OurDictionary® : How do I create a glossary (or terminology bank) for my company?

If you have the problem that your translators or translation agency are not using the right words that are typical in your industry or in your company, then ask yourself the following questions:

Have I provided them with a glossary so that they can work effectively?

Is it really the job of the translator to second guess what the right word is, or should that decision be made by our company?

Of course, these quality issues would be solved if you were to provide your translation service with the much-needed term bank (glossary) in advance. In this way the quality of the translations would:

Increase due to better term use and lexical continuity and

The translations would be cheaper because glossary entries are generally given a more than 50% discount because the word is ‘pre-translated’.

So, now the big question: how do I start creating a corporate glossary? And this is the point where Lexis Languages OurDictionary® comes in! This is what the glossary would look like in Excel:

A typical glossary would  have thousands of entries, but long gone are the days where you have to sift through all the old translations looking for the words that are needed – a very unenviable task indeed.

OurDictionary® allows you to create a minimal list of the terminology needed in your company – let’s say 50 words and their translations (but the more the better, of course) – and then to publish this glossary in the form of a corporate dictionary to the Standard Users (your employees).

 Quelle: OurDictionary Demoversion

The Standard Users use your glossary, but when they need words that are not in your OurDictionary® corporate dictionary, they request the word from the Admin who in turn enters the official word/ translation into the database thus providing the User with the official translation and also organically growing the word stock.

Quelle: OurDictionary Demoversion

In this way OurDictionary crowdsources the vocabulary needed by the Users and OurDictionary® becomes an organic database that is lived and breathed by the company staff.

And exactly the same applies for your translators who can also request missing words and translations from the company and access the database. The main difference here is that the translators can download a glossary in the form of a csv file and then upload this file into their CAT system (TRADOS, MemoQ etc.). This import will grow over time, making sure that the glossary is always up to date or updatable.

Creating a company glossary in this way is a much more comfortable and organic way of completing the task – and it has the benefit of getting the whole company working together on a very useful task – please note however: only the admin or editor can make entries into the database, thus ensuring its integrity.

If you have any questions, just drop us a line and we will be more than willing to help out.