MultiTerm termbases

An MultiTerm termbase is a database containing terms and term-related information. Each termbase can store an unlimited number of entries. MultiTerm is a concept-oriented system. Each termbase entry corresponds to a single concept.

An entry contains all the terms that describe the concept, as well as any additional information associated with that concept, for example, a definition. For each concept, terms can be in a number of languages. All terms in an entry represent a single concept. The termbase can be searched in any language direction. Terms are sorted in language fields so that entries are sorted according to language, for example English and German.

Termbase languages

Most termbases are bilingual or multilingual and contain terminology data in a range of different languages. Each time you open a termbase in Trados Studio you specify which termbase languages correspond to which project language. Trados Studio uses these languages to sort and search the termbase contents.

When you browse or search terms, the source and target languages correspond to the open file's source and target language. The language selections determine:

  • The order of languages in the entry pane in the Termbase Viewer window
  • The terms which are returned by searches

Termbase fields

Termbase data is stored in termbase fields. For example, terms are stored in Term fields and language names are stored in Language fields. A separate field is required for each piece of information you want the termbase to hold. All fields defined for a termbase are present in every termbase entry. However, if a field is empty it may not be displayed.

Termbase entries

A termbase entry stores terms and related information about the 'thing' that is identified by the terms. For example, if the 'thing' being defined is a house, you may add the term house, a description of a house, a picture of a house, other terms which are also used to refer to a house (such as home, domicile and dwelling) plus other language versions of the terms.

A termbase entry can contain as much or as little information as you want.