Glossary

Translation Glossary an Enterprise plan feature.

Translation Glossary is not available to workspaces who have opted out of LLM driven translations. If you'd like to enable LLM driven translations for your workspace, contact your administrator.

The Glossary lets you define pronunciation and translation rules for specific terms at the workspace level. Rules are applied automatically whenever a new translated or dubbed version of a video is created, keeping company names, product terms, and industry language consistent across languages and accents.

Access the Glossary

Select Glossary in the left-hand navigation menu. From here you can add, edit, import, and export terms.

By default, any workspace user can manage glossary terms. Admins can restrict this to admins only — see Control who can edit the Glossary below.

Add or edit a term

Select + New term.
Enter the term and select its original language.
Configure the Pronunciation and Translation settings on the right.
Select Save.

Pronunciation

Type a phonetic spelling or select Record to speak the pronunciation aloud. Use the scope setting to control where the pronunciation applies:

Scope	Description
All voices in a language	Applies to every voice in that language.
Specific accents	Applies only to a regional variant, for example British English.
Specific voices	Applies only to the voices you select.

Translation

Toggle Don't translate to keep the term unchanged across all languages — useful for acronyms and brand names. Otherwise, define a translation for each target language or locale.

Manage terms from the editor

You can add and manage glossary terms without leaving the editor.

To add a translation: Highlight the term in the script and select Add translation. From the panel, you can toggle Don't translate, view existing translations, or select Manage translations to open the full Glossary page.

To add a pronunciation: Highlight the term in the script, select Add pronunciation, then select Add to Glossary.

Import and export via CSV

To import: Select Import CSV, upload your file, and follow the prompts. Conflicting entries for the same term and target language are replaced; unrelated entries are unaffected.

To export: Select Download in the top-right corner.

If you already have a glossary that you maintain outside of Synthesia:

Prepare a CSV file with your term data.

A typical structure might include:

Source language
Source term
Target language / locale
Target term
“Do not translate” flag (if applicable)

Go to the Glossary page in Synthesia.
Select the Import CSV option.
Upload your CSV and follow the prompts to map your columns to glossary fields.
Review the summary and confirm the import.

How imports work:

New terms are added to your existing glossary.
If a term already exists for the same source term and target language/locale, the imported rule replaces the existing rule.
Unrelated existing entries are not affected.

Downloading and re-uploading a CSV is the recommended way to keep glossaries consistent across multiple workspaces.

Control who can edit the Glossary

The Restricted Glossary Management toggle is off by default for new workspaces, meaning all workspace members can manage glossary terms. Workspace admins can restrict this to admins only if needed.

To restrict glossary management to workspace admins only:

Select your user icon in the top-right corner.
Select Account info.
Scroll to General settings under your workspace name.
Toggle Restricted glossary management on.

How glossary rules are applied

Glossary rules apply when you create a new translation or dubbed video. Synthesia detects terms in the script and applies your defined rules based on the target language or locale.

Updating a glossary term does not update previously translated or dubbed videos. Re-translate the video for the affected language to apply the latest rules.

Example workflows

Standardizing product names across regions — Add product and feature names as glossary terms. Choose approved translations per language or mark them as Don't translate to keep them in English.
Keeping acronyms consistent — Create entries for acronyms like "SSO" or "FOCA" and set them to Don't translate so they remain unchanged across all languages.
Supporting regional localization — Add accent-specific entries (for example es-ES vs es-MX) for the same concept to align with local expectations.

Considerations

One glossary per workspace — Each workspace has a single shared glossary. Download and re-upload a CSV to sync terms across multiple workspaces.
Scope of rule application — Glossary rules apply only to newly created translations. Existing translated or dubbed videos are not updated automatically.
AI-driven context — The system uses AI to understand context when applying terms. In some edge cases it may not perfectly disambiguate terms with multiple meanings, especially without additional context in the script.
Imports and conflicts — CSV imports only replace existing rules when there is a direct conflict (same source term and target language or locale).

Updated about 1 month ago