Glossary
Funeral Director Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential funeral director terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key funeral director vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in funeral director training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Aftercare
- Grief support after services.
- Arrangement conference
- A meeting to plan a funeral.
- Burial permit
- Permission for burial.
- Casket
- A burial container.
- Cremation
- Reducing a body to remains with heat.
- Death certificate
- The legal record of death.
- Embalming
- Preserving a body.
- FTC Funeral Rule
- Federal rules for pricing transparency.
- General price list
- A required list of funeral prices.
- Hearse
- A vehicle for transporting the deceased.
- Interment
- Burial.
- Obituary
- A notice of death.
- Pre-need
- Planning and paying for a funeral in advance.
- Urn
- A container for cremated remains.
- Visitation
- A time for viewing and condolences.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Funeral Director practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Funeral Director training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.