Glossary
Surveying Technician Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential surveying technician terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key surveying technician vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in surveying technician training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Base station
- A fixed GPS receiver.
- Benchmark
- A point of known elevation.
- Control point
- A reference point.
- Cut
- Removing soil.
- Field book
- Notes of measurements.
- Fill
- Adding soil.
- Grade stake
- Shows cut or fill.
- Line of sight
- A clear view between points.
- Offset
- A measured distance from a point.
- Prism
- Reflects the total station signal.
- Rod
- A pole holding a prism or GPS.
- Rover
- A mobile GPS receiver.
- Stake
- A marker for construction.
- Topo shot
- A point measured for topography.
- Total station
- Measures angles and distances.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Surveying Technician practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Surveying Technician training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.