Extract a glossary

Glossary extraction looks for useful term pairs in bilingual material you already have. Use it to build a terminology starting point from past translations or a trusted parallel text.

The result is a set of candidates. Review their meaning, boundaries, spelling, and usefulness before relying on them in future jobs.

Choose bilingual files or text

A good source contains the same subject in both languages and uses terminology you would want to reuse. A document with poor alignment or inconsistent translation produces a less trustworthy glossary.

You can start from supported bilingual files, separate source and target documents, or pasted text. If the originals and translations do not correspond well, review their alignment first.

Start the extraction wizard

Open Terminology → Extract Glossary.

1. Choose the source and target languages.
2. Choose files or text.
3. Decide whether to use Assisted by AI.
4. Provide the bilingual material.
5. Add extraction instructions if the chosen route offers them.
6. Run extraction and inspect the result.

The non-AI route uses statistical relationships in the bilingual material. It benefits from clean, corresponding passages. AI-assisted extraction can interpret terminology more broadly and accept additional instructions, but it requires an available AI service and still needs review.

Step 1: choose both languages, the input route, and whether to use AI assistance.

Provide files

For separate documents, place each source file opposite its matching translation and check their order. In a set of file pairs, corresponding file counts and ordering matter.

A supported bilingual file can already supply source and target. It must contain actual translations: an untranslated bilingual file does not provide equivalent terminology pairs simply because it has two language labels.

Inspect detected languages before proceeding. A reversed direction can make the extracted resource unsuitable for the project where you intend to use it.

Provide text

Use bilingual input for separate source and target text boxes. Include corresponding material in a similar order.

Where available with AI assistance, mixed-text input accepts both languages in one block. Keep the block coherent and within the limit shown by the tool. If it is rejected as too long, divide it into smaller corresponding sections.

With Text input, provide corresponding material on both language sides.

Describe which terms to extract

When the instructions step is available, explain what counts as a useful term for the job. For example:

Focus on component names and maintenance procedures. Exclude general verbs and complete instruction sentences. Keep multiword names together.

This narrows the task. It does not verify that the material uses the client's approved terminology, so check the candidates against the brief.

The AI-assisted route offers an optional instruction step before extraction.

Review the temporary glossary

Searchspeare opens the extracted candidates in the temporary glossary workspace. Read the source and target pair together. Keep a phrase when it expresses the same reusable concept in both languages.

Reject candidates that are unrelated, overly general, fragmentary, or only coincidentally occur together. Edit boundaries when an article or neighboring adjective has been included unnecessarily. Add examples when a term's meaning depends on context.

Use the glossary tools to edit, confirm useful terms, remove duplicates, and save the reviewed work to a glossary. Check the destination and languages. Export CSV or TBX when you need an exchange copy.

Select a candidate and open Context to read its source and target examples.

Properties lets you inspect term wording, matching, Forbidden flags, and examples.

The temporary glossary’s save action asks for a destination. New creates a glossary when no suitable destination exists.

Extract from an existing workspace

The editor, memory, and alignment tools also offer extraction actions using their available bilingual content. These shortcuts can start extraction without repeating the full wizard because the languages and material are already known.

Review candidates before saving terminology

Check the scope shown by the action, review the resulting temporary glossary, and attach the saved glossary to the project that needs it. Extraction alone does not make every candidate an approved project term.

See Glossaries and terms for matching behavior and terminology review.