Glossary
Pharmacy Technician Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential pharmacy technician terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key pharmacy technician vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in pharmacy technician training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Compounding
- Mixing or altering ingredients to create a medication tailored to a patient.
- Controlled substance
- A drug regulated by the DEA under Schedules I–V because of abuse potential.
- DAW
- Dispense as written: a code showing whether a generic substitution is allowed.
- Days’ supply
- How many days a dispensed quantity will last at the prescribed dose.
- Formulary
- The list of drugs an insurance plan or hospital covers or stocks.
- Generic drug
- A medication with the same active ingredient, strength and dosage form as a brand-name drug.
- Medication guide
- FDA-required patient handout for certain drugs with serious risks.
- NDC
- National Drug Code: the unique 10- or 11-digit identifier for a drug product.
- Insurer approval required before a drug will be covered.
- PRN
- As needed: a direction for medication taken only when required.
- Refill too soon
- An insurance rejection when a refill is requested before most of the prior supply should be used.
- Sig
- The directions on a prescription, from the Latin signa, meaning “label.”
- Sterile compounding
- Preparing medications such as IVs in a clean-room environment under USP <797> standards.
- Third-party payer
- An insurance company or benefit manager that pays all or part of a prescription.
- Unit dose
- A single, individually packaged dose, common in hospitals.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Pharmacy Technician practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Pharmacy Technician training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.