What does localization mean?
Localization is the adaptation of a product, service, text, or other material to the language, culture, regulations, and everyday conditions of a particular place. It includes translation but often requires more: dates, currencies, measurements, imagery, humor, legal requirements, and social assumptions may all need adjustment. In this commercial and technological sense, localization helps content seem appropriate and familiar to its intended audience rather than imported from elsewhere. The word can also mean the act of making something regional, or the restriction of something to a particular area. A more specialized use in physics and medicine refers to determining or confining something to a precise position. As a general concept, localization contrasts with globalization: one concentrates on particular places and identities, while the other emphasizes worldwide integration. The term is especially important in publishing, software, marketing, medicine, and international business.
nounLocalization is the process of adapting a product, service, text, or other content to the language, culture, laws, and conditions of a particular place. It can also refer more generally to the act of making something local or confining it to a specific area.
- The process of adapting language, content, products, or services to the language, culture, laws, and conditions of a particular place.
- The act or process of making something local or giving it a distinctly regional character.
- The restriction of an activity, institution, population, or effect to a particular geographical area.
- The identification or determination of the precise position of something, as in physics or medicine.
"The company specializes in the localization of educational software for schools around the world."
"Careful localization of the campaign helped the film resonate with viewers in different countries."
"The test showed that the pain was localized to the lower back."
The plural is used when referring to separate localization processes, such as adaptations for different countries or regions.
"The company has completed localizations for more than thirty markets."
Localization goes beyond translation: it can change a product's measurements, examples, symbols, legal notices, or cultural assumptions to make it feel at home in a new market.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does localization come from?
Localization is derived from “localize,” which combines “local” with the suffix “-ize.” “Local” comes through French from Latin localis, meaning “of or belonging to a place,” ultimately related to Latin locus, “place.” Words such as “locale,” “locality,” and “locate” belong to the same broad place-related family.
Related word forms
How localization is actually used
The most common modern sense concerns adapting products and media for a particular market. “Localization” is the usual North American spelling, while “localisation” is standard in British English.
Easily confused with localization
Localization is the process of adapting something to a place, whereas a location is the place itself or the position of something.
A locale is the place or geographical setting associated with something, whereas localization is the act of adapting something to that place.