# CNT-10 — One term per thing within a product — the same action, object, or state keeps a single name everywhere it appears in the interface

L1 · judgment · Content & naming

**Fails when:** the same action named two or more ways anywhere in the product ("Edit" on one screen, "Amend" on another, "Modify" in a dialog) · term drift for the same thing between any two surfaces — a button and its confirmation, a nav item and its page title, a filter and its help text

## Requirement

Use one term for one thing, everywhere it appears in the product. The same action,
object, or state must carry a single name across the **whole interface** — not "Edit"
on one screen, "Amend" on another, and "Modify" in a dialog. The scope is every
surface: navigation, buttons, labels, filters, dialog titles, messages, tooltips,
empty states, toasts, confirmations, and help text. Any list of surfaces in this
control is illustrative; drift anywhere in the interface is a finding.

This applies to user-facing terminology — the words that name what a user acts on
and what they do. It does not police prose style; it polices term drift.

## Rationale

Switching terms mid-product makes a user stop and wonder whether two words mean two
things. "Amend" and "Edit" for the same action force a re-read and a moment of doubt at
exactly the point where the product should be invisible. One term per thing removes
that friction, so consistency is mandatory, not a preference — a single drifted button
label undermines trust as surely as a drifted body sentence. Because the confusion is
inside one product's own vocabulary, this is L1: fixable, checkable, and worth blocking
on.

See also: CNT-2 grades whether a single name is plain language (no portmanteaus or
codenames); this control grades whether *one* name is used consistently. A product can
pass CNT-2 — every name is plain — and still fail CNT-10 by naming the same action two
ways. CNT-11 is the outward-facing sibling: CNT-10 is consistency *within* a product,
CNT-11 is agreement *with* the established terms users meet elsewhere.

## Passes when

- The same action reads "Edit" in the row menu, the toolbar button, and the
  confirmation toast.
- A "Draft" status is called "Draft" in the filter, the badge, and the empty-state
  message — never "Unsent" in one and "Draft" in another.
- The object a user works on is "customer note" in the nav, the page title, the
  button, and the help text.

## Fails when

- The same action is named two or more ways anywhere in the product: "Edit" on one
  screen, "Amend" on another, "Modify" in a dialog.
- A term drifts between any two surfaces for the same thing — a button labelled
  "Delete" whose confirmation says "Remove"; a nav item "Reports" whose page title
  reads "Analytics"; a filter "Archived" whose help text says "Closed".
- A status, object, or state is renamed across screens without the underlying thing
  changing.

## How to verify

Judgment only. The evaluator collects the user-facing terms across the product's
surfaces — the whole interface, not a fixed subset — and looks for the same underlying
thing named more than one way. Nav, buttons, labels, filters, dialog titles, messages,
tooltips, empty states, and help text are all in scope; the surface list is a prompt,
not a boundary. For each drift, name the two (or more) terms, the surfaces they appear
on, and the single term that should win.

## Evaluator guidance

Quote both competing terms and both surfaces in every finding, and name the term that
should stand.

**Flag:**

- One action, object, or state carrying two names anywhere in the interface.
- A button/confirmation, nav/page-title, or filter/help-text pair that disagrees on the
  term for the same thing.

**Do not flag:**

- Two genuinely different things that happen to sound similar ("Save" a draft vs
  "Submit" for approval are distinct actions, not a drift).
- An established term your users genuinely use even when it looks like jargon (for
  example, an industry acronym) — provided it is used consistently.
- Product or programme identities that must appear verbatim and carry a documented
  waiver.

## Waiver

`documented` (L1) — a retained inconsistency needs a named human approver and the
reason recorded in the decision record and waiver registry (e.g. a policy-mandated
term that must appear verbatim on one surface). An inline `dx-waive CNT-10
reason="..."` alone is not sufficient at L1.