If you’ve ever been disappointed by a technical translation, here’s a blunt truth:
Translators are good—but they’re not mind readers.
In tech, terminology is insider knowledge. One term can mean five different things depending on the product line, the industry niche, or even your internal culture. When companies skip creating a glossary, they often set their translation team up to fail… then wonder why the final result doesn’t sound “right.”
Here’s why it happens—and how to avoid it.
Why Clients Skip Glossaries (and Why It Backfires)
“It’s extra cost.”
Many teams don’t see the direct link between a glossary and final quality. But a glossary is not a luxury add-on—it’s foundational. A single term error repeated 200 times is far more expensive to fix later.
“It slows us down.”
In reality, not having a glossary slows you down. Without pre-approved terminology, translators must send more queries and reviewers must fix more inconsistencies. A 30-minute glossary kickoff can save days during review.
“We don’t have the people for this.”
Only your internal experts truly know your product language. Translators can propose terms, but they can’t validate branded or industry-specific terminology for you. Glossary work is a shared responsibility.
“Isn’t the translator supposed to handle all that?”
Professional LSPs do handle terminology management—but they still need your approvals. Otherwise, they’re forced to guess between multiple plausible translations.
“We don’t need it—we have bilingual staff.”
Being bilingual isn’t the same as understanding terminology management, controlled vocabularies, or CAT tools. Skipping the glossary because “Alex speaks Spanish” almost always leads to rework.
“Glossaries have to be huge.”
Nope. A glossary is not an encyclopedia.
It’s a focused list: product-specific terms, UI terms, branded language, abbreviations, and terms with a specific meaning in your context.
What Happens When You Skip the Glossary
- Terminology becomes inconsistent across documents, teams, and languages.
- Reviewers complain that “the tone isn’t right.”
- Machine translation performs poorly without pre-approved terms.
- Projects slow down because you’re fixing the same terminology issues again and again.
- In regulated industries, a single mistranslation can create safety or legal risks.
In other words: the time you “saved” upfront comes back multiplied during review.
The Simple Fix: Build a Lean Glossary Early
Start small. Identify 20–50 terms that matter most: core UI strings, product names, safety-related words, internal jargon. Approve translations once, and everything downstream becomes smoother—reviews, updates, MT, future releases.
A glossary isn’t bureaucracy.
It’s insurance for your global content—and one of the easiest ways to avoid being disappointed by your technical translation.