In the world of business , there’s little room for misunderstandings. Misusing or failing to grasp key terms can lead to serious consequences, from financial losses to legal complications.
As a professional, business jargon is part of your daily life—whether in emails , brainstorming sessions, pitch meetings, or presentations . Using these terms correctly not only enhances your credibility but also showcases your expertise and confidence.
That’s why mastering the right business English vocabulary is essential for everyone—especially for professionals navigating it as a second language.
In this article, we’ll break down commonly used professional English terms, explain them in simple language, and show you how to seamlessly incorporate them into your conversations.
1. Agenda This word simply describes a roadmap of the topics that are to be discussed in a meeting. Without a clear agenda, meetings will drift aimlessly and not have a definitive path to follow.
An agenda ensures everyone in the room is on track and knows what to expect next. Here’s a good example of how you can use this word:
“Can you send me the agenda for tomorrow’s strategy session?”
2. Bankruptcy When a company can no longer meet its financial obligations, it declares bankruptcy.
This legal status allows the company to either restructure its debts or liquidate assets to pay creditors. Declaring bankruptcy is often a last resort when a business runs out of options.
For example, “After years of struggling to pay off their debts, the company finally filed for bankruptcy to get a fresh start.”
3. Benchmark A benchmark is a standard or reference point used to evaluate the performance or quality of something. It serves as a target or comparison to gauge success or improvement.
For example, if your manager asks, “What’s the benchmark for customer satisfaction?” they are referring to the standard level of satisfaction that is expected or commonly achieved in your industry or organization.
In this case, you might respond with something like, “The benchmark is maintaining a 90% customer satisfaction rate.” This means your team’s success will be evaluated against that standard.
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4. Budget In business vocabulary, a budget is a detailed financial plan that outlines expected revenues and expenditures over a specific period.
It serves as a roadmap for managing an organization’s financial resources and guides decision-making processes. For example, “She budgeted something little for tomorrow’s trip. Hopefully, we stay within it.”
5. Bottom Line A classic in business English expressions, the term "bottom line" refers to a company's net profit or loss. When someone asks, “What is the bottom line ?” they’re typically asking for the financial result and want to know whether the business made or lost money.
However, "bottom line" is also a business idiom that means the most important takeaway or conclusion. It is a common term in English for professionals who want to cut to the core of a discussion and understand its key point or outcome.
6. Capital Capital is the money or assets that a company uses to fund its operations or expand. Remember that a budget is a plan on how to spend an amount of money. Capital is the money being spent.
If you have $100 to start a business, then that is your capital. If you plan to spend $20 on transportation, then $20 is the budget allocated for that specific expense.
Assuming you’re trying to convince an angel investor to invest in your new business, you could say, "To launch my new business, I need enough capital to cover costs like equipment, inventory, and initial marketing. "
7. Collaborate To collaborate means for two or more people, teams, or organizations to work together toward a shared goal. In business, collaboration often involves pooling ideas, resources, or expertise to accomplish a project or solve a problem effectively.
For example: “The marketing and design teams are collaborating to create a visually appealing and customer-focused campaign for the new product launch.”
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8. Contract A contract is a legally binding agreement between two or more parties. Contracts also explain what each party is expected to do, like in this sentence, “The company signed a contract with the supplier to guarantee timely delivery of materials for the next year.”
Note that there are usually legal consequences if any side breaches the agreement in the contract, which makes it especially important to learn business English and basic business terms.
9. Diversification When a business expands its core offering, it’s called diversification. This could mean adding new products and services or entering new markets to find new ways to grow.
If a clothing company decides to start manufacturing deodorants, they are diversifying. In this case, you could say “The company is implementing a diversification strategy to try out new ways to make money.”
10. Expenses Expenses in business refer to the costs incurred by a company in the course of its operations. These costs are necessary for producing goods, delivering services, or maintaining the business.
Here’s an example of how you can use this word: "The bakery's expenses increased significantly during the holiday season.”
11. Exit Strategy An exit strategy is a plan that a business owner creates for how they will leave or sell their business in the future. This strategy outlines the steps to take when it’s time to exit, whether through selling the company, merging with another business, or passing it to someone.
For example: “With the state of the economy, what is your exit strategy ?”
12. Equity Equity is the ownership value of a company. It tells you how much a shareholder owns. If a company has $100,000 in assets and owes $60,000, the equity is $40,000. Equity is a key sign of a company’s financial health.
This word can be used like this: “The company decided to raise funds by selling equity to new investors.”
13. Hierarchy In every organization, there are high-ranking individuals at the top, and it gradually goes down to lower levels of authority. This structure is called a hierarchy. It helps define who makes decisions and who follows them.
In the right context, you can say, “My company’s hierarchy is weird because the manager is taking orders from a junior employee, which makes no sense.”
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14. HR (Human Resources) HR is a common acronym for Human Resources, which refers to the part of the company that manages employees. The HR department of a company is responsible for hiring new staff, training them, handling benefits, and ensuring the workplace follows labor laws.
Let’s say you’re sick and can’t make it to work because you are a bit under the weather . You might have to “address an email to the human resources manager, seeking permission to skip work.”
15. Inventory Imagine your boss asking you to “conduct an inventory to ensure you’re prepared ahead of the new week.” What they simply want you to do is take note of all the available stock and ensure you’re not running out of any product.
Inventory is the stock of goods and materials that a business keeps for sale or production. This includes finished products, raw materials, and supplies. For instance, a restaurant ’s inventory consists of food ingredients and beverages.
16. Invoice An invoice is a formal document that a seller sends to a buyer to request payment for goods or services provided.
This important document includes essential details such as what was sold, the quantity and cost of each item, applicable taxes, and the total amount due.
For example, “She instructed her vendors to send all invoices directly to the accountant for faster payments.”
17. Key Performance Indicator (KPI) KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are numbers or measurements of some sort that help a business assess its performance. They evaluate whether a company is achieving its objectives and measure the amount of progress over time.
Consider this statement: “Our KPI for this Christmas at the restaurant will be the number of families served, rather than the amount of money earned. ”
It simply means that during the holiday season, the restaurant will measure its success by the number of families dining in, rather than just focusing on revenue.
18. Leverage One of the more common words in business English, this indicates using resources you have, like money, assets, skills, or connections, to achieve more or get better results. Leverage is anything you can use to get more benefits or better results.
Assuming you’re a sales professional contributing to a brainstorming meeting. you could say, "We will leverage our existing partnerships to help us reach more customers and grow our business."
19. Liability Liability refers to the financial obligations or debts that a company owes to external parties, which include loans, unpaid bills, or any other financial commitments. These obligations represent the resources that need to be paid back over time.
Here’s an example of how you can incorporate this word in a sentence: “The company’s liability increased after taking out a loan to expand its operations.”
20. Market Share Market share refers to the percentage of total sales a company holds in comparison to its competitors within a specific market. It serves as a key indicator of a company’s overall market presence.
For example, “Apple’s strong market share in the smartphone industry has allowed it to consistently lead in innovation and customer loyalty.”
21. Milestone If you’ve ever heard a colleague or partner use this word in their sentence, they’re referring to an important event or achievement that shows progress toward a larger goal.
Often used as marketing vocabulary, milestones are relative in businesses and can help members of a team see how far they’ve come or what still needs to be done.
An IT professional working on a mobile app could give a status report by saying, “Our team reached the milestone of completing the app's design phase, and we’re prepared for the next phase."
22. Networking This process typically involves meeting new people and building connections that can help you in your career or personal life. You could network at social gatherings, conferences, or business events.
If someone says, "I went to the event to network with other professionals, ” they are hoping to learn about new opportunities by seeking relationships that can provide support for their future.
23. Pitch Pitches are often used in business to attract investors, customers, or partners. They are brief presentations or speeches where someone explains an idea, product, or project to persuade others to support it or take action.
For example; "I prepared a quick pitch for my new app to convince investors to give me funding."
24. Profit For most companies within and outside the U.S., making profits is the main reason they exist. Profit in this context is the money a business makes after subtracting all its expenses.
After all, nobody wants to work hard with nothing to show for it!
Now, consider this sentence: "The company made a huge profit this month after the new product launch." It means they made more money than they have invested in the business within one month, by a substantial margin.
25. Quarter A quarter is a three-month period that divides the financial year into four parts. Businesses and organizations often use quarters to track performance, report earnings, and plan their budgets.
Each quarter is typically referred to as Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4, with Q1 covering January to March, Q2 covering April to June, and so on.
A company might say, "Our sales increased by 15% in the second quarter ( Q2) ," to mean their sales grew between April and June.
Profits and ROI are closely related financial metrics that both measure a business’s financial success, but they do so from different perspectives.
An ROI is the percentage that tells you how much you earned compared to what you invested, while profit is the actual amount of money you made after covering your costs.
So, while profit is a dollar amount, ROI expresses that profit as a percentage of the initial investment.
For example, "Our marketing team reported an ROI of 200% from the last campaign, meaning for every dollar we spent, we made two dollars in return."
27. Stakeholder A stakeholder is someone who is interested in or affected by a company's actions. This could be employees, customers, investors, suppliers, or even the local community.
In American work culture , stakeholders are important because their well-being or success can be connected to the company’s actions.
You can use this word like this: "It would be wise to inform our stakeholders before making any decision now."
28. White Paper This is a detailed document that provides in-depth information on a specific topic. Companies often use white papers to share their expertise, educate their audience, or outline the benefits of a product or service in a persuasive way.
For example, “The company released a white paper to educate potential clients about the benefits of its new software, highlighting its features. ”
29. Workforce The workforce is the group of people or humans who work for a company or in a certain industry. A company’s workforce includes full-time, part-time, and temporary staff. If a store has 50 employees, that entire group is its workforce.
Contextually, you could say, “With five new highly skilled personnel, our workforce is now stronger than ever.”
30. Year-over-Year (YoY) Year-over-year is a concept that compares specific business data, like sales or profits, from one year to the same time in the previous year. It helps businesses see if they are growing or shrinking over time.
If a company made $1,000 in sales in March last year and $1,200 in March this year, “the sales grew by 20% year-over-year .” It’s a simple way to measure progress from one year to the next.
Learn Business English Vocabulary with BoldVoice If you aren’t familiar with terms in English for business, communicating will feel like trying to navigate a maze without a map. Sometimes, even when the concepts are straightforward, they hide under complicated jargon.
Regardless, it is important to learn these terms so that you don’t get swallowed up in the American corporate world. The good news is that BoldVoice can simplify learning and make the process more productive.
BoldVoice offers the tools and resources that can help you broaden your business English vocabulary, learn their correct pronunciation, and improve your overall accent. All of this will, in turn, help you boost your career as you gain credibility and communicate confidently.
You’ll also enjoy a 7-day free trial to explore all the features when you sign up on the BoldVoice app. Sign up right away to get started!
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