APPAREL WOOL: Wool suitable for manufacture into apparel fabrics.
BELLIES: Short and often defective wool from belly of sheep.
BLACK WOOL: Fleeces from sheep containing gray, brown or black wool. BRAID:
Long, coarse, lustrious wool.
BREAK: Wool that is abnormally weaker in one spot along the fiber length.
BREECH (OR BRITCH): Coarse hair fibers on lower hind legs.
BULK GRADE: The largest percentage of grade in a lot of original-bagged
wool or the major grade of a fleece.
CARBONIZING: Removal of burrs from wool by immersion in dilute sulphuric
acid.
CARPET: Wools too heavy and coarse to be made into apparel; suitable for
carpets and rugs.
CLOTHING: The shorter length wools within a grade.
COLOR: In wool trade usage, this refers to the actual color of the wool; a
bright white to cream is most desirable.
CORE-TESTING: The coring of bales or bags of wool for the determination of
yield and clean content.
CRIMP: The natural waviness of the wool fiber; it varies with the diameter
of the fiber.
CROSS BREED: A sheep or the wool from a sheep resulting from the cross of
two different breeds.
FELTING: The matting together of wool fibers.
FIBER DIAMETER: Measured by the latest in computer technology and reported in microns. 
FLEECE: The wool from a single sheep in the shorn grease state.
FLEECE WOOL: Usually all fleeces grown in the states east of the
Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
FRENCH COMBING: Wool of medium staple length, suitable for combing.
GRADE:
The classification system used to describe grease wools. The grades are:
Fine -- 64s, 70s, 80s; Half-blood -- 60s, 62s; Three-eights-blood -- 56s,
58s; Quarter-blood -- 50s, 54s; and Low-quarter-blood -- 46s, 48s.
GRADING: The classification of fleeces according to grade and length.
GREASE WOOL: Wool as it is shorn from the sheep, before any processing.
HANDLE (or HAND): The actual feel of wool.
HANK: A 560-yard unit of wool yarn wound on a reel.
KEMP: Brittle, chalky white, weak fiber found as an impurity in the fleece.
LANOLIN: Wool grease; this substance, sometimes called "yolk," is a
secretion from the sebaceous glands of the sheep.
LOCK: A small, approximately finger-size bit of wool that tends to stay
together when shorn from the sheep.
NOILS: The short and sometimes defective wool fibers removed in the combing of top.
PELT: The skin of the sheep with wool still attached to the skin.
PULLEDWOOL: Wool removed from the skins of slaughter sheep.
RANGE WOOL: Wool grown on large ranches, distinct from wool grown on small farms; usually termed Territory wool.
RAW WOOL: Grease wool in natural state before scouring.
SCOURING: The actual separation of dirt, grease, and foreign matter from grease wool; this is usually done in a lukewarm, mildly alkaline solution, followed by a rinse.
SECOND CUTS: Short tufts of wool cut at least twice by the shearing.
SHEARING: The removal of wool from the sheep by the use of power clippers or blade shears.
SHRINKAGE: The weight raw wool loses when scoured, expressed as a percentage of the original weight.
SORTING: The separation of the whole fleece into parts, as well as removing the off-sorts.
SOUNDNESS: Freedom of the fiber from breaks and tenderness; relates to strength.
STAPLE: This term refers to the length of a lock of shorn wool; in the trade, "staple" refers to the longer length wools within a grade.
TENDER: Wool that is weak throughout the entire length of the fiber.
TOP: A continuous strand of partially manufactured wool, which previously has been
scoured, carded, and combed; an intermediate stage in the process of worsted yarn.
TYING: After the wool is shorn it is rolled into a neat bundle and tied with a paper fleece tie.
VEGETABLE MATTER: Any material of plant origin found in the fleece, such as burrs, stickers, chaff and seed heads.
WASTINESS: The loss of fiber in carding and combing due to vegetable matter, weakness or tenderness or shortness of fiber.
WOOLEN: A system of processing that utilizes the shorter length wools within a grade.
WORSTED: A system of processing that utilizes the longer length wools within a grade.
YIELD: The amount of clean wool that is derived from grease wool in the scouring process; is expressed as a percentage.