---
title: "Customise your organisation's terminology"
description: "Rename the structural terms Talkspirit uses, such as circle, role and tension, so your whole organisation sees your own vocabulary instead of the defaults."
category: administration-security
section: organization-management
tags: [admin]
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-09-17
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/administration-security/customise-terminology
---

# Customise your organisation's terminology


The **Terminology** settings let an administrator rename the structural terms Talkspirit uses, such as circle, role and tension, so everyone in your organisation sees your own vocabulary instead of the defaults. You set the label for each language your members work in, and it replaces the default word everywhere in the workspace. Terminology lives under **Administration → Terminology**.

## Before you start

You need administrator rights. The **Terminology** page sits inside **Administration**, which only administrators can open.

## Which terms you can rename

The **Core vocabulary** table lists the structural terms you can rename, with their default labels:

- **Circle**, the basic governance unit
- **Role**, an accountability slot within a circle
- **Sub-circle** and **Parent circle**
- **Main role**, a circle's lead role
- **Purpose**
- **Domain**
- **Accountability**
- **Policy**
- **Proposal**
- **Working agreement**

When your organisation has the [Holacracy add-on](/en/structure-governance/holacracy-add-on-overview), a **Holacracy** section adds six more renameable terms, in this order: **Tension**, **Checklist**, **Election**, **Project**, **Task** and **Sub-task**. The last three are the Projects module's own vocabulary, so renaming them changes what your organisation calls a project, a task and a sub-task. Without the add-on, that section does not appear.

## Rename a term

1. Go to **Administration → Terminology**.
2. In the **Core vocabulary** table, find the term you want to change and open its **Edit** action.
3. In the dialog, expand the language you want to set. Your current language is expanded by default.
4. Enter the **Singular** and **Plural** labels you want members to see.
5. For a language that carries grammatical gender, set the **Grammatical gender** so the words around the term agree with it.
6. Select **Save**. A **Terminology saved** confirmation appears.

> **Tip:** To restore the default word, reopen the term and select **Reset to defaults**.

## How the change applies

A saved label replaces the default term for everyone in your organisation, wherever that term appears across the apps: Structure, Meetings, Goals, Members and Projects all read from the same vocabulary.

You set labels per language. Each member sees the label for their own display language, and any language you leave unchanged keeps the default word. Terminology is stored for eight languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Dutch and Portuguese. A member whose display language is outside that set always sees the default terms.

![Administration → Terminology, showing the Core vocabulary table with its 11 structure terms across the supported languages, a Holacracy section below it, and a row actions control on each row](/images/administration-security/customise-terminology/01-core-vocabulary-table.png)

![The edit panel for the Circle term, with a collapsible section per language. The French section is open, showing the Grammatical gender choice, the Singular field and the inflected variations it generates, such as le cercle, du cercle and un cercle](/images/administration-security/customise-terminology/02-edit-term-grammatical-gender.png)

## Next steps

- [Governance glossary](/en/getting-started/governance-glossary)
- [Customising my organisation's workspace](/en/administration-security/how-to-customise-my-organisations-workspace)
- [Holacracy add-on overview](/en/structure-governance/holacracy-add-on-overview)