# Deprecating a term, and finding out whether it is still used **Category:** [Glossary and blocklists](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/standards-glossary) **Updated:** 2026-10-04 ## Deprecated means "stop using this" Set a term's status to **Deprecated** when it should no longer be used but has not been eradicated yet. It stays in the glossary — a deprecated term that vanishes is one nobody can look up when they meet it in old content — and it is shown as deprecated everywhere it appears. ## Is it actually gone? Deprecating a word is the easy half. The question that follows is whether anybody is still using it, and until now the only way to answer it was to search by hand. **Check usage** on a deprecated term scans the workspace's content and reports every place it still appears, with the surrounding text so you can judge each one. Today it reads String Manager — where the words that actually ship live. A term with no hits can be retired for real. A term with forty hits is a piece of work somebody has to schedule, and now you know that before you announce the change rather than after. ## No model is involved This is a text search, and every hit is something you can verify by looking at it. A term hunt a model can talk itself into is not a control — and scanning thousands of strings is not something to spend AI Units on. --- ## Related Articles - [Standards for AI writing: the API and the MCP tool](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/standards-context-api-1) - [Domain and Subject on a glossary term](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/standards-glossary-domain-subject-1) - [Standards & Brand Hub webhooks](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/standards-webhooks-1) - [Blocklists: words that must not be used](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/standards-blocklist-1) - [Change history for a glossary term](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/standards-glossary-history-1) --- [← Back to TotalCtrl Help Center](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/)