Korean to be added to the glossary. 

We're excited to help even more global teams scale efficiently and maintain consistency. Plus, keep an eye out for additional DeepL glossary languages in the coming months.

Back in May 2022, we explored how to create glossary entries to ensure that words and phrases are always translated in your preferred way. Since then, we've leveled up this feature with shared glossaries and the implementation of 60+ glossary language combinations between:

  • English
  • Spanish
  • German
  • Japanese
  • French
  • Italian
  • Polish
  • Dutch
  • Portuguese
  • Chinese
  • Russian
  • Korean

This means that you can create custom glossaries using any combination of the above languages. Whether your company needs English and Chinese, French and Polish, or Japanese and German (the list goes on), DeepL has you covered. Here we’ll explore how the glossary feature's latest improvements can specifically help businesses grow their enterprise, consolidate internal and external communication, and increase team productivity.

Why should businesses use translation glossaries?

Glossaries ensure consistency in messaging across multiple languages. For multinational companies, standardizing terms such as technical jargon, product names, or product documentation keeps everyone—clients, customers, and team members—on the same page, even when translating text to other languages. This also helps to reduce costs and time lost with manual editing.

We’ve recently introduced shared glossaries for users with a DeepL Pro for Business subscription. This means team members can create their own glossaries and then share those with other colleagues or their entire team—increasing collaboration and translation efficiency all at once.

How can you create effective glossaries?

Glossaries help ensure translation consistency by tailoring and standardizing the output of specific words and phrases. To create an effective DeepL glossary for your team, it’s essential to consistently update it with the latest company terminologies. 

This involves adding entries for new products and services or removing or amending entries when they are discontinued. By doing so, you can make sure that your translations are always up to date and minimize having to manually edit internal and external communications. 

When team members use the shared glossaries feature, they can all access the same predefined glossary entries. This guarantees that everyone translates specific words and phrases uniformly, regardless of who is doing the translation.

The glossary UI depicts an entry for Legal Terms with the source text as English and the target text as German. The English acronym "GDPR" is then set to always translate to DSGVO in German. On the top right a cursor toggles the button "Share with team" so colleagues can use this same entry as well.

How can you use the glossary with DeepL products?

The glossary feature can be used as a part of a subscription plan (Starter, Advanced, or Ultimate) as well as with the DeepL API.  

With a subscription plan you can:

  • Use glossaries for text translation on the web translator and desktop apps 
  • Apply glossary specifications to document translations in the desktop app—which preserves the original formatting 

With the API you can:

  • Standardize translations across your website  
  • Integrate glossary specifications into your company’s internal tools and platforms 

How global companies leverage glossaries

Global companies use the DeepL glossary to ensure consistency throughout their communication.

For example, Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railway company—and the largest railway operator in Europe—uses the DeepL glossary feature to maintain translation consistency for its 320,000 employees worldwide. This is especially important for train conductors and station employees who must communicate across languages for safety and scheduling purposes. 

The glossary feature is also highly used by organizations in the legal industry, where translation errors and inconsistencies can have immense consequences. DeepL's AI is consistently trained using official EU documents, allowing it to accurately translate intricate linguistic nuances in complex legal texts.

Glossary and your organization

Maintaining consistent messaging helps keep growing teams on the same page. It also ensures that prospective customers develop a clear understanding of your business and how you can alleviate their pain points. If you'd like to refine your company's messaging using DeepL Pro, get in touch with our Sales team. You can also learn more about the glossary feature in our Help Center.