Every discipline names the world differently. What economists call moral hazard, sociologists discuss as deviance under weak sanctions; what sociologists call accounts, economists model as tradeoffs. The Lexicon Translator takes one academic word and gives you its nearest counterpart across the divide — economics to sociology and back — from a hand-built crosswalk of 1,486 terms. These are translations, not definitions. A per-field glossary tells you what a term means inside its home discipline; the Lexicon tells you what to reach for when you cross into the neighboring one — reading a paper outside your field, co-writing with someone trained differently, or checking whether your field’s insight already exists next door under another name. The counterparts are nearest equivalents, deliberately provocative rather than authoritative: when a mapping surprises you, that surprise is the point — it marks where the two fields carve the world differently. Type a word, pick the direction, and the counterpart appears. It runs entirely in your browser — no account, no install — and the full crosswalk loads with the page.
Lexicon Translator — the same idea, in the other field’s words
Frequently asked questions
Is this a dictionary?
No — it's a translator. A dictionary defines a term within its field; the Lexicon gives you the nearest counterpart term in the other field.
Are the translations exact?
Deliberately not. Fields carve the world differently, so most mappings are nearest equivalents, not synonyms. Treat a surprising mapping as information about the two fields, not an error.
Which fields does it cover?
Economics and Sociology, in both directions, across 1,486 terms. More fields are on the roadmap but not in this release.
Where does the crosswalk come from?
It's hand-built and curated from the disciplines' canonical vocabularies, term by term — not machine-generated.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs entirely in your browser — no account, no download.
Who is it for?
Grad students and researchers reading outside their home field, interdisciplinary teams, and anyone who suspects their field's new idea has an old name next door.