Glossary
Medical Laboratory Technician Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential medical laboratory technician terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key medical laboratory technician vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in medical laboratory technician training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Blood bank
- Lab that tests and supplies blood.
- Calibration
- Setting instruments to standards.
- CBC
- Complete blood count.
- Chemistry panel
- Tests of organ function.
- CLIA
- Federal lab quality regulations.
- Critical value
- A result needing immediate action.
- Crossmatch
- Testing donor blood compatibility.
- Differential
- Count of white cell types.
- Hematology
- Study of blood.
- Hemolysis
- Ruptured red cells that affect results.
- LIS
- Laboratory information system.
- Microbiology
- Study of microorganisms.
- Quality control
- Testing known samples to check accuracy.
- Specimen rejection
- Refusing an unacceptable sample.
- Turnaround time
- Time from sample to result.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Medical Laboratory Technician practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Medical Laboratory Technician training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.