Translation glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms translators, agencies and publishers use every day.
ATA certification
The American Translators Association offers a certification exam for specific language pairs.
Back translation
A back translation is a literal translation of a translated text back into the source language by a second translator who has not seen the…
Calque (loan translation)
A calque is a word or phrase borrowed by translating its parts literally: 'skyscraper' became French 'gratte-ciel' and German…
CAT tool
Computer-assisted translation (CAT) software helps human translators work faster and more consistently.
Certified translation
A certified translation comes with a signed statement from the translator or agency attesting that it is complete and accurate.
CIOL and ITI
The Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL) and the Institute of Translation & Interpreting (ITI) are the main UK professional bodies.
Cultural adaptation
Cultural adaptation adjusts references, idioms, jokes, food, holidays and measurement units so the target reader understands them the way…
Domestication vs foreignization
Two strategies described by Lawrence Venuti: domestication makes a translation read as if originally written in the target culture…
Dubbing and lip-sync translation
Dubbing replaces the original dialogue with a recorded translation. Scripts must be adapted to match lip movements and timing, which makes…
False friends
False friends are words that look alike in two languages but mean different things — Italian 'camera' (room), Spanish 'embarazada'…
Fuzzy match
A fuzzy match is a partial match between a new sentence and one stored in the translation memory, usually expressed as a percentage (for…
Gist translation
A gist translation conveys the general meaning of a text quickly, usually for internal decisions.
Honorifics in translation
Honorifics such as Japanese -san or -sama, Korean speech levels or the Italian Lei encode social relationships that English expresses…
Internationalization (i18n)
Internationalization is designing software or content so it can be localized easily later — Unicode support, externalized strings, flexible…
Interpreting vs translation
Translation is written; interpreting is spoken, live. Interpreters work consecutively (after the speaker pauses), simultaneously (in real…
ISO 17100
ISO 17100 is the international standard for translation service providers. It specifies translator qualifications and requires a…
Language pair
A language pair is a combination of source and target language, written in direction: English>Italian (EN>IT) is a different service from…
Literary translation
Literary translation covers fiction, poetry, drama and creative non-fiction. Beyond meaning, the translator must recreate voice, rhythm…
Localization (l10n)
Localization adapts a product or text to a specific market: not only the language but dates, currencies, units, images, colours, humour and…
Machine translation (MT)
Machine translation is automatic translation by software — today mostly neural networks and large language models.
Machine translation post-editing (MTPE)
In MTPE, a machine translation engine produces a draft that a professional translator corrects.
Minimum fee
A minimum fee (minimum charge) covers the administrative time of very short jobs, such as a 30-word certificate.
Per-word rate
Most commercial translation is priced per source word (sometimes per target word or per line/page in parts of Europe).
Pivot (relay) translation
In pivot or relay translation, a text is translated via an intermediate language — for example Korean to English to Italian — when no…
Proofreading vs editing (revision)
In translation, 'editing' or 'revision' (ISO 17100) means a second linguist compares the translation against the source for accuracy and…
Royalty share (translation)
In a royalty-share arrangement, a translator works for little or no upfront fee in exchange for a percentage of the translated book's…
Sight translation
Sight translation is reading a written document aloud in another language, on the spot — common in courts, hospitals and immigration…
Source language
The source language is the language of the original text. Professional translators generally translate from one or more source languages…
Style guide (translation)
A translation style guide records a client's preferences: tone, formality, spelling variant, number and date formats, how to handle brand…
Subtitling
Subtitling translates spoken dialogue into timed captions on screen. It has strict limits on characters per line and reading speed, so…
Sworn translator
A sworn (or court-appointed) translator is officially authorised by a court or ministry to produce legally valid translations, stamped with…
Target language
The target language is the language a text is translated into. Industry best practice — and most professional codes of conduct — is to…
Termbase (glossary)
A termbase is a structured glossary of approved terms in two or more languages, often with definitions, context and forbidden alternatives.
Text expansion
Text expansion is the increase in length when translating, usually from English.
TMX and XLIFF
TMX (Translation Memory eXchange) and XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) are open file formats that let translation memories…
Transcreation
Transcreation is creative translation for marketing, advertising and slogans, where the goal is to recreate the effect and emotion rather…
Translating slang and swearing
Slang and profanity rarely map one-to-one: the strength, imagery and taboo topics differ between cultures.
Translation memory (TM)
A translation memory is a database of source sentences paired with their approved translations.
Translation rights
Translation rights are the publisher's or author's right to license a book for publication in another language.
Translationese
Translationese is text that is technically correct but reads like a translation: unnatural word order, calques, source-language…