Vocabulary & Terms
Tech English Vocabulary and Workplace Terms
This hub collects high-frequency tech vocabulary — idioms, phrasal verbs, and workplace terms like sync call, LGTM, and out of scope. For B2 learners, learn terms in situation packs (meetings, reviews, incidents) rather than alphabetically, then reuse each term the same day at work.
Named packs
Start with these vocabulary kits
High-frequency workplace vocabulary packs — idioms, clarification, and opinion language.
Workplace idioms pack
Business and everyday idioms engineers hear in meetings and Slack.
How to Use Business Idioms in English at Work in Tech
ESL English learning: Master 16 essential business idioms that tech professionals use daily in standups, Slack, code reviews, and stakeholder meetings.
Idioms for Software Engineers
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How to Use Everyday English Idioms in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master common English idioms used in tech offices — from standups to Slack — and understand what native speakers really mean.
Clarify & opinions pack
Ask clearly, suggest options, and disagree without friction.
How to Ask for Clarification in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master confusion and clarification vocabulary to ask precise questions when requirements are unclear or error messages need explanation.
How to Give Opinions and Make Suggestions in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master phrases for sharing opinions, making suggestions, and persuading colleagues in tech meetings and discussions.
How to Agree and Disagree Constructively in English at Work
ESL English learning: Master RFC consensus vocabulary to agree, disagree constructively, and find compromise in technical discussions and architecture reviews.
Most popular
Start with these terms
High-demand lessons with a short definition — open the full page for examples and practice.
VocabularyP0
P0 is the highest priority severity level assigned to critical bugs or issues that must be fixed immediately because they prevent the product from working or cause severe data loss. It is short for Priority Zero or Severity 0.
- Vocabulary
LGTM
An acronym meaning Looks Good To Me, used in code reviews to indicate that a reviewer has examined the code and approves it for merging or deployment.
- Vocabulary
retry
To attempt an operation or action again, especially after a failure or error. In tech, it often refers to an automatic mechanism that repeats a request or process when the first attempt fails.
- Vocabulary
ticket
A ticket is a record in a tracking system that documents a task, bug, feature request, or issue that needs to be completed or fixed. It is assigned to team members and tracked through workflow stages until resolution.
- Vocabulary
over-index
To give too much weight or importance to a particular factor when making a decision or analyzing data. It means prioritizing one thing so heavily that you ignore other important considerations.
- Vocabulary
ping
To quickly reach out to someone, usually via message or chat, to get their attention or ask a quick question. It is a brief, informal way to contact a colleague.
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- P0Popular
- LGTMPopular
- retryPopular
- ticketPopular
- over-indexPopular
- pingPopular
- stashPopular
- branchPopular
- 360 feedback
- abstraction
- acceptance criteria
- accountability
- ACID
- acquisition
- action item
- action plan
- actionable
- ADR
- AFAIK
- after-action review
- agenda
- agentic
- air cover
- alerting
- alignment
- all-hands
- alpha
- AMA
- amend
- annotation
- anti-pattern
- API
- API contract
- API gateway
- API versioning
- ARR
- artifact
- artificial intelligence
- ASAP
- audit log
- auto-scaling
- B2B
- B2C
- Backlog
- backlog refinement
- backup
- bandwidth
- bar raiser
- BAU
- beat around the bush
- benchmark
- best-in-class
- beta
- bike-shedding
- bleeding edge
- blue-sky thinking
- boil the ocean
- boilerplate
- brainstorm
- break even
- break up
- breaking change
- breakpoint
- bring forward
- brown bag
- buffer
- buffer up
- business case
- buy-in
- CAC
- cache
- cadence
- calendar block
- call it out
- call the shots
- callback
- callout
- canary release
- capacity
- capacity model
- Carry forward
- certificate
- change advisory board
- change freeze
- change request
- chaos monkey
- check in
- checksum
- cherry-pick
- churn
- CI/CD
- circuit breaker
- cliff
- closure
- cloud region
- cluster
- COB
- code comment
- code complete
- code freeze
- code owner
- code splitting
- code walkthrough
- Commit
- compliance review
- concurrency
- config
- connect the dots
- consensus
- constructive feedback
- container
- context switch
- contractor
- conversion rate
- cookie
- CORS
- coupling
- cross-functional
- cross-team
- CRUD
- crunch time
- culture add
- customer success
- cut the cord
- cut through the noise
- cutover plan
- cycle time
- dark launch
- data pipeline
- data-driven
- dataset
- dead air
- dead code
- deadline
- deadlock
- debrief
- decision log
- decision matrix
- deep dive
- deep work
- definition of ready
- definition of success
- definition of value
- demo day
- dependency conflict
- dependency injection
- deploy
- design doc
- design review
- devil in the details
- devtools
- diff
- dig into
- direct report
- disaster recovery
- distributed team
- distributed tracing
- DNS
- do the needful
- documentation
- dogfooding
- double-booked
- downtime
- dry run
- due diligence
- early adopter
- edge computing
- elevator pitch
- embedding
- encapsulation
- encoding
- encryption
- end-to-end test
- endpoint
- engineering culture
- environment variable
- EOD
- EOW
- equity
- error budget
- error handling
- escalate
- escalation matrix
- ETA
- ETL
- event-driven
- exception
- exec summary
- experiment
- facilitator
- factory pattern
- fail fast
- failover
- fan out
- feasibility study
- feature branch
- feature flag
- feature freeze
- feature request
- feature store
- filter out
- fine-tuning
- fire drill
- fireside chat
- flag
- flame graph
- force push
- foreign key
- full-stack
- function
- FYI
- game changer
- game day
- garbage collection
- gear up
- generative AI
- git blame
- GitFlow
- go the extra mile
- go-live
- go-to-market
- go/no-go
- GraphQL
- grooming
- ground truth
- growth mindset
- gut check
- hallucination
- hard stop
- hashing
- header
- heads down
- heads-up
- headwinds
- health check
- heap
- Helm
- hiring plan
- hit the ground running
- hook up
- hot reload
- hot take
- HTTP
- hybrid cloud
- hybrid work
- hypothesis
- IaaS
- IC track
- ideate
- idempotency key
- immutable
- IMO
- impact analysis
- incident
- incident channel
- incident commander
- indexing
- individual contributor
- inference
- infrastructure
- ingress
- inheritance
- input validation
- interface
- intern
- IP address
- IPO
- issue
- iterate
- jump the gun
- JWT
- kanban
- keep in the loop
- kickoff
- KPI
- Kubernetes
- kudos
- latency
- layoff
- learnings
- level-setting
- linting
- LMK
- load balancing
- load test
- lock file
- log out
- log through
- logging
- look into
- look through
- loop in
- low-hanging fruit
- LTV
- lunch and learn
- management track
- manager schedule
- memory leak
- Merge
- merge conflict
- metric
- migration
- milestone
- mock
- model evaluation
- monitoring
- monolith
- monorepo
- moonshot
- move the needle
- moving goalposts
- moving target
- MRR
- MTTR
- multimodal
- NDA
- net-net
- no-brainer
- node
- north star
- npm
- null pointer exception
- OAuth
- object
- off-by-one error
- offboarding
- OKR
- on my radar
- on the fly
- on track
- on-call
- on-call handoff
- on-call rotation
- onboarding
- one-on-one
- OOO
- OpenAPI
- optimize for
- orchestration
- out of pocket
- overcommunicate
- overflow
- PaaS
- package
- package manager
- pagination
- pain point
- paradigm shift
- parking lot
- payload
- people manager
- performance review
- performance test
- PFA
- phased rollout
- PIP
- pivot
- pointer
- polymorphism
- port
- post-incident review
- post-mortem
- power off
- PTAL
- PTO
- pub/sub
- pull in
- Pull the plug
- punt
- pure function
- push the envelope
- pushback
- put a pin in it
- QA
- query
- queue
- race condition
- RACI
- radical candor
- RAG
- ramp-up
- rate limiting
- re-org
- reach out
- read the room
- reading between the lines
- rebase
- recursion
- red flag
- refactor
- regression
- regression suite
- reinventing the wheel
- release
- release candidate
- release notes
- remote work
- replication
- request
- requirements
- response
- retention
- RFC
- RFP
- risk register
- roadmap
- ROI
- role
- roll out
- roll over
- Rollback
- rollback plan
- root cause analysis
- RSU
- rubber duck
- rubber stamp
- run it up the flagpole
- runbook
- runway
- sandbox
- scale back
- scale up
- scope
- screen share
- script
- scroll through
- security review
- semantic versioning
- separation of concerns
- serverless
- service mesh
- session
- set up
- SEV1
- severance
- severity
- severity matrix
- sharding
- shoutout
- show and tell
- side effect
- sign in
- signing bonus
- silo
- singleton
- skin in the game
- SLA
- SLO
- SME
- smoke test
- socialize
- SOP
- SOW
- spaghetti code
- specification
- SPOC
- squash
- SSL
- SSR
- staff engineer
- staging
- stakeholder
- start-stop-continue
- state
- stateless
- static analysis
- status code
- status update
- stock options
- story point
- synergy
- synthetic data
- take a step back
- take it offline
- talking points
- TBD
- TCP
- TDD
- team up
- team with
- tech lead
- tech stack
- tech talk
- technical debt
- technical spec
- telemetry
- test environment
- test plan
- the ball's in your court
- think outside the box
- thought leadership
- thread
- threaded conversation
- throughput
- tiger team
- time zone overlap
- timebox
- timeout
- TL;DR
- TLS
- toil
- token
- tokenization
- top-down
- total compensation
- touchpoint
- town hall
- town hall question
- training data
- transaction
- transpile
- triage
- TTL
- tune out
- type checking
- type inference
- type safety
- UAT
- undercommunicate
- unicorn
- unit test
- up to speed
- use case
- user persona
- user story
- value-add
- variable
- vector database
- velocity
- vendor
- version control
- vesting
- virtual environment
- virtual machine
- vulnerability
- walk-through
- war room
- waterfall
- webhook
- WebSocket
- WFH
- wheelhouse
- whiteboard
- win-win situation
- WIP
- won't fix
- work on
- working group
- XSS
- yak shaving
- YAML
- zero trust
- Zoom fatigue
Frequently asked questions
- How should B2 learners study tech English vocabulary?
- Study by situation: standup terms, review terms, incident terms. Learn definition + one example + one “don’t say this.” Five terms used at work beat fifty passive flashcards.
- What’s the difference between idioms and tech terms?
- Tech terms are domain words (deploy, latency, PR). Idioms and phrasal verbs are general English used at work (“push back”, “wrap up”). You need both to sound natural.
- Are the vocabulary lessons free?
- Yes. Published lessons at app.speaktechenglish.com/learn are free to read. A free account unlocks practice, progress tracking, and personalised delivery.
- Which vocabulary should I learn first?
- Start with terms you will use this week — often standup and review language (blocker, LGTM, out of scope, sync call). Then expand into career and incident vocabulary.
Related topics
See all topics
Listening
Real tech-English audio and listening practice: standups, code reviews, pronunciation, and workplace English.
Meetings & Standups
Scripts, phrases, and culture notes for standups, retros, and sprint reviews.
Code Reviews & PRs
Feedback phrases, pull request vocabulary, and softener language for code reviews.
Interviews
Mockly interview prep modules: self-intro, STAR, strengths, technical rounds, and culture.
Want a structured course? English for Developers bundle.