Technical Translation Glossary: 90 Terms Defined

Translation providers talk in shorthand. A quote mentioning weighted word count, context matches, and an ISO 17100 workflow is perfectly clear to the person who wrote it and opaque to the documentation manager reading it on a Tuesday afternoon. This glossary defines that vocabulary from the buyer's side of the table.

Every definition here was written in-house rather than borrowed, by the project managers and linguists who use these words daily on manuals, drawings, and safety documentation. Entries cross-reference each other where the concepts connect.

• Core vocabulary
• Process, people and roles
• Translation technology
• Quality and review
• Files and formats
• Standards and compliance
• Pricing and metrics

Core vocabulary

Source language

The language a document is written in when it reaches the translation team. Quotes and schedules are normally built on the source, so it is the side that gets analyzed first.

Target language

The language a document is being translated into. One project can carry a single source and a dozen targets, each with its own translator and reviser.

Language pair

A source and target combination stated in one direction. English into German and German into English are two different pairs, usually two different people.

Language variant

A regional form of a language, such as Mexican versus European Spanish. In regulated documentation the variant is a compliance decision, since label wording and legal references differ.

Locale

A language plus a region and its conventions: en-US, es-MX, pt-BR, fr-CA. The locale governs date format, decimal separator, units, and often required regulatory phrasing.

Native speaker

A translator working into the language they were raised and educated in. It is where instinct for register lives, and why we never assign anyone to write into a second language.

Localization (l10n)

Adapting content to a target locale beyond the words: units, formats, legal references, examples, images. The 10 stands for the letters between the first L and the final N.

Internationalization (i18n)

Designing a product or document so it can be localized later without re-engineering. In practice: no text baked into images, no sentences assembled from fragments, room for longer strings.

Globalization (g11n)

The umbrella term for everything an organization does to sell and support a product across markets. Translation is one workstream inside it.

Glossary

A bilingual term list agreed with the client, often a spreadsheet with source term, approved target, and a note. Lighter than a termbase and far better than nothing.

Parallel text

An existing target-language document on similar subject matter, used as a model for phrasing and conventions. A published standard is frequently the most useful one a client can supply.

Process, people and roles

Translator

The linguist who produces the first complete version of the target text. On technical work the translator is picked for subject knowledge first and language pair second.

Reviser

A second qualified linguist who compares translation against source segment by segment. The reviser is never the translator, which is the entire point of the role.

Revision

The bilingual comparison of target against source by that second linguist. Required by ISO 17100, and where most substantive corrections happen, because self-checking rarely catches what a translator has already read past twice.

Proofreading

A monolingual read of the target text alone, checking language, typography, and layout without consulting the source. A useful final pass, never a substitute for revision.

TEP

Translation, editing, proofreading: the three-stage workflow most technical providers quote as standard. When a price looks unusually low, the missing middle stage is normally the reason.

Project manager

The person who scopes files, assigns linguists, tracks the schedule, and keeps questions moving between your engineers and the language team.

Localization engineer

The specialist who prepares files for translation and rebuilds them afterward: extracting strings from software resources or CAD title blocks, protecting code, restoring formatting.

Desktop publishing (DTP)

Rebuilding the translated layout so the target version looks like the original in a language that takes more or less room. See our technical desktop publishing service.

Query sheet

The structured list of questions linguists raise when the source is ambiguous, with a column for your answer. Queries arrive in batches at agreed points in our project workflow.

In-country review

Review of the finished translation by your staff or distributor in the target market. Most productive when the reviewer gets the glossary first, so feedback lands on real issues.

Post-editing

Correcting machine translation output rather than translating from a blank segment. The skill overlaps with revision, though a post-editor is trained to distrust fluent sentences.

Transcreation

Rewriting a message for another market instead of translating it, common in advertising and rare in technical work. Where a warning must say exactly what it says, transcreation is the wrong instrument.

Back translation

Translating the target text back into the source language with a linguist who never saw the original, so a monolingual reviewer can see what the translation says. Standard on clinical content.

Alignment

Pairing an old source document with its published translation to rebuild a translation memory after the fact. Output always gets a human check before reuse.

Translation technology

CAT tool

Computer-assisted translation software such as Trados Studio or memoQ. It splits a document into segments and connects the translator to memory and terminology. It translates nothing on its own.

Segment

The unit a CAT tool works in, usually one sentence or one table cell. Memory matches are stored and retrieved segment by segment.

Segmentation

The rules deciding where one segment ends and the next begins. Manual line breaks inside sentences break segmentation and lower every match rate downstream.

Translation memory (TM)

A database of previously translated segments paired with their sources, reused automatically on later projects. Our explainer on translation memory covers the discounts.

100% match

A segment identical to one already in memory. Priced at a fraction of a new word, though it still gets a glance: an identical sentence can mean something different in a new position.

Context match

A 100% match whose neighboring segments also match, confirming the surrounding context. The highest-confidence category and the most heavily discounted.

Fuzzy match

A partial match scored by similarity, usually banded 50–74, 75–84, 85–94, and 95–99 percent. The higher the band, the less editing and the lower the rate applied.

Repetition

A segment appearing more than once inside the same project: translated once, propagated everywhere, billed at a reduced rate. Parts catalogs are full of them.

Leverage

The share of a document that can be filled from existing memory before a translator opens the file. It is why version two of a manual routinely costs a third of version one.

Concordance search

Searching the memory for a word or phrase in its past contexts, to see how it was handled before. It is how a translator checks precedent across everything you have published.

Termbase

A terminology database holding approved target equivalents, definitions, usage notes, and forbidden variants. Our terminology management guide covers how one gets built.

Terminology extraction

Scanning source material to pull candidate terms for a termbase, then filtering a long automated list down to the terms that need a ruling.

Machine translation (MT)

Software producing a translation with no human in the loop. Our assessment of machine translation for technical content sets out where it holds up.

Neural machine translation

MT built on neural networks. The output reads fluently, which is the difficulty: an omitted clause or a reversed negation sounds as natural as a correct sentence.

MTPE

Machine translation post-editing. Light post-editing aims at accurate, unpolished text; full post-editing aims at quality comparable to human translation. The two are priced differently.

Pseudo-translation

Running a fake translation that lengthens strings and swaps in accented characters, to expose layout breaks and encoding faults before real translation starts.

Tag

An inline marker inside a segment carrying formatting, a cross-reference, or XML structure. Tags must land in the right position in the target sentence or the exported file breaks.

Placeholder

A token such as %s or {count} that software replaces at runtime. Translators reposition placeholders to fit target word order but never translate them.

TMX

The exchange format for translation memories, letting a memory move between tools or providers. Ask for TMX delivery at project close so the asset stays with you.

Quality and review

QA checks

Automated passes run in tools such as Xbench or Verifika: number mismatches, untranslated segments, tag errors, terminology deviations. They run on every file in our quality assurance process, after revision rather than instead of it.

LQA

Linguistic quality assurance: a scored review of a sample against defined error categories and severities, used to measure quality rather than simply correct it.

Style guide

Written rules for the target language covering tone, form of address, unit and date conventions, and treatment of product names. Two competent translators will disagree without one.

DNT list

Do not translate: product names, part numbers, signal names, and code strings that must stay exactly as written. It belongs in the handoff, not in the first round of corrections.

Query

A single question from a linguist about an ambiguous or apparently incorrect passage. A complex document that generates no queries usually means somebody guessed.

False friend

A word resembling its counterpart in another language while meaning something else. The German Kondensator is an English capacitor, not a condenser, and that slip puts the wrong item in a parts list.

Register

The formality level and voice of the text. Technical documentation calls for a direct, neutral register, and several languages force a choice of address form that must be settled before translation.

Certificate of accuracy

A signed statement on letterhead attesting that a translation is complete and accurate to the provider's knowledge. Auditors and customers ask for one; we issue it on request.

Sign-off

Formal client acceptance of a delivered file, closing the correction window and marking the memory and termbase as approved for reuse.

Files and formats

Native file

The editable original in the program that produced it: DOCX, IDML, DWG, FrameMaker source. Working from natives removes an entire rebuild stage, as our file formats guide details.

XLIFF

The XML standard for carrying translatable content between systems while protecting the surrounding code. It is the neutral ground between a client system and a translation workflow.

PO file

The string format used by gettext software and most WordPress plugins, holding source, translation, plural forms, and developer comments. Those comments are often the only context a translator gets.

Resource file

The general term for a software file holding interface strings: RESX, JSON, YAML, .strings. Translators need the character limits stored beside each string as much as the string itself.

IDML

The interchange format exported from Adobe InDesign. Supplied with fonts and linked images, it lets a provider return a laid-out document rather than loose text.

MIF

The FrameMaker interchange format used for long structured manuals, where variables, conditional text, and cross-references have to survive the trip out and back.

DITA

An XML architecture breaking documentation into reusable topics assembled by maps. Each topic is translated once wherever it is reused, which is efficient and unforgiving of inconsistent source writing.

String

A single piece of interface text, frequently a fragment rather than a sentence. Fragments translate badly without context, which is why screenshots matter more in software than in manuals.

Unicode

The encoding standard letting one file hold Latin, Cyrillic, Chinese, and Arabic text together. Legacy encodings are still why a delivered file occasionally shows boxes where accents belong.

OCR

Optical character recognition, turning a scanned page image into editable text. Accuracy falls with poor scans and dense tables, so output always needs a human correction pass.

Localization kit

The package handed to the language team at kickoff: source files, glossary, style guide, reference documents, screenshots, and contacts. A good kit answers half the questions before they are asked.

Expansion rate

How much text grows when it changes language. English into German commonly runs 25 to 35 percent longer, French and Spanish 15 to 25 percent. Fixed-width cells and drawing title blocks are where it hurts.

RTL

Right to left, the writing direction of Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, and Urdu. Layouts generally need mirroring, and embedded Latin names or numbers need deliberate handling.

Standards and compliance

ISO 17100

The international standard for translation services, setting requirements for translator qualifications, mandatory revision by a second linguist, and project records. Techniwords follows this process; we do not claim third-party certification against it.

ISO 18587

The companion standard covering post-editing of machine translation. It defines light and full post-editing and the competences a post-editor is expected to hold.

ISO 11669

Guidance for writing translation project specifications: audience, purpose, register, terminology, quality expectations. It is the standard behind a properly run kickoff.

ISO 9001

A generic quality management standard for any industry. It tells you an organization has audited processes; it says nothing about whether its translators know what a torque specification is.

ASTM F2575

A US framework for agreeing translation quality requirements between buyer and provider up front. Useful language to borrow when writing a request for proposal.

ATA certification

Certification by the American Translators Association, awarded per language direction through a proctored exam with a low pass rate. It certifies an individual and can never describe a company.

Certified translation

In the United States, a translation accompanied by a signed statement of accuracy. No federal licensing body stands behind the phrase, so ask what the receiving party actually requires.

Sworn translation

A translation carrying legal force because the translator is sworn before a court. The mechanism exists across much of Europe and Latin America and has no US equivalent.

GHS

The Globally Harmonized System for classifying and labeling chemicals, implemented in the US through the OSHA hazard communication rule. It fixes the sixteen-section format of a safety data sheet in every language.

H and P phrases

The standardized hazard and precautionary statements of GHS, each carrying a code such as H314 or P280. Official wordings exist per language and must be reproduced verbatim.

ITAR

US export control regulations covering defense-related technical data. Translation of controlled data must stay with US persons inside the United States, which restricts who may be assigned.

NDA

The confidentiality agreement covering everyone who touches your documents. Ours binds project managers, translators, revisers, and desktop publishers, and can be signed before you send a file for quoting.

Simplified Technical English

A controlled writing standard, ASD-STE100, built on a restricted vocabulary and grammar rules. Source text written to it translates faster and more consistently in every language.

Pricing and metrics

Word count

The number of source words counted by the CAT tool, which is what a technical quote is built on. Tool counts differ slightly from a word processor's, and the tool count is billable.

Source word count

Counting the source rather than the delivered target, so the price is fixed before work begins. Target-based pricing rewards a translator for writing longer.

Weighted word count

The word count remaining after memory discounts are applied band by band. A 40,000-word update can carry a weighted count of 12,000, and that figure is what your invoice follows.

Analysis

The CAT tool report breaking a file into new words, fuzzy bands, repetitions, and full matches. It is the arithmetic behind a quote, and any provider should hand it over unprompted.

Match grid

The table of discount percentages applied to each match band. Grids differ noticeably between providers, so compare the grid alongside the per-word rate.

Rate per word

The unit price for new words in a given pair and subject field. Technical rates run above general rates because the pool of linguists who can read a wiring diagram is smaller.

New words

Segments with no usable match in memory, billed at full rate. On a document you have translated before, this is the number to watch when comparing two quotes.

Minimum charge

A floor price for very short jobs, covering assignment, revision, QA, and delivery on a document that might be one warning label. Ours is deliberately modest.

Rush fee

A surcharge for compressed deadlines, reflecting evening or weekend work and the coordination of splitting one document across parallel translators with a shared memory.

Throughput

How much a specialist translator produces per day at technical quality, typically 2,000 to 2,500 words. Larger daily volumes need more linguists, which raises coordination effort.

Turnaround time

Total elapsed time from handoff to delivery, including revision, QA, and layout, not only the days spent translating.