The entries in this
dictionary essentially consist of a headword in English and one or more
Spanish equivalents. My choice of Spanish terms was guided by their frequency
of use, but I have highlighted words that are somewhat controversial because they
are either linguistically or conceptually incorrect, or simply ambiguous.
Many of the main entries
include fields with additional information that I will briefly explain below
using some examples from the dictionary.
For English expressions with
numerous possible translations in Spanish, I provide the most common —or the
most suitable— translation and then list other possibilities in the sections Otras
variantes o posibilidades (Other variants and possibilities) and En
otros contextos (Other contexts), i.e., contexts outside clinical
research. Example:
Translations that might be
considered controversial because of linguistic incorrectness, conceptual
inaccuracy or ambiguity are denoted by a warning asterisk (*), regardless of
their frequency of use:
Words and expressions with a
clearly local flavour are denoted by a superscript two-character code
indicating the country or geographic region: AM for Latin
America, AR for Argentina, ES for
Spain and MX for Mexico:
The section Sinónimos (Synonyms)
provides common equivalents in English (including British and American English
variants), while the section Abr. includes all
types of shortened forms (e.g., initialisms, acronyms, contractions and symbols)
that are common in written English. These may be included as an abbreviated
form of a headword or of any of its synonyms:
Many of the entries contain
three sections that will be of particular interest to translators: Contexto
(EN) (English context), Contexto (ES) (Spanish
context) and Notas (Notes).
a) Contexto (EN):
The English context section includes definitions or examples of usage in
English together with the source reference in square brackets.
b) Contexto (ES):
The Spanish context section includes definitions or examples of usage in
Spanish together with the source reference in square brackets.
c) Notas:
The Notes section offers additional information of interest to
translators, such as warnings regarding usage, learning points and references
to original sources.
As all the English synonyms
and abbreviations that appear in the main entries also have an entry of their
own, this dictionary has, at the time of writing (January 2023) over 8000
entries, as well as 6000 cross references, both increasing the usefulness of
the dictionary and making it much simpler to browse.
There are two types of cross
references: references to equivalent terms, denoted by the symbol ≈, and
references that direct users from a synonym or abbreviation to a main entry. In
the first case, the example below shows that the term returned by the search
engine for marketing application dossier is a synonym of registration
dossier, and its translation can be found by clicking on the latter:
In the second case, the
example shows that ARI is an abbreviation for both absolute
risk increase and annual risk of infection (among other
possibilities), and that the Spanish equivalent will be found within their
respective entries.
The dictionary also uses
another type of cross referencing, denoted by an arrow (→), which directs the
user to another part of the dictionary to clarify doubts, learn more, or
compare the term with another one with an opposite or complementary meaning:
Some of these terms, while not
strictly synonyms, are very closely related and as such are sometimes used
interchangeably.
Finally, there are plans to
add diagrams and figures to some of the entries. At the time of writing (January
2023), these illustrations are being typeset, but, as the definitive versions
are not yet available, I have decided not to include them.