Glossary
Civil Engineering Technician Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential civil engineering technician terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key civil engineering technician vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in civil engineering technician training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Aggregate
- Sand and gravel in concrete.
- As-built
- Drawings of what was built.
- Asphalt
- Pavement material.
- Civil 3D
- Civil design software.
- Compaction
- Densifying soil.
- Compressive strength
- Concrete’s strength under load.
- Cross section
- A slice view of a design.
- Grade
- Elevation or slope.
- Proctor test
- Finds optimum soil density.
- Quantity takeoff
- Measuring materials from plans.
- Right-of-way
- Land for public infrastructure.
- Slump test
- Measures concrete workability.
- Specification
- Required standards.
- Stormwater
- Rain runoff.
- Submittal
- Contractor materials for approval.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Civil Engineering Technician practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Civil Engineering Technician training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.