At a glance

When translating a website, inconsistent wording can confuse readers. A product feature might have one name on the homepage and another in the help section. DeepL’s glossary lets you specify preferred translations for words and short phrases, adapting entries to the target language’s grammar. Glossary overview.

For freelancers and small teams, start with one page and a short, approved vocabulary.

Explore, section by sectionExcerpts from the opening sections. The complete article and sources are below.

Build a focused term list

Section 1 of 4

Collect product names, service labels, interface terms and phrases your audience expects. Include terms that should remain untranslated. Have someone fluent in the target language approve your choices before adding them.

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Build a focused term list

Collect product names, service labels, interface terms and phrases your audience expects. Include terms that should remain untranslated. Have someone fluent in the target language approve your choices before adding them.

Keep an approved copy outside the tool so you can review changes and recover the term list if browser data is lost. A glossary is a terminology aid, not approval of the full translation.

Create the glossary

In DeepL’s web translator, sign in, open Glossaries and choose +New glossary. Select manual creation, name the glossary and choose the language pair. Add each source term alongside its preferred translation.

Avoid competing translations for the same term. Reverse-direction entries are optional; check the direction you need before saving. Creation instructions.

Translate a small sample

Prepare a non-confidential document containing the page’s headline, buttons and a few paragraphs. In the file translator, choose the source and target languages, then select the matching glossary. The language pair must match the glossary. File-translation instructions.

Do not upload client material unless the client’s permission and data-handling requirements allow it.

Review the page in context

Ask a fluent reviewer to check meaning, tone, terminology and button length. Keep approved wording in your reference list. Test it again when the source copy changes: a term that fits a heading may need attention in a full sentence.

Check the rendered page on mobile as well as desktop. Correct terminology can still produce an unclear button or an overflowing label.

Check language and storage limits

Translation support does not guarantee glossary support. Hindi appears in DeepL’s translator list but not in the current glossary-language list. Arabic and Spanish appear in the glossary list; confirm the exact language pair you need. Glossaries cannot specify language variants. Translator languages and glossary availability.

DeepL says free users’ glossary entries stay in the browser rather than syncing across devices. Keep your approved term list backed up. Plan availability can differ, so check access before committing to a workflow.

Measure its value by the corrections your reviewer still needs to make.

Official documentation checked on 16 October 2026. Translation quality and time savings have not been hands-on tested.