# Blocklists: words that must not be used

**Category:** [Standards & Brand Hub](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/standards)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

## What a blocklist is for

A glossary says what to use. A **blocklist** says what not to — a competitor's trademark, a term legal has ruled out, an old product name, a phrase that translates badly.

Blocklists belong to a **package**, alongside the style rules and tone profiles it already carries, so the set of rules that applies to a piece of content is one thing rather than several that have to be assembled.

## Each entry

- **The term.**

- **Why** it is blocked. Without a reason a blocklist is a list of arbitrary refusals and gets argued with every time; with one it gets followed.

- **What to use instead**, where there is an alternative.

- **How strictly** — *Must not be used*, or *Avoid*.

- **Whole word only**, so blocking `ad` does not flag every "add" and "ready".

## Per language, on purpose

An entry can apply to **all languages** or to **one**. Both are needed and neither substitutes for the other: a trademark is off limits everywhere, while a word that is unremarkable in English and crude in Portuguese should only be blocked in Portuguese. Forcing that entry onto every language produces a rule the English team correctly ignores, and a blocklist that is routinely ignored stops being read at all.

## Checking content against it

**Check content** scans the workspace's strings for every active term in the package and reports each hit with its surrounding text, the reason, and the suggested replacement. Same scan as the deprecated-term check, and the same rule: it is a text search, so every finding is one you can see for yourself.

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## Related Articles

- [Deprecating a term, and finding out whether it is still used](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/standards-glossary-deprecated)
- [Brand Portals: a public home for your brand](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/brand-portal)
- [App Settings: assign a package to each app](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/standards-app-settings)
- [Brand Voice: your workspace's verbal identity](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/brand-voice)
- [Create your first Standards Package](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/create-a-standards-package)

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