Glossary

Each project can include one or more glossaries as a shorthand for storing terminology. Glossary easify maintaining consistency of the translation.

A glossary for each language can be managed on its own, but they are stored together as a single component which helps project admins and multilingual translators to maintain some cross-language consistency as well. Terms from the glossary containing words from the currently translated string are displayed in the sidebar of the translation editor.

Hint

The glossary terms are not used in quality checks unless you enable that, see Does not follow glossary for more information.

Managing glossaries

Changed in version 4.5: Glossaries are now regular translation components and you can use all Weblate features on them — commenting, storing in a remote repository, or adding explanations.

Use any component as a glossary by turning on Use as a glossary. You can create multiple glossaries for one project.

An empty glossary for a given project is automatically created with the project. Glossaries are shared among all components of the same project, and optionally with other projects using Share in projects from the respective glossary component.

The glossary component looks like any other component in Weblate with added colored label:

../_images/glossary-component.webp

You can browse all glossary terms:

../_images/glossary-browse.webp

or edit them as any translations.

Glossary terms

Glossary terms are translated the same way regular strings are. You can toggle additional features using the Tools menu for each term.

../_images/glossary-tools.webp

Untranslatable terms

Added in version 4.5.

Flagging certain glossary term translations read-only by bulk-editing, typing in the flag, or by using ToolsMark as untranslatable means they can not be translated. Use this for brand names or other terms that should not be changed in other languages. Such terms are visually highlighted in the glossary sidebar.

Forbidden translations

Added in version 4.5.

Flagging certain glossary term translations as forbidden, by bulk-editing, typing in the flag, or by using ToolsMark as forbidden translation means they are not to be used. Use this to clarify translation when some words are ambiguous or could have unexpected meanings.

Terminology

Added in version 4.5.

Flagging certain glossary terms as terminology by bulk-editing, typing in the flag, or by using ToolsMark as terminology adds entries for them to all languages in the glossary. Use this for important terms that should be well thought out, and retain a consistent meaning across all languages.

Variants

Variants are a generic way to group strings together. All term variants are listed in the glossary sidebar when translating.

Hint

You can use this to add abbreviations or shorter expressions for a term.

See also

String variants

Glossaries in automatic suggestion

Added in version 5.3.

Following automatic suggestion services utilize glossaries during the translation:

The glossary is processed before exposed to the service:

  • Duplicate source entries are not allowed, any additional entries with the same source are skipped.

  • Any control characters and leading and trailing whitespace are stripped.

  • Forbidden translations are skipped.

Note

Many services store glossaries server-side and enforce limit on the number of saved glossaries. Weblate always deletes the oldest glossary if it runs out of space.