A common framework under which the various studies on terminology processing can be viewed is to consider not only the texts from which the terminological resources are built but particularly the applications targeted. The current book, first published as a Special Issue of Terminology (11:1, 2005), analyses the influence of applications on term definition and processing. Two types of applications have been identified: intermediary and terminal applications (involving end users). Intermediary applications concern the building of terminological knowledge resources such as domain-specific dictionaries, ontologies, thesaurus or taxonomies. These knowledge resources then form the inputs to terminal applications such as information extraction, information retrieval, science and technology watch or automated book index building. Most of the applications dealt with in the book fall into the first category. This book represents the first attempt, from a pluridisciplinary viewpoint, to take into account the role of applications in the processing of terminology.