Glossary
Pesticide Applicator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential pesticide applicator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key pesticide applicator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in pesticide applicator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Calibration
- Setting the correct rate.
- Drift
- Spray moving off target.
- Fungicide
- A disease control product.
- Herbicide
- A weed control product.
- Insecticide
- An insect control product.
- IPM
- Integrated Pest Management.
- Label
- The legal instructions for a pesticide.
- PPE
- Personal protective equipment.
- REI
- Restricted-entry interval.
- Restricted-use pesticide
- A product only certified applicators can use.
- Rinsate
- Rinse water from cleaning equipment.
- SDS
- Safety Data Sheet.
- Signal word
- Caution, Warning or Danger on labels.
- Spot treatment
- Treating only problem areas.
- Tank mix
- Combining products in one tank.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Pesticide Applicator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Pesticide Applicator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.