What is the purpose of the glossary in Tricot?
When translating a website, there are words and expressions that come up again and again. Your company name, your technical terms, your industry-specific vocabulary - all terms that absolutely must be translated the same way everywhere, by everyone, every time.
This is exactly what the Tricot glossary does. It's a terminology management tool integrated directly into plugin, allowing you to define once and for all how certain terms should be translated. Once a term is added to the glossary, Tricot ensures that it is used consistently in all your translations, whether generated automatically by the AI or revised manually by your team.
The result? Uniform terminology throughout your site, without having to manually check every page, every paragraph, every button.
Why it matters
Consistent terminology is not just a question of aesthetics. It has a direct impact on the trust your visitors place in your site. Imagine a customer reading "shopping cart" on one page, "cart" on another and "my cart" on a third. This kind of inconsistency gives the impression of amateurism, even if each translation is technically correct.
The glossary solves this problem at the root. Rather than correcting inconsistencies after the fact, you define the right terms in advance and Tricot applies them systematically. It's an investment of just a few minutes that saves you hours of proofreading.
It's also a valuable tool for your teams. If several people are working on your site's translations, the glossary serves as a common reference. Everyone uses the same terms, without having to consult each other every time.
How to add a term to the glossary
Adding a term is simple and takes just a few seconds. Go to the Glossary from the Tricot administration interface. Here you'll find a form with the following fields:
The first field is the source languagein other words, the language in which the term exists on your site. If your site is in French and you're translating into English, the source language will be French.
Next, select the target languageselect either the target language, or the language into which you wish to define the preferred translation.
Visit source term is the word or phrase you want to frame. This can be a single word (such as "basket") or a complete expression (such as "add to basket").
Visit preferred translation is the version you want to be used systematically in the target language. This is where you impose your choice of terminology.
Finally, a notes allows you to add context. This is particularly useful when several people are working on translations: you can explain why you chose this translation over another, or in what context the term should be used. For example: "marketing term, do not translate literally" or "used in e-commerce context only".
Once you have completed the form, click on Add term. It immediately appears in the glossary terms table, just below the form. You can delete a term or add new ones at any time.
How the glossary influences your translations
The glossary is more than just a notebook. It plays an active, transparent role at several stages of the translation process.
Before machine translation
When Tricot detects a text string that corresponds exactly to a term in the glossary, the translation is proposed immediately, without even needing to call on the AI. It's instantaneous and doesn't consume any translation credits.
During machine translation
When the AI translates a string containing glossary terms, these terms are passed as context to the translation engine. So the AI knows to use "shopping cart" rather than "basket" if that's what your glossary dictates. The result is a translation that respects your terminology choices from the very first pass.
After machine translation
Even if the AI has produced a slightly different translation, Tricot automatically applies the glossary terms to the final result. It's a safety net that guarantees consistency, whatever happens.
In the validation table
When you or your team review translations in the validation table, glossary terms appear as suggestions. This guides human translators and saves them from having to search for the right terminology. It's a real time-saver, especially on large projects.
Apply the glossary to existing translations
It often happens that terms are added to the glossary after part of the site has already been translated. In this case, the old translations do not automatically benefit from the new terminology rules.
That's why Tricot offers the button "Forcing the replacement of existing translations. By clicking on it, Tricot scans all your validated translations and replaces any that don't yet comply with the glossary. This retroactive operation updates your entire site in a single action.
This function is particularly useful when you decide to change the terminology of a term after the fact. For example, if you change from "e-boutique" to "boutique en ligne", a click on this button updates all the relevant translations.
Some useful technical details
The Tricot glossary is designed to be intelligent in the way it identifies terms:
The correspondence respects word limits. This means that if you add the word "car" to the glossary, Tricot will not change "card" or "carbon". Only the single word "car" will be affected. You don't need to worry about untimely replacements.
By default, the correspondence is case insensitive. "Email", "email" and "EMAIL" all correspond to the same glossary term. This is the most practical behavior in most cases, as the terms often appear in different contexts (start of sentence, title in uppercase, running text).
Tips for using the glossary
Start with the most important terms: your company name, your products, and industry-specific vocabulary. There's no need to add hundreds of terms right from the start - a dozen or so well-chosen terms already have a significant impact on overall consistency.
Use the notes field to explain your choices. Your colleagues (or you in six months' time) will appreciate understanding why "authentication" was preferred to "connection".
Remember to update your glossary when your terminology evolves. A renamed product, a marketing repositioning, a change in business vocabulary - these are all reasons to revise your entries and use forced replacement to propagate the changes.
Finally, combine the glossary with the translation memory (available on the Premium plan) for maximum consistency. The glossary manages individual terms, the translation memory manages recurring phrases. Together, they cover most of your consistency needs.
