Term Base eXchange (TBX) is an open standard for exchanging structured terminological data.
In the past, termbases were not interoperable, based on different data models and used a variety of data categories under different labels. For example, one termbase might use “part of speech” as a data category name while another may use “PoS” or “Word class.” TBX solves this problem. It is an open, XML-based standard for exchanging structured terminological data. It was released in 2002 by Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA; dissolved in 2011) and adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ISO 30042 in 2008.
There is also a variant called TBX-Basic, which is lighter and intended for small or medium-sized organizations. TBX-Basic uses only the most important terminology data categories and an adequate entry structure sufficient for typical corporate termbases.
While there are other terminology formats available, the majority of translation software supports TBX, as it is easy to import and export.
