Federal contracting runs on vocabulary that is unusually unforgiving: a term like set-aside, IDIQ or PIID has a precise regulatory meaning, and reading it loosely leads to bidding work you are not eligible for or misreading what an agency actually bought. This glossary defines the terms that appear across SAM.gov notices, FPDS award records and USAspending reporting — contract vehicles and their differences, the socioeconomic set-aside programs and who qualifies for each, the identifiers that tie records together such as UEI, CAGE and PIID, the NAICS and PSC classification systems, and the phases of the acquisition lifecycle from sources sought through closeout. Definitions are written for people who have to act on them rather than pass a test, so each one says what the term means and why it changes what you do next.
99 terms defined, each with its own page.
