Brand Dictionary: Allowed and Prohibited Words
What is Included in the Brand Dictionary: Not a List, but a System of Documents
It is a mistake to think that the dictionary is just one table. A working brand dictionary consists of four blocks, and if even one is removed, the document stops functioning as a brand management tool.
- Key Terms — how the brand refers to its products, services, audience, and key processes (without contradictions between departments: not 'client' in one text and 'user' in another);
- Prohibited Phrases — a specific antityponym dictionary, not a general 'avoid negativity';
- Recommended Synonyms — a replacement for each prohibited word, contextually bound;
- Phrases for Values and Mission — ready-made phrases by which the brand describes itself, without the right to free interpretation by the copywriter.
Abstract advice such as 'write friendly' or 'be confident' does not work here — neither for a person nor, even less so, for a neural network. A guideline must be machine-readable: not 'friendly tone', but 'addressing by pronoun 15–20 words, active voice, no passive constructions'. Such an instruction can be checked line by line, whereas 'friendliness' cannot.
Prohibited words and synonyms: where is the boundary
Confusion at this point occurs constantly: the team decides that a word is bad, but does not explain why, and as a result, the copywriter either avoids the entire topic or quietly reintroduces the old word after a couple of weeks. The correct logic is: a prohibited word is one that contradicts the positioning or legal restrictions, and a synonym is not just any replacement, but one that preserves meaning and strengthens the desired association.
| Prohibited | Recommended synonym | Why |
|---|---|---|
| cheap | economical | removes the association with low quality |
| clearance sale of surplus stock | previous season's collection | removes the 'non-liquid' tint |
| innovative | specific description of the technology | word-parasite without content |
| unique | fact with a number or detail | an unprovable statement devalues the text |
Frequent candidates for prohibition in Russian brand content — 'innovative', 'revolutionary', 'unique', 'in the modern world', 'not a secret for anyone', 'summing up'. This is not a spelling problem, but a semantic one: such words say nothing about the product and equally suit any brand, which makes them harmful.
Case: how a dictionary is built in practice
The working method looks like this — and this distinguishes the document from a 'stop-words list on the knee'. Imagine a regional fashion retailer that decided to capture brand memory before launching AI-generated product descriptions.
- The team collects 20 strong brand texts — product cards, posts, letters that clearly convey the brand's voice;
- At the same time, it collects 20 weak or rejected examples — what the editor once shelved;
- The difference between the two stacks is used to build an anti-dictionary: not abstractly, but with specific phrases from rejected texts;
- Legal restrictions are recorded — prohibited formulations, names, foreign words, according to the law;
- The finished document is passed to all teams and connected as context for AI tools.
The key point: examples work better than epithets. If the document simply says 'the brand is confident and bold', neither a person nor a neural network will understand what this means in practice. But a couple of 'this is good — and this is bad' immediately sets a specific standard.
How different commands are applied in a dictionary
A dictionary is useless if it only lives in the content department folder. Designers use its block of terms to ensure that captions on layouts and packaging match what the copywriter says. Sales take the value statements — how the brand explains its mission to the client during negotiations, without each manager acting on their own. The team working with AI loads the entire document as a system prompt or knowledge base — and here machine-readable rules are especially important, not general adjectives. If one department uses its version of the dictionary, and another uses an outdated one, the brand starts to sound different in various contact points, and this is noticeable to the customer faster than it seems to marketers.
Legal trap: foreign words and law
With effect from 1 March 2026 year, a ban on foreign words in signage and public information comes into force in Russia — Federal Law No. 168. This is not an abstract threat, but a direct requirement to review the brand dictionary: some familiar lexicon («sale», «fitting room», foreign names of promotions) may turn out to be illegal. The permissibility of a word must be checked through normative dictionaries and services such as NormaSlov, not by eye. Practical conclusion: it is advisable to add a separate field to the brand dictionary — 'legal status of the formulation', otherwise the anti-dictionary will be incomplete precisely in that part where the error is not a spoiled text, but a fine.
Updating the dictionary and ensuring compliance
The brand dictionary is not a document 'made and forgotten'. It is reviewed at least once a year — during rebranding, entering a new market, or changes in legislation (as with Federal Law 168, updates are done out-of-plan). Control of compliance is built not on trust, but on process:
- editors check texts against the antiscript before publishing;
- AI tools are configured to automatically exclude prohibited words from output;
- a selective audit of published materials is conducted once a quarter to check for discrepancies with the document.
Without this routine, the dictionary becomes a beautiful file that nobody opens after the first week following approval — and the brand returns to that same averaged tone that the document was supposed to protect against.
What is Included in the Brand Dictionary: Not a List, but a System of Documents
It is a mistake to think that the dictionary is just one table. A working brand dictionary consists of four blocks, and if even one is removed, the document stops functioning as a brand management tool.
- Key Terms — how the brand refers to its products, services, audience, and key processes (without contradictions between departments: not 'client' in one text and 'user' in another);
- Prohibited Phrases — a specific antityponym dictionary, not a general 'avoid negativity';
- Recommended Synonyms — a replacement for each prohibited word, contextually bound;
- Phrases for Values and Mission — ready-made phrases by which the brand describes itself, without the right to free interpretation by the copywriter.
Abstract advice such as 'write friendly' or 'be confident' does not work here — neither for a person nor, even less so, for a neural network. A guideline must be machine-readable: not 'friendly tone', but 'addressing by pronoun 15–20 words, active voice, no passive constructions'. Such an instruction can be checked line by line, whereas 'friendliness' cannot.
Prohibited words and synonyms: where is the boundary
Confusion at this point occurs constantly: the team decides that a word is bad, but does not explain why, and as a result, the copywriter either avoids the entire topic or quietly reintroduces the old word after a couple of weeks. The correct logic is: a prohibited word is one that contradicts the positioning or legal restrictions, and a synonym is not just any replacement, but one that preserves meaning and strengthens the desired association.
| Prohibited | Recommended synonym | Why |
|---|---|---|
| cheap | economical | removes the association with low quality |
| clearance sale of surplus stock | previous season's collection | removes the 'non-liquid' tint |
| innovative | specific description of the technology | word-parasite without content |
| unique | fact with a number or detail | an unprovable statement devalues the text |
Frequent candidates for prohibition in Russian brand content — 'innovative', 'revolutionary', 'unique', 'in the modern world', 'not a secret for anyone', 'summing up'. This is not a spelling problem, but a semantic one: such words say nothing about the product and equally suit any brand, which makes them harmful.
Case: how a dictionary is built in practice
The working method looks like this — and this distinguishes the document from a 'stop-words list on the knee'. Imagine a regional fashion retailer that decided to capture brand memory before launching AI-generated product descriptions.
- The team collects 20 strong brand texts — product cards, posts, letters that clearly convey the brand's voice;
- At the same time, it collects 20 weak or rejected examples — what the editor once shelved;
- The difference between the two stacks is used to build an anti-dictionary: not abstractly, but with specific phrases from rejected texts;
- Legal restrictions are recorded — prohibited formulations, names, foreign words, according to the law;
- The finished document is passed to all teams and connected as context for AI tools.
The key point: examples work better than epithets. If the document simply says 'the brand is confident and bold', neither a person nor a neural network will understand what this means in practice. But a couple of 'this is good — and this is bad' immediately sets a specific standard.
How different commands are applied in a dictionary
A dictionary is useless if it only lives in the content department folder. Designers use its block of terms to ensure that captions on layouts and packaging match what the copywriter says. Sales take the value statements — how the brand explains its mission to the client during negotiations, without each manager acting on their own. The team working with AI loads the entire document as a system prompt or knowledge base — and here machine-readable rules are especially important, not general adjectives. If one department uses its version of the dictionary, and another uses an outdated one, the brand starts to sound different in various contact points, and this is noticeable to the customer faster than it seems to marketers.
Legal trap: foreign words and law
With effect from 1 March 2026 year, a ban on foreign words in signage and public information comes into force in Russia — Federal Law No. 168. This is not an abstract threat, but a direct requirement to review the brand dictionary: some familiar lexicon («sale», «fitting room», foreign names of promotions) may turn out to be illegal. The permissibility of a word must be checked through normative dictionaries and services such as NormaSlov, not by eye. Practical conclusion: it is advisable to add a separate field to the brand dictionary — 'legal status of the formulation', otherwise the anti-dictionary will be incomplete precisely in that part where the error is not a spoiled text, but a fine.
Updating the dictionary and ensuring compliance
The brand dictionary is not a document 'made and forgotten'. It is reviewed at least once a year — during rebranding, entering a new market, or changes in legislation (as with Federal Law 168, updates are done out-of-plan). Control of compliance is built not on trust, but on process:
- editors check texts against the antiscript before publishing;
- AI tools are configured to automatically exclude prohibited words from output;
- a selective audit of published materials is conducted once a quarter to check for discrepancies with the document.
Without this routine, the dictionary becomes a beautiful file that nobody opens after the first week following approval — and the brand returns to that same averaged tone that the document was supposed to protect against.
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