Furniture Glossary: Terms Every Buyer Should Know
Shopping for furniture comes with its own vocabulary. Here are 102 terms you're likely to meet, from how pieces are built to what they're made of, in plain English.
A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · V · W
A
- Apron
- The band of boards just under a tabletop or chair seat that joins the legs and stiffens the frame. Also called a skirt or rail.
- Armoire
- A tall, freestanding cabinet with doors, first made to hold clothes and now often used for linens or a TV.
B
- Bevel
- An edge cut at an angle other than 90 degrees. A bevel on the underside of a tabletop makes a thick top look thinner.
- Biscuit joint
- Thin, football-shaped wafers of compressed wood glued into matching slots. Biscuits mainly keep boards aligned during glue-up; they add little strength.
- Bookmatched
- Two consecutive slices from the same board opened like the pages of a book, so the grain mirrors across the seam. Common on tabletops, doors and veneered panels.
- Breadboard end
- A board fitted across the end of a solid tabletop. It's pinned through slotted holes so the top can expand and contract while the breadboard keeps it flat.
- Buffet
- A low dining-room cabinet for serving and storing dishes, usually with doors and drawers. Often used interchangeably with sideboard.
- Burl
- A rounded growth on a tree trunk whose wood has a tight, swirling figure. Prized as veneer and for small tops.
- Butt joint
- One board's end or edge meeting another's face with no interlocking shape. Relies on glue, screws or hardware for strength.
C
- Carcass
- The main box of a cabinet, dresser or bookcase, without its doors, drawers or trim. Also spelled carcase; sometimes called the case.
- Case goods
- Furniture built as boxes: dressers, bookcases, sideboards, nightstands and cabinets. The trade term that separates them from tables and upholstered pieces.
- Cathedral grain
- The arched, flame-like pattern on the face of plain-sawn boards, where the saw cuts across the growth rings at a low angle.
- Chamfer
- A small flat bevel along an edge, usually at 45 degrees. Softens a corner and resists chipping.
- Checking
- Small splits along the grain, usually on the ends of boards or on thick slabs, caused by the surface drying faster than the core.
- Chest of drawers
- A tall, narrower case of stacked drawers. A dresser is usually lower and wider.
- Closed grain
- Wood with small pores that give a smooth, even surface, such as maple, cherry and birch. It finishes glassy-smooth without grain filler.
- COM (customer's own material)
- Upholstery made with fabric or leather the customer supplies. The maker will tell you how many metres or yards to send.
- Console table
- A long, narrow table that sits against a wall or behind a sofa. Also called a sofa table or entry table.
- Corner block
- A wood block glued and screwed into the inside corner where aprons meet a leg or where a sofa frame's rails meet. It braces the joint against racking.
- Credenza
- A long, low cabinet with doors and sometimes drawers. Today often used as a media console or office storage.
- Cupping
- A board bowing across its width so the edges sit higher or lower than the middle. Usually caused by one face gaining or losing moisture faster than the other.
D
- Dado
- A flat-bottomed groove cut across a board to hold the end of another, such as a fixed shelf in a bookcase side.
- Distressing
- Deliberately adding dents, scratches or wear marks to make new furniture look old.
- Double rubs
- A measure of how well upholstery fabric resists abrasion, from the Wyzenbeek test. Around 15,000 or more is a common benchmark for everyday home seating. The Martindale test, used in Europe, counts cycles instead.
- Dovetail
- Flared tails on one board interlocking with pins on another. Very strong against pulling apart, which is why it's the classic joint for drawer fronts.
- Dowel
- A round wood pin glued into matching holes in two parts to align and strengthen a joint.
- Drawer slide
- The hardware or wooden runner a drawer moves on. Full-extension slides let the drawer open its whole depth; soft-close slides pull it shut gently.
- Dresser
- A low, wide case of drawers for clothing, often with a mirror above. In the UK, a dresser is a kitchen cabinet with open shelves on top.
- Dust panel
- A thin panel between drawers in a dresser. It keeps dust and small items from falling into the drawer below and stiffens the case.
E
- Edge banding
- A thin strip of wood veneer or plastic glued over the raw edge of plywood, MDF or particleboard to hide the core.
- Eight-way hand-tied
- A traditional sofa suspension of steel coil springs tied to each other and the frame with twine in eight directions. Labour-intensive and long-lasting.
- End grain
- The cut end of a board, showing the growth rings. It soaks up finish and moisture much faster than the face, and glue holds poorly on it.
- Engineered wood
- Panels made by bonding wood veneers, strands, particles or fibres with adhesive: plywood, MDF, particleboard and OSB.
- Equilibrium moisture content (EMC)
- The moisture level wood settles at in a given humidity. At room temperature, wood reaches about 9% moisture content at 50% relative humidity.
F
- Figure
- Any pattern in the wood beyond ordinary grain: curl, quilt, burl, bird's-eye or the ray fleck of quartersawn oak.
- Finger joint
- Square, interlocking fingers cut into two boards, with lots of glue surface. Also called a box joint. Finger-jointed lumber is short pieces joined end to end.
- Flat-pack
- Furniture shipped in pieces for the buyer to assemble, usually with cam locks and dowels. Also called RTA (ready to assemble).
- Floating panel
- A panel held in grooves in a frame without glue, so it can expand and contract freely. Used in frame-and-panel doors and case sides.
- Frame and panel
- Construction with a frame of rails and stiles around a floating panel. It lets wide surfaces move with the seasons without cracking.
- Full-grain leather
- Leather with its complete outer grain layer left intact. The most durable grade, and it develops a patina with use.
G
- Grain
- The direction and arrangement of the wood fibres. It's also used loosely for the visible pattern of growth rings on a board's face.
H
- Hardwax oil
- A finish of natural oils and waxes that soaks into the wood and leaves a thin protective layer on top. Matte, natural-feeling and spot-repairable.
- Hardwood
- Wood from broadleaf trees such as oak, walnut and maple. It's a botanical group, not a hardness rating: balsa is a hardwood.
- Heartwood
- The darker, inner wood of a tree. It's usually more decay-resistant and more prized for its colour than the paler sapwood around it.
- High-resilience (HR) foam
- A springier, longer-lasting grade of polyurethane foam used in better seat cushions. It's usually at least 2.5 lb per cubic foot (40 kg/m³).
- Hutch
- A cabinet with open shelves or glass doors that sits on top of a sideboard or buffet.
I
- Inlay
- Contrasting wood, metal or other material set into a recess cut in a surface so it sits flush.
- Interlocked grain
- Grain that spirals in alternating directions as the tree grows. It produces the ribbon stripe of sapele and some mahoganies.
J
- Janka hardness
- The force needed to press a 0.444-inch (11.28 mm) steel ball halfway into wood. Higher numbers resist dents better. See our Janka hardness scale.
- Joinery
- The ways furniture parts are joined: dovetails, mortise and tenon, dowels, screws and hardware. Good joinery outlasts glue and fasteners alone.
K
- Kiln-dried
- Lumber dried in a controlled kiln to a target moisture content, usually 6–8% for indoor furniture, so it moves less once it's built.
- Knock-down hardware
- Fittings such as cam locks, bolts and brackets that let furniture come apart for shipping or moving.
- Knot
- Where a branch grew out of the trunk. Tight knots add rustic character; loose knots can fall out.
L
- Laminate
- A printed paper or plastic layer bonded to a panel to look like wood or stone. Hard-wearing, but it can't be sanded or refinished.
- Leg leveller
- An adjustable foot screwed into a leg to steady furniture on an uneven floor. Also called a glide or foot.
- Live edge
- A slab or board that keeps the tree's natural outer edge, with the bark removed.
- Loveseat
- A small sofa for two people, usually 48–72" (122–183 cm) wide.
M
- MDF (medium-density fibreboard)
- Wood fibres bonded with resin and pressed into a dense, very smooth panel. Excellent for painted finishes, but heavy, weak at the edges and prone to swelling when wet.
- Media console
- A low cabinet that holds a TV and its devices. Also called a TV stand, media cabinet or entertainment unit.
- Melamine
- A resin-soaked paper fused to particleboard or MDF. Common on flat-pack furniture and cabinet interiors.
- Mitre
- A joint where two parts are cut at matching angles, usually 45 degrees, to meet at a clean corner with no end grain showing. Spelled miter in the US.
- Moisture content
- The weight of water in wood as a percentage of the dry wood's weight. Indoor furniture typically sits between about 6% and 11% through the year.
- Mortise and tenon
- A tongue (tenon) on one part fitted and glued into a matching pocket (mortise) in another. The time-tested joint for legs, aprons, chairs and frames.
N
- Nightstand
- A small table or cabinet beside a bed, ideally within a few inches of the mattress height. Also called a bedside table.
O
- Oil finish
- A finish such as tung or linseed oil that soaks into the wood and hardens. Warm and easy to refresh, but it offers only light protection.
- Open grain
- Wood with large visible pores, such as oak, ash and hickory. Finishes show the texture unless the pores are filled first. Walnut and mahogany sit in between, with medium-sized pores.
P
- Particleboard
- Wood chips and sawdust bonded with resin into panels. Inexpensive and flat, but weaker than MDF or plywood and badly damaged by water.
- Patina
- The colour and sheen a surface develops through age, light and use. Prized on solid wood and full-grain leather.
- Pedestal base
- A table supported by a single central column instead of four legs, which leaves more room for chairs.
- Plain-sawn
- Boards cut straight through the log so the growth rings run roughly parallel to the face. The most common and economical cut; shows cathedral grain and moves the most. Also called flat-sawn.
- Plinth
- A solid base that raises a cabinet off the floor instead of legs.
- Plywood
- Thin sheets of wood veneer glued in layers with the grain alternating direction. Strong, stable and holds screws well in its faces.
- Pocket screw
- A screw driven at a steep angle through a drilled pocket into the next part. Quick and hidden, but it relies on the screw rather than interlocking wood.
- Polyurethane
- A tough plastic-resin film finish. Highly protective, but it can look and feel coated, and repairs usually mean refinishing.
Q
- Quartersawn
- Boards cut so the growth rings run close to perpendicular to the face. Straight grain, the ray fleck of oak, and only about half to two-thirds the seasonal width change of plain-sawn boards.
R
- Rabbet
- A step cut along the edge of a board to receive another part, such as a cabinet back. Spelled rebate in the UK.
- Racking
- A frame leaning out of square under side pressure, like a bookcase swaying into a parallelogram. Backs, braces and good joints resist it.
- Rails and stiles
- The horizontal (rails) and vertical (stiles) parts of a frame, such as a cabinet door or face frame.
- Ray fleck
- Shimmering ribbons and flecks on quartersawn oak where the saw exposes the tree's medullary rays.
- Reclaimed wood
- Lumber salvaged from old buildings, barns or furniture and remilled. Often full of character; check that it's been properly dried and de-nailed.
- Relative humidity (RH)
- How much moisture the air holds compared with the most it could at that temperature. It sets how much wood swells or shrinks.
- Rift-sawn
- Boards cut so the growth rings sit at 30–60 degrees to the face. Tight, straight grain with little fleck; very stable, and the most wasteful cut.
S
- Sapwood
- The paler outer wood of a tree, just under the bark. Some makers avoid it for an even colour; others keep it for contrast.
- Sectional
- A sofa made of several pieces that fit together, often in an L or U shape.
- Settee
- A small, upright sofa, often with exposed wood and a tighter back.
- Sideboard
- A long, low cabinet for dining rooms, usually on legs, with doors and drawers. See also buffet and credenza.
- Sinuous springs
- Zigzag steel springs that run from the front to the back of a sofa seat. The most common modern suspension; look for close spacing and tie wires between them. Also called S-springs or no-sag springs.
- Slab
- A wide, thick cut through a log, often with a live edge, used as a single-piece tabletop.
- Softwood
- Wood from conifers such as pine, fir and cedar. Most are softer than hardwoods, but the name is botanical.
- Solid wood
- Parts made entirely of lumber rather than veneer over a panel. Labels vary, so ask which parts are solid: a piece sold as solid wood may have only solid legs and frames.
- Splayed legs
- Legs angled outward from the top, for a lighter look and more stability.
- Stretcher
- A rail joining the legs of a table or chair near the floor to add rigidity.
T
- Tambour
- A flexible door made of thin slats glued to fabric, sliding in a curved track.
- Tenon
- The tongue on the end of a rail that fits into a mortise. See mortise and tenon.
- Tight back
- A sofa or chair back with the upholstery fixed over the padding and no loose back cushions.
- Tongue and groove
- A tongue along one board's edge fitting a groove in the next. Aligns boards for panels, backs and floors.
- Top-grain leather
- Leather with the surface lightly sanded and finished for a more uniform look. Less natural character than full-grain, but more stain-resistant.
- Trestle base
- A table base with a support at each end joined by a long stretcher, leaving the corners free for seating.
V
- Veneer
- A thin slice of wood, usually well under 1 mm, glued to a stable core such as plywood or MDF. It allows bookmatched and figured surfaces, but it can only be sanded lightly.
W
- Warp
- Any distortion from flat or straight: cupping across the width, bowing along the length, or twisting.
- Webbing
- Strips of rubber or woven material stretched across a seat frame as suspension. Good elastic webbing is used in many well-made modern sofas; cheap webbing sags.
- Wood movement
- Solid wood swelling and shrinking across its width as humidity changes. Well-made furniture is designed to allow for it. See our guide to why solid wood moves.
