Glossary
Surveyor Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential surveyor terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key surveyor vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in surveyor training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Bearing
- Direction of a line.
- Benchmark
- A point of known elevation.
- Boundary survey
- Determines property lines.
- Closure
- How well a traverse closes.
- Datum
- A reference system.
- Easement
- A right to use land.
- Encroachment
- Something crossing a boundary.
- GNSS
- Satellite positioning.
- Legal description
- Written property boundaries.
- Metes and bounds
- A description by distances and directions.
- Monument
- A physical boundary marker.
- Plat
- A map of land divisions.
- Stakeout
- Marking locations for construction.
- Total station
- Measures angles and distances.
- Traverse
- A series of measured lines.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Surveyor practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Surveyor training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.