Glossaries are one of the most important tools for translators and interpreters. Today, we have easy and quick access to tens of thousands of FREE dictionaries and glossaries online. It is no longer necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on printed lists of terms. Simply search by source language, target language, topic or industry. The following sites contain thousands of important language tools, and most free and available to the public. For more, try a Google search using keywords such as “glossaries for translators and interpreters” or “terminology for translators” or “industry-specific vocabulary lists” or Google by language and industry, for example “Spanish English medical glossaries”.

Wordreference.com is a terminology search site with which most of us are familiar. It also has a translator forum where you post questions about translation and get answers from other members. This leads to very interesting discussions. It’s very useful when you need help with localization as users are from all over the world.

WordMagicSoft.com offers English Spanish translation software that you can purchase and download onto your computer. However, it also has a free and very good dictionary of terms you can search simply by clicking on the blue Dictionary link. This dictionary offers not only translations, but also verb conjugation, examples of usage for each term, idioms, synonyms, plural forms, images, and more. It is truly excellent.

Lexicool.com offers links to over 8000 free glossaries available online. They claim these are ALL of the glossaries available on the Internet. Search for the glossaries most closely relating to the terminology you are seeking.

InboxTranslation.com has this list of over 3000 glossaries by topic.

The European Parliament website has an extensive list of glossaries for translators and interpreters, all categorized by industry, and in various languages. You can search for glossaries by entering specific keywords on this search page.

The European Commission has a glossary and dictionary search page that links to glossaries offered by government institutions and public service sites. It’s especially useful for interpreters to ensure they are using terminology in context. Just click on your preferred language to search.

TranslationDirectory.com has an extensive list of dictionaries here, and several hundred glossaries here.

Lai.com has a very long list of glossaries in many languages here.

Spanish-Translator-Services.com has many glossaries for English Spanish translators and interpreters here.

TranslatorsCafe.com has a long list of glossaries. You can use them to search for terms online. Simply enter the source language and translation language and it will create a list of links to glossaries.

Proz.com is where you’ll find GlossPost, a public searchable database of links to glossaries on the web, and another public tool called TermSearch, which you can use to search for terms in glossaries and dictionaries created by translators. You can use these even if you aren’t a registered member.