WPML’s glossary helps you get higher quality translations by defining how you want certain words to appear in various languages.
What is the WPML Glossary?
The WPML Glossary is a tool that improves automatic translation accuracy by specifying translations for words that have multiple meanings (or multiple possible translations).
For example:
The term ‘whole foods’ can mean both the organic supermarket (Whole Foods) and foods that are minimally processed.
In Spanish, the WooCommerce checkout may be translated in various ways like “Página de pago”, “Finalizar compra”, or “Carrito de compra”.
To eliminate confusion, you can create a glossary entry with the correct or preferred translation in different languages. There’s a 200-character limit for each glossary entry.
Glossary entries with their translations in different languages
Once created, automatic translation engines will use the glossary entry to correctly translate your terms, and translators will receive additional context during translation.
WPML’s advanced translation editor suggesting a translation for a glossary term
The Glossary Is Supported by PTC and DeepL Only
WPML’s glossary feature works when translating with PTC and DeepL, but not with the Google or Microsoft translation engines.
This is because the available methods of integrating WPML glossaries with Google and Microsoft are either too complex or produce lower-quality translations.
Use the glossary with PTC for the best results. PTC fully understands your site and content, so it applies glossary terms intelligently instead of just swapping words. Also, PTC will always use your glossary, while DeepL may ignore an entry if it decides a different word is more suitable.
How to Create Glossary Entries in WPML
You can add a glossary entry with any word you want to leave untranslated (e.g. a name) or translate a certain way (e.g. an industry term).
To create glossary entries in WPML:
Go to WPML → Translation Dashboard.
Switch to the Payments & Maintenance tab and select Glossary.
Click Add glossary entry and enter your term, description, and translations.
Adding a new glossary entry in WPML
Best Practices for Adding Terms to Your Glossary
Follow these guidelines for adding glossary entries to ensure the terms will be applied correctly in translations:
A) Add Only Necessary Terms
Only include terms you want to keep in the default language or terms for which you want a specific translation.
For example:
Correct: “Whole Foods”, as the brand name.
Correct: “whole foods” if you want to use “alimenti integrali” in Italian instead of “alimenti non processati”.
Incorrect: “food”, as the common noun.
B) Keep Terms Simple
Enter terms exactly as they should appear in translations. Don’t include extra information like text in parentheses unless it’s part of the term itself.
For example:
Correct: WooCommerce Extension
Incorrect: WooCommerce Extension (Our add-on)
For any extra information you want to add, use the description field when adding or editing a term.
C) Avoid Duplicates and Overlapping Terms
Duplicate and overlapping entries can cause issues with AI translation. It’s recommended for every term to appear only once in the glossary.
For example:
Correct:
Entry 1: “welding machine”
Entry 2: “flux-cored”
Incorrect:
Entry 1: “welding machine”
Entry 2: “flux-cored welding machine”
D) Add Terms in Lowercase Unless They’re Names
Using capital letters changes how the glossary understands the terms:
Using capital letters tells WPML to identify this exact formatting. This refers to both capitalizing the start of the word, like “Steel Bolt”, and using all capital letters, like “STEEL BOLT”.
Using lowercase (e.g. “stainless steel bolt”) is not case sensitive. The term will be identified everywhere it appears regardless of capitalization.
Make sure to use capitalization only when you’re adding a proper name (people, cities, brands, product names, etc.)
For example:
1. Defining “Media Translation” as a name that needs to remain untranslated — use a capitalized word.
“Media Translation” is matched to the glossary and remains untranslated across pages.
“media translation” is translated as normal.
2. Defining a noun as an industry term like “tablet” for an online pharmacy — user lowercase.
“Take a tablet a day” will be matched with the glossary term.
“Tablets are better” will also be matched with the glossary term.
E) Only Add Terms in Singular Form
You only need to enter a term in its singular form. Avoid adding plurals — PTC handles both forms with only knowing the singular term.
Bulk Importing Glossary Terms Using CSV Files
WPML allows you to easily import (and export) your glossary terms using CSV files. This approach can save you time by instantly importing many terms at once, as well as streamline your organization by having all terms in one place.
To import glossary terms:
Go to WPML → Translation Dashboard.
Switch to the Payments & Maintenance tab and select Glossary.
Click on Import glossary to upload a CSV file.
Importing your glossary via a CSV file
You can also click on Export glossary to download the terms in a CSV file.
Preserving Translation Memory Records
When you add a new glossary term (either manually or via import), translation memory containing this term is cleared by default. This allows the term to be translated correctly next time it’s used.
If you’d like to preserve these memory entries for any reason, you can simply check the box Preserve related Translation Memory entries when adding or editing a term.
Checking the option to preserve translation memory entries when importing glossary terms
Updating Translations After Changing Glossary Entries
Whenever you create or update glossary terms, you need to update translations that include these terms. To automatically update all necessary translations, go to the Glossary tab and click Update existing translations.
Clicking the Update existing translations button
WPML will now automatically update translations without consuming any credits. Completing this process may take a few minutes, so don’t click the button again if you don’t see immediate changes.
By default, this feature can only update translations created in the past 30 days. To update glossary terms in older translations, resend your content for translation via WPML → Translation Dashboard. Remember that this translation method consumes credits.
