Reference
Money Glossary
Plain-language definitions of the money terms used across this site. No jargon, no account, and every definition links to the calculators that use it.
45 terms
A
- Amigurumi
- The Japanese craft of crocheting small stuffed figures, usually worked in continuous rounds of single crochet at a tight gauge so the fabric holds stuffing without gaps.Tight...
B
- Blocking
- Wetting or steaming a finished piece and pinning it to shape while it dries.
- Board foot
- A unit of lumber volume equal to 144 cubic inches, which is a board one inch thick, twelve inches wide and twelve inches long.
- Break-even point
- The point at which revenue covers costs and profit is zero.
C
- Cost of goods sold
- Everything that goes into producing an item for sale: materials used, packaging, and the labour to make it, plus any fees directly tied to the sale.It deliberately excludes...
- Cure time
- The resting period after a candle is poured, before it is burned or sold, during which the fragrance binds with the wax and the scent throw develops.
D
- Degassing
- Removing bubbles from mixed resin, either by leaving it to stand so bubbles rise, by warming it to lower its viscosity, or with a vacuum chamber.Slow stirring and a warm room...
- Dressed lumber
- Lumber that has been planed and squared on all four faces, usually sold as S4S.
- Dye lot
- The batch a skein of yarn was dyed in, printed as a number or code on the label.
E
- Exothermic
- Releasing heat as it reacts. Curing epoxy resin is exothermic, and the heat builds faster in a larger volume because there is less surface area to dissipate it.This is why most...
F
- Findings
- The small metal components that hold a piece of jewellery together: jump rings, clasps, ear wires, head pins, eye pins, crimp beads and bead caps.Findings are usually a small...
- Fragrance load
- The weight of fragrance oil in a candle expressed as a percentage of the WAX weight, not of the finished candle.
- Fullness ratio
- How much wider the fabric for a curtain is than the window or track it covers.
G
- Gauge
- The number of stitches and rows a knitter or crocheter produces over a fixed distance, almost always measured over 4 inches or 10 centimetres.
- Gel phase
- The stage during saponification when a soap batch heats itself and turns translucent, starting in the centre and spreading outward.
- Grainline
- The direction of the threads in a woven fabric.
K
- Kerf
- The width of the material a saw blade removes as it cuts, which is lost from the board.
M
- Marketplace fee
- The commission an online marketplace takes from each sale, usually a percentage of the total including shipping, plus a separate payment processing fee and sometimes a fixed...
- Markup
- Profit expressed as a multiple of COST rather than as a share of price.
- Melt pool
- The pool of liquid wax that forms around the wick as a candle burns.
- Mixing ratio
- The proportion of resin to hardener, published by the manufacturer as a ratio such as 1:1, 2:1 or 4:1.
N
- Nap
- The direction in which a fabric pile or surface texture lies, such as on velvet, corduroy, fleece or brushed cotton.
- Nominal size
- The name a piece of softwood lumber is sold under, such as 2 by 4 or 1 by 6, which is larger than its actual dressed dimensions.A 2 by 4 measures about 1.5 by 3.5 inches, a 1 by 6...
O
- Overhead
- The costs of running a business that do not belong to any one product: studio rent, utilities, insurance, software subscriptions, tools, marketing and your own time on...
P
- Pattern repeat
- The distance before a printed or woven design repeats along a length of fabric.
- Plywood grade
- The face quality rating of a sheet of plywood, given as a letter from A (nearest perfect) to D (large knots and patches), with the two faces rated separately, for example A-C.Only...
- Pot life
- The working time a mixed two-part resin remains pourable before it starts to thicken and set.
- Profit margin
- Profit expressed as a share of the SELLING PRICE.
S
- Saponification
- The chemical reaction in which an alkali, either sodium hydroxide for bar soap or potassium hydroxide for liquid soap, reacts with fats and oils to form soap and glycerine.Every...
- Seam allowance
- The extra fabric between the stitching line and the raw edge, which is trimmed or pressed inside the finished seam.
- Selvedge
- The finished, tightly woven edge that runs along both sides of a length of fabric, where the weft thread turns back.
- Shelf sag
- The gradual downward bend a shelf develops under a sustained load, caused by creep in the material rather than by a single overload.
- Skein
- A length of yarn wound into a package for sale.
- Stitch repeat
- The number of stitches a pattern uses before it starts again.
- Superfat
- The proportion of oils in a soap recipe deliberately left unsaponified, so that some oil remains free in the finished bar rather than being turned into soap.
- Swatch
- A test piece worked before a project begins, used to measure gauge and to judge how the fabric behaves.
T
- Troy ounce
- The unit precious metals are priced in, equal to about 31.1 grams.
W
- Waste allowance
- The extra material bought on top of the calculated requirement, to cover cutting mistakes, defects, pattern matching, dye lot differences and simple bad luck.Typical allowances...
- Water discount
- Using less water in a soap recipe than the standard amount, expressed as a percentage of the oil weight rather than as a proportion of the alkali.
- Wholesale price
- The price a maker charges a shop, which then sells at retail.
- Wick size
- The thickness and construction of the wick, chosen to suit the diameter of the container and the wax being used.
- Wire gauge
- The thickness of jewellery wire, quoted in the American Wire Gauge system where a HIGHER number means a THINNER wire.
- Wraps per inch
- A way of classifying an unknown yarn by winding it around a ruler for exactly one inch, snugly but without stretching, and counting the strands.
Y
- Yardage
- The length of fabric a project needs, measured along the length of the bolt.
- Yarn weight
- A category describing how thick a yarn is, published as a numbered system from 0 (lace) to 7 (jumbo) with an equivalent name such as fingering, DK, worsted or bulky.
How to use this glossary. These are working definitions written for people making everyday money decisions, not legal or tax definitions. Where a rule differs by country, the definition says so, always confirm the specifics where you live.