术语学是语言学的一个分支，其创立是为一个或多个领域之内，通过在语境之中对一个概念命名一个专有名词（术语），以便加以研究和分析，从而记载这些概念，促进术语正确用法的一门学科。

在术语学还没被应用以前，词的应用领悟比较随意，可以应用在实际生活中很多地方，但是对一个或多个领域中概念能与之对应却一无所知，所以术语和词不同在于应用的对象与特定性。

每个领域都会有相关的术语，就如同在生活中经常有一个双关语代指多义词，这现象就是最好的反例。每个术语都需要所指明确，通过术语就可以直接对应到它的概念，却未必可使人理解到它的意思，这问题不论是在中文里还是在印欧语言里都普遍存在，比如：“路由器”这个词很难通过字面理解到它要表达的意思，必须要经由解释它的概念才会容易被人理解。

Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words or multi-word expressions that in specific contexts are given specific meanings—these may deviate from the meanings the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language. Terminology is a discipline that studies, among other things, the development of such terms and their interrelationships within a specialized domain. Terminology differs from lexicography, as it involves the study of concepts, conceptual systems and their labels (terms), whereas lexicography studies words and their meanings.