terms of art

Professional insider language

Terms of art are words or phrases that have specific, precise meanings within a particular profession, field, or discipline—meanings that may differ from their ordinary usage.

In law, "consideration" means something given in exchange for a promise; in music, "resolution" refers to the movement from dissonance to consonance.

The contract was full of legal terms of art that the layperson couldn't decipher.

These specialized vocabularies allow experts to communicate with precision but can exclude outsiders from understanding.

jargon

nomenclature

System of specialized terms

technobabble · shoptalk · buzzwords · argot · cant · parlance · vocabulary · phraseology · idiom · specialized language

expertise

craftsmanship

Skill in making objects

finesse · competence · adeptness · connoisseurship · specialization · trained eye

legal

intellectual property

Legal rights over inventions

trade secret · infringement · fair use · proprietary · license · non-disclosure · confidentiality · ownership · registration · protection

Opposites
register and specialization

terms of arteveryday language

Ordinary spoken communication

common parlance · plain English · colloquial language · layman's terms · plain language

precision and technicality

terms of artapproximations

Near but inexact values

formality/register

terms of artslang

Informal in-group vocabulary

colloquial speech · informal language · conversational language · vulgarisms · cant

Family

term, terms, art, arts, arty, artful, artfully, artless, artisan

Familiarity
Top 500,000
Profile
Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G