--- title: "Translation memory: what it is, and how it differs" description: "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." url: "https://www.langrelay.com/glossary/translation-memory" --- 1. [Home](https://www.langrelay.com/) 2. [Glossary](https://www.langrelay.com/glossary) 3. Translation memory GlossaryTranslation quality # 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. [Chris Jayden](https://www.langrelay.com/about) Founder Published 7 October 2026 Reading time 3 min read ![People on a snowy pier wave to a ferry arriving in a glacier fjord, its sail patterned with green and orange leaf tiles.](https://www.langrelay.com/_emdash/api/media/file/01M4ETDBW09QQRBZPZXP26X93S.webp) On this page 1. Exact and fuzzy matches 2. How a translation memory differs from a glossary 3. How LangRelay reuses translations A translation memory, often shortened to TM, is a database of text you have already translated, stored as pairs: a source segment and its translation. A segment is usually a sentence, sometimes a paragraph or a heading. When the same segment comes up again, the memory offers the stored translation, so nobody translates it twice and it reads the same everywhere it appears. ## Exact and fuzzy matches A translation tool compares each new segment with the memory and reports what it finds. An exact match is a segment identical to one already stored, character for character. Wikipedia's article on translation memory notes that these are also called 100% matches. A fuzzy match is a stored segment that is close but not the same. In an invented example, "Free shipping on orders over 50 euros" comes up against a stored "Free shipping on orders over 40 euros". Tools score the similarity as a percentage, and a translator edits the stored translation to fit. Memories move between tools in TMX, the Translation Memory eXchange format, so a company that changes agency or tool can take its memory along. ## How a translation memory differs from a glossary The two are often confused because both store translations for reuse. They work at different sizes and are maintained differently. A glossary holds single terms and the one way each must be translated: product names, plan names, terms that must never vary. Someone decides every entry by hand, and the glossary is consulted while translating new text. A translation memory holds whole segments and fills itself as you translate. Nobody curates it entry by entry. It saves the work of retranslating, and it also keeps any mistake that was approved once. A site needs a glossary to make new translations consistent, and benefits from a memory to avoid paying twice for the same sentence. The article on [how to build a translation glossary](https://www.langrelay.com/blog/translation-glossary) covers the first. ## How LangRelay reuses translations LangRelay works with what is on your rendered pages, and its reuse is exact. Identical source text of the same kind shares one translation across a Site: a footer line on five hundred pages is translated and reviewed once, then shown on every page. When machine translation runs on a new page, it reuses every translation that already exists for that text, including those a person wrote or edited, and never overwrites one. The exception is explicit. If you want new machine output for text that already has a translation, you select it in the Translation grid and choose Machine retranslate, and the result goes through review like any other translation. LangRelay's design also covers a sentence that changes: its earlier translation can be carried over to the new sentence as a recovered translation, marked as recovered and unpublishable until a person accepts it, so a near match never goes live on its own. Recovered translations are on the roadmap; today a changed sentence is machine-translated afresh and goes live like any other translation: right away by default, unless the free checks hold it. LangRelay does not score fuzzy matches or exchange TMX files. A translation team that relies on a memory in a translation management system can keep using it for documents and apps, and LangRelay handles the website. Reuse and the glossary sit with LangRelay's other quality controls on the [translation quality page](https://www.langrelay.com/translation-quality), and [post-editing website copy](https://www.langrelay.com/blog/machine-translation-post-editing) covers the review that follows. For the texts a theme or plugin prints, see [string translation](https://www.langrelay.com/glossary/string-translation). ## Sources The pages this one cites, with the day each was read. 1. 01[Wikipedia, Translation memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translation_memory)en.wikipedia.org, checked 7 October 2026 [Chris Jayden](https://www.langrelay.com/about) Founder, LangRelay Chris Jayden is the founder of LangRelay. Chris has worked on websites of every size, from large e-commerce stores to small sites with a handful of pages, and started LangRelay after years of translating them the hard way. Share - [Share on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fglossary%2Ftranslation-memory) - [Share on X (opens in a new tab)](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fglossary%2Ftranslation-memory&text=Translation%20memory) - machine translation - translation glossary - translation memory ## Keep reading - Glossary ### [String translation](https://www.langrelay.com/glossary/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. Book a demo ## See LangRelay on your own site Book 30 minutes with the team. We translate one of your pages live and walk through review, publishing and multilingual SEO. [Book a demo](https://www.langrelay.com/book-a-demo)[See pricing](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing)