Glossary

Website translation terms, in plain English

Plain definitions of the terms that come up when you translate a website, from locale and hreflang to translation memory, with links to go deeper.

A

Accept-Language header: Accept-Language is the HTTP header a browser sends to list the languages its user prefers. Its syntax, q-values, what Googlebot sends, and why URLs beat it.

Back-translation: A back-translation turns a translation back into the source language, made without the original, to check it. Where it is used, its limits, and the alternative.

Internationalization (i18n): Internationalization (i18n) is designing software and content so it can be localized easily later: what i18n covers, where the name comes from, and websites.

Language selector: A language selector is the control that lets a visitor switch a website to another language. What it should link to, how to label it, and LangRelay's own.
Locale: A locale is a language plus the regional conventions that go with it, written as a tag such as de or de-AT. How locales differ from languages and how tags work.

Machine translation: Machine translation is software that translates text without a person: rule-based, statistical, neural and LLM systems, and what a website needs from it.

Neural machine translation: Neural machine translation uses a neural network to translate whole sentences: encoder and decoder, attention, the Transformer, and how LLMs relate to it.

String translation: String translation covers the short texts a theme or plugin prints. How WordPress handles strings, and why a rendered-page translator needs no extra step.

Transcreation: Transcreation rewrites a line for a new market so it has the effect the original had, even if the words change. How it sits beside translation and localization.
Translation management system: A translation management system runs translation work: content in, work routed, memory and terms applied, files out. What it does, and why LangRelay is not one.
Translation memory: A translation memory stores translated sentences for reuse. Exact and fuzzy matches, TMX files, how it differs from a glossary, and how LangRelay reuses text.
Translation QA: Translation QA is the checking a translation gets before it is used: linguistic review, automated checks and review on the page. What each one catches.

x-default: x-default is the hreflang value for the page to show when no language version matches a visitor. What Google says it is for, and where LangRelay points it.

Pick a language and a page. See how LangRelay handles changes, review, and SEO on your own site.