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There may be more than one term per language (synonyms). All terms refer to the same concept.
Below, you will find a description of the main fields available in the Term Level (TL):
- Term
- Term reference(s)
- Term type
- Reliability
- Evaluation
- Grammatical info
- Term note & reference(s)
- Term in context
- Language usage & reference(s)
- Regional usage & reference(s)
- Collections
- Customer & note
- Owner
TERM
This is the designation of a defined concept in a special language by a linguistic expression. A term can take various forms (single word, more than one word, formula, acronym, phrasal unit, etc.) but must refer to a single concept (as defined in the anchor language).
Terms are presented in the singular, unless habitually used in the plural, without articles or capital letters, unless language rules dictate otherwise, and in canonical form (nominative form).
TERM REFERENCE(S)
This demonstrates the reliability of the term in question and is therefore usually from an authoritative, credible source.
TERM TYPE
| Term | One word or set of words which designate a general concept or an individual concept (‘appellation’) in a particular language. |
| Abbrev | Abbreviation (acronym, initialism, contraction or truncation). |
| Phrase | Phraseological unit that is not strictly speaking a ‘term’ (i.e. it does not denote a definable ‘concept’), but which nevertheless has a standard translation — and must therefore always be translated in the same way — or which repeatedly occurs in EU texts and poses a real translation problem. |
| Formula | Chemical or mathematical formula or other scientific expression. |
| Short form | For example: the common name of an agreement or the short, unofficial name of a country, etc.; any accepted shorter version of a title or of a name, e.g.: Term: ‘United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods’ Short form: ‘Vienna Sales Convention’ Terms that contain an abbreviation are also considered short forms (e.g. ‘nominal GDP’). |
| Lookup form | A term or spelling variation that does not appear as such on an entry, but which you can search for in order to be redirected to the entry. |
RELIABILITY
Reliability values (see table below) indicate the match between a particular term and the concept as defined in the anchor language, as well as the reliability of the sources used.
| Code | Description | Explanation |
| ★ | Reliability not verified | Automatically assigned to terms entered by non-native speakers. The code will not change until the reliability is assessed by a user with editing rights for the language (usually a terminologist and native speaker) |
| ★★ | Minimum reliability | Automatically assigned to terms entered or updated by native speakers. Terminologists usually change this value to 3 or 4 stars, unless they have doubts as to the reliability of the term because: -no relevant sources are available; -there are doubts concerning the reliability of the sources used; -the term is a neologism and has not been sanctioned by a competent body or source; -the sources available, though apparently reliable, present conflicting solutions. |
| ★★★ | Reliable | Manually assigned by a terminologist following a reliability assessment. Reliable terms satisfy at least one of the following criteria: – obtained from a trusted source; – agreed by a representative body of same-language terminologists; – the common designation of the concept in its field. N.B. This code was automatically assigned to terms on many entries, regardless of their previous validation status, following the merge of existing databases to create IATE. Therefore some terms marked as ‘reliable’ are not necessarily so. |
| ★★★★ | Very reliable | Manually assigned following a reliability assessment. Very reliable terms are: -well-established and widely accepted by experts as the correct designation, or -confirmed by a trusted and authoritative source, in particular a reliable written source. 4 stars indicate that the terminologist was absolutely certain of the choice, e.g. for the original-language name of an organisation (as defined in its constitution or founding instrument) or for a legal concept created by a legislative act (in all authentic language versions of that act). |
EVALUATION
| Preferred | The best term (of its ‘term type’) to use in an EU text. A term may be ‘preferred’ because it is intrinsically better than the other terms, or because it has been chosen to ensure consistency in EU texts. |
| Admitted | A term which is correct, but for which better synonyms exist. |
| Deprecated | A term which is widely used, and is therefore likely to appear in EU documents or which appears in an apparently authoritative source, but which should be used neither in originals nor in translations because it is not correct and fit for use in EU texts. |
| Obsolete | A term which was previously used to denote the concept, but is no longer in use (e.g. the ‘Bank Identifier Code’ is now called the ‘Business Identifier Code’, see IATE:926311). |
| Proposed | A term or denomination which has been proposed but not yet fully adopted. |
GRAMMATICAL INFO
Part of speech, gender and number.
TERM NOTE & REFERENCE(S)
Relevant information related to the term.
The term note reference indicates the source of the information in the note field.
TERM IN CONTEXT & REFERENCE(S)
A short quotation from a reliable source that illustrates the use of a term.
The context reference indicates the source of the context.
LANGUAGE USAGE & REFERENCE(S)
Information on the way the term is used, e.g. a term which is always used in the plural.
The language usage reference indicates the source of the information in the ‘Language usage’ field.
REGIONAL USAGE & REFERENCE(S)
Information on the geographical area in which the term is used (e.g. when different NL terms are used in Belgium and in the Netherlands).
The regional usage reference indicates the source of the information in the ‘Regional usage’ field.
COLLECTIONS
Some language levels are grouped in ‘collections’ relating to a specific subject area or to a project. Read more about ‘collections‘.
 Public collections are visible to external users, whereas confidential ones are not. |
CUSTOMER & NOTE
Used where different institutions/bodies use different terms for the same concept, and mainly by services who work for different customers, e.g. the Translation Centre.
The customer note is an explanation of the preferred choice for a particular customer.
OWNER
This field indicates the institution of the user that created this level, which is responsible for the validation of the content within it.