Terminology framework

Start here to learn the basics about terminology at Adobe

To make it easier for you to work with Quickterm, we think it would be helpful to briefly explain the entry structure concept used going forward. This is generally accepted in terminology theory and is referred to as being "concept-oriented and term-independent". This means that terms which represent the same concept are contained within the same entry using the same ID. Homonyms (terms which by coincidence have the same wording but mean something totally different, e.g., button on clothes vs. button on a GUI) are not stored in the same entry.

It is important to familiarize yourself with the notion of "concept", "language", and "term" if you want to be able to filter entries or terms and also understand approval and translation workflows.

Concept

An entry in terminology always depicts a certain "thing" or "feature", independent of the actual linguistic representation (term). This "thing" can be described independently of any terms or even language. In terminology theory, this abstract "thing" is referred to as a "concept".

Language

Different designations can exist in different languages for each concept. Not all languages are available all the time.

Term

If the designations are in written form (i.e., they are "words"), they are referred to in terminology theory as "terms". If there are multiple terms associated with a language in an entry, these are also referred to as synonyms. For example, chair and seat could be synonyms.

Entry structure

As you can see, a terminology entry has three levels: