In bilingual or variant term indexing, which best describes how cross-references function?

• A. It maps the translated form to the original
• B. It is not used for translations
• C. It sorts by length
• D. It duplicates data

Answer: (A)

Cross-references in bilingual or variant term indexing create navigational links between terms that express the same concept in different languages or variants. They ensure that a search using a translated or variant term can be redirected to the appropriate original term, effectively mapping the translated form to the original. This supports retrieval across languages without duplicating records and keeps terminology unified. It’s not about sorting by length or duplicating data, and cross-references are indeed used for translations.