As you know, Writitude, the brand voice and style guidelines automation tool, is all about refining and maintaining your brand’s unique tone of voice.
One of Writitude’s most powerful features for achieving this goal is glossaries.
Whether you’re looking to eliminate certain words from your brand’s communication or ensure others are consistently included, glossaries are a great place to start when defining your brand’s tone of voice.
We created this step-by-step guide so you can get the most of these simple yet powerful word lists.
Why Glossaries Matter
Words are powerful. The specific terms you choose — or choose to avoid — can significantly impact how your brand is perceived.
For instance, how do you refer to your customers? Are they “users,” “consumers,” “clients,” or perhaps something unique like “Writitudeers” (our term for Writitude users)?
Different industries have different preferences, and aligning your terminology with your brand’s values is crucial.
You may think whatever you want about Taylor Swift, but her brand is undeniably strong. Consistently calling her fans 'Swifties' is no small part of that.
Eliminate words that don’t match your brand’s character
Creating a glossary of forbidden words is a great first step.
For example, if you’re in the wellness or cosmetics industry, you might decide that “customer” feels too transactional and prefer something more personal.
In Writitude, you can create a glossary to ban terms like this, ensuring your entire team stays on the same page.
Or if your brand operates in the premium segment, you might want to avoid words that could make you sound cheap.
Premium brands thrive on the perception of exclusivity, quality, and sophistication, so every word in your communication should reflect those values.
For instance, using words like “discount,” or “budget” can undermine your brand's image, even if you're offering a special promotion.
Instead, you might want to use terms like “exclusive offer” or “investment” to convey the same message without compromising your brand’s prestige.
Creating a glossary specifically tailored to your premium brand can help ensure that every piece of communication, whether it’s a product description, an email campaign, or a social media post, aligns with the sophisticated tone you want to project.
This glossary would include terms that should be avoided to maintain the brand's upscale image and suggest alternatives that resonate with your audience's expectations of luxury and exclusivity (read more on building a premium brand here).
Promote words that project your values
But glossaries aren’t just for forbidden words. They can also be used to promote specific vocabulary that aligns with your brand’s voice.
Or perhaps your product is all about transformation, awakening, and revitalization — you can create a “Required Terms” glossary to make sure these dynamic, inspirational verbs are always front and center.
These concepts evoke strong, positive emotions and paint a picture of growth, energy, and renewal — qualities you want your customers to associate with your product.
By building a glossary of “Required Terms,” you ensure that this message is always conveyed to your audience.
For instance, you might include powerful, action-oriented verbs like “transform,” “awaken,” “boost,” “revitalize,” and “elevate.”
These dynamic words can help shape your brand's narrative by emphasizing movement, change, and positive impact.
This is particularly effective for industries like wellness, beauty, fitness, or even tech, where products and services often promise to enhance or improve the customer's life in some way.
The presence of these required terms in your brand's communication does more than just create a sense of consistency; it reinforces your brand’s promise.
If you’re selling a skincare product, using words like “revitalize” and “restore” creates an emotional connection to the idea of renewal and self-care.
For a fitness brand, terms like “awaken” or “boost” may emphasize the empowerment and energy your product delivers.
By making these words part of a automated glossary, you ensure that your messaging remains aligned with your brand’s core values, no matter who is crafting the content.
This is especially important for teams working on large campaigns or across multiple platforms, where different writers and content creators might be involved.
Having a required vocabulary makes it easier for everyone to stay on-brand and consistent with your tone of voice.
Read more on using verbs to project a strong brand image here.
How to Create a Glossary in Writitude
Now that you understand the potential of glossaries, let’s walk through how to create one in Writitude.
1. Start from Scratch
Click on “Create Glossary” from “My Library”. You also have the option to copy an existing glossary and build upon it.
2. Name Your Glossary
Choose a title that clearly communicates the purpose of your glossary. This will help you and your content team quickly understand its use.
3. Add Your Words
Enter each word one by one, pressing “Enter” after each entry.
4. Customize Word Forms
If you want your glossary to cover all forms of a word, keep the default toggles checked.
If you need to narrow down to specific forms or exact phrases, leave the toggles empty.
Example: If you add the word “user” and keep the toggles checked, Writitude will also flag “users” and prompt you to replace it with a synonym.
5. Advanced Settings: Tilde and Caret
Caret (^): Use this to create exceptions. For example, if “stone” is a forbidden word but “Stonehenge” is allowed, just place a caret before “Stonehenge,” and Writitude will ignore it.
Tilde (~): Use this to mark words only when they appear as a specific part of speech. For instance, if you want to exclude “sink” as a verb but not as a noun, enter “sink~VB” in your glossary.
6. Save and Apply
Once your glossary is complete, save it. You can then add it to your brand’s tone of voice by selecting the “Forbid words from a custom glossary” or “Require words from a custom glossary” rule when you edit your custom tone of voice.
And just like that, your glossary is live and ready to enforce your brand’s unique voice across all communications!
Final Thoughts
Glossaries are an incredibly versatile tool in Writitude, helping you maintain consistency in your brand’s communication.
Whether you’re banning certain words or promoting others, glossaries ensure that your entire content team stays aligned with your brand’s tone and style.
If you have any questions about creating or using glossaries, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] or visit our Help portal here or through your Writitude account.
We’re here to help you make the most of your brand’s voice!
