Cannabis & Dispensary Terms: A Plain-English NYC Glossary
Walking into a licensed New York dispensary for the first time can feel like reading a menu in a second language: flower, eighths, live resin, COA, CAURD, terpenes, the required New York THC symbol on the package. This glossary defines the terms a New York shopper actually encounters — on the shelf, on the label, and on the lab sheet — in plain English. We define classifications like indica, sativa, and hybrid strictly as naming and chemistry categories, never as predictions of how anything will make you feel, and we treat THC and CBD only as producer-reported label figures. This is general information for adults 21 and over, not legal or medical advice.
How to use this glossary
Cannabis retail has its own vocabulary, and a lot of it is borrowed from agriculture, chemistry, and decades of informal slang, which is why a first dispensary trip can feel oddly technical. The goal here is simple: explain what each word means as a fact, so you can read a menu and a label without guessing. We've grouped the terms into themes — the physical forms a product comes in, the weights and pricing you'll see, the freshness and quality signals you can actually observe, the information printed on the label and the lab sheet, the licensing and legal terms specific to New York, and the aroma-and-chemistry words like terpene and cannabinoid. A few ground rules apply throughout. First, the familiar 'indica / sativa / hybrid' split and any terpene description are classifications and aroma notes only — they are names and smells, not a forecast of effects, and they do not tell you how a given product will make you feel. Second, any THC or CBD percentage is a figure the producer reported from lab testing; BudAbout is a review and directory site and never lab-tests anything. Third, we make no health, medical, or effect claims about cannabis anywhere on this page. With that framing in place, the rest is just definitions.
Forms & products: what's actually in the jar
The most basic vocabulary describes the physical form of what you're buying. 'Flower' (also called 'bud') is the dried, cured flowering part of the cannabis plant — the loose, trimmed buds you'd grind up — and it's the most recognizable format. A 'pre-roll' is exactly what it sounds like: flower already ground and rolled into a finished, ready-to-go format so you don't have to roll your own; an 'infused pre-roll' has a concentrate added to the flower. An 'edible' is a food or drink product made with cannabis extract — gummies, chocolates, beverages, and similar — sold in measured servings. A 'tincture' is a liquid cannabis extract, usually in an oil or alcohol base, that comes in a small bottle with a marked dropper for measuring. A 'vape cart' (cartridge) is a small pre-filled container of cannabis oil that attaches to a battery; a 'disposable' is the same idea with the battery built in and discarded when empty. 'Concentrate' is the umbrella term for any product made by extracting the resinous compounds from the plant into a more concentrated form — the sub-types are defined in their own section below. These are descriptions of format and nothing more; the format tells you how a product is packaged and used, not what it will do.
Concentrates decoded: wax, shatter, rosin, live resin, distillate
Because 'concentrate' covers a whole shelf of different-looking products, the names usually describe texture or extraction method rather than anything you'd feel. 'Wax' is a soft, opaque concentrate with a crumbly or budder-like consistency. 'Shatter' is a hard, glassy, amber concentrate that can snap like brittle candy — same general idea, different physical texture, often down to how it was processed and handled after extraction. 'Rosin' is a concentrate made using only heat and pressure, with no chemical solvents involved, which is why it's often marketed as 'solventless.' 'Live resin' is made from plant material that was flash-frozen fresh rather than dried first, an approach producers use to preserve more of the plant's aromatic terpene compounds. 'Distillate' is a highly refined, typically clear or pale oil that has been stripped down to mostly a single cannabinoid (often THC), which also strips out most of the aroma — it's the neutral oil base behind a lot of vape carts and edibles. Knowing these words helps you understand what a product physically is and how it was made; it does not predict an experience, and you should treat the producer's potency figures as the producer's reported numbers, not anything BudAbout verified.
5 grams — it's one of the most common purchase sizes, and you'll often see it written simply as '3.
Weights & pricing: grams, eighths, quarters, ounces
Flower is sold by weight, and the menu shorthand confuses almost everyone at first because it mixes the metric system with old retail fractions of an ounce. A 'gram' is the base metric unit and the smallest amount you'll typically see sold on its own. An 'eighth' means an eighth of an ounce, which is about 3.5 grams — it's one of the most common purchase sizes, and you'll often see it written simply as '3.5g.' A 'quarter' is a quarter-ounce, roughly 7 grams; a 'half' is a half-ounce, about 14 grams; and an 'ounce' (sometimes called a 'zip') is about 28 grams. Putting it together: an ounce is two halves, four quarters, or eight eighths. Pricing is usually quoted per size, and the per-gram cost typically drops as the size goes up, the same way a larger package is often cheaper per unit at any store. New York also adds cannabis-specific taxes on top of the shelf price, so the total you pay at checkout is higher than the sticker — worth knowing so the final number isn't a surprise. None of these weights say anything about quality or strength; they're units of measure, full stop.
Quality & freshness signals you can observe
Several terms describe the physical condition of flower — the things a careful buyer (or a close-up video) can actually see, independent of any lab number. 'Trichomes' are the tiny, frost-like resin glands that coat good flower and give it a sugary, sparkly look; they're where much of the plant's aroma compounds are concentrated, and intact, generous coverage is generally a sign of careful growing and gentle handling. Important caveat: a heavy trichome coat is not a potency reading — frosty flower can test modestly and duller-looking flower can test high, so appearance and chemistry are related but separate axes. 'Cure' refers to the controlled drying-and-aging process flower goes through after harvest; a good cure is a big part of why some jars smell and feel fresh while others seem flat or harsh. 'Trim' describes how cleanly the excess leaf was cut away from the bud — tight trim looks clean, while loose trim leaves extra leaf and stem. You may also hear 'larf,' the wispy, underdeveloped popcorn flower from the lower plant, and 'nug' or 'nugget,' just an informal word for an individual bud. These are observable, physical quality cues — they're about freshness, structure, and handling, and they say nothing about effects.
The label & the lab sheet: COA, batch numbers, THC/CBD figures
New York requires a lot of information on cannabis packaging, and learning to read it is the single most useful skill for a shopper. A 'COA,' or 'certificate of analysis,' is the lab document that reports a product's testing results — its cannabinoid content (such as THC and CBD percentages) and screening for contaminants like pesticides, heavy metals, residual solvents, and microbials. The COA is produced by an independent testing lab, not by the dispensary and not by BudAbout; when we reference one, we can help explain what the document says, but we never create or verify lab results ourselves. The 'THC' and 'CBD' figures you see — usually a percentage for flower or milligrams for an edible — are cannabinoid amounts the producer reported from that lab testing. Treat them as producer-reported label figures, because that's exactly what they are. A 'batch' or 'lot number' is a code that ties a specific production run to its test results, so a particular jar can be traced back to the COA that covers it; it's also how recalls are issued if a problem is found. Reading the label and matching the batch number to its COA is how you confirm what a product actually contains rather than trusting the marketing on the front.
Here's the part that matters most: a terpene profile is an aroma-and-flavor description, not a prediction of effects.
Cannabinoids & terpenes: the chemistry words
Two chemistry terms come up constantly, and both describe what compounds are present — not what they do to you. A 'cannabinoid' is one of a family of compounds the cannabis plant produces; THC and CBD are the two you'll see named most often on a label, and they're reported as amounts (a percentage or a milligram figure) measured by a lab. 'Terpenes' are the aromatic compounds, found in cannabis and in countless other plants, that give a strain its smell and flavor — citrus, pine, pepper, fuel, earth, and so on. Common ones you might see listed include myrcene, limonene, pinene, and caryophyllene; if a product lists a terpene profile, it's describing the aroma chemistry of that particular batch. Here's the part that matters most: a terpene profile is an aroma-and-flavor description, not a prediction of effects. The same is true of cannabinoid figures — a number on a label tells you how much of a compound is present, not how a given person will respond. We describe terpenes purely as smell and taste (the 'lemon' or 'pine' character), and we never claim a terpene or cannabinoid makes anyone feel a particular way. That line — chemistry and aroma, not effects — is one we hold firmly.
Indica, sativa & hybrid: a classification, not a forecast
These three are probably the most misunderstood words in all of cannabis retail, so it's worth being precise. 'Indica,' 'sativa,' and 'hybrid' originated as botanical and horticultural labels and are now used in retail as a broad naming and lineage classification — a way of sorting strains into familiar buckets. A 'hybrid' simply means a cross between the two categories, which today describes the large majority of strains on the market. What these labels do not do is reliably predict how a product will make you feel. The popular shorthand that one category is automatically 'relaxing' and another 'energizing' is not something the labels actually establish; how any individual responds to any product varies, and the indica/sativa/hybrid tag does not forecast it. On BudAbout we use these words only as the classification they are — a name that helps you find and organize strains — and we describe a strain's aroma separately through its terpene profile. We never present the indica/sativa/hybrid label as a promise of an experience, because it isn't one. If you take one thing from this section: treat these as filing categories, not as effect predictions.
Licensing & legal: OCM, CAURD, and the dispensary license
New York has specific terms for who is legally allowed to sell cannabis, and knowing them is how you tell a licensed store from an unlicensed one. The 'OCM' is the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, the state agency that regulates the legal cannabis market and issues licenses. A 'dispensary license' (more formally a retail dispensary license) is the state authorization a business must hold to legally sell adult-use cannabis to consumers — a legitimate shop can show or reference its license, and the OCM publishes the list of licensed retailers. 'CAURD' stands for Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary, the name of an early New York licensing program; you may still see the term used in connection with some of the first licensed shops to open in the state. The practical takeaway is that only OCM-licensed retailers are operating legally, and verifying a store against the state's official list — rather than assuming a storefront is legitimate because it looks the part — is the safest way to shop. BudAbout maintains a directory to help you find licensed locations, but our directory is for general information; it is not legal advice, and the OCM's own published list is the authoritative source.
These packaging rules exist for safety and identification, and they're some of the easiest tells of a legitimate, compliant product.
Packaging & safety terms: child-resistant packaging and the NY THC symbol
A couple of terms describe how legal cannabis is packaged for safety and how to recognize a properly labeled product. 'Child-resistant packaging' is exactly what it sounds like — containers designed to be difficult for young children to open — and it's a legal requirement for cannabis products sold in New York, so a product that arrives in flimsy, easy-to-open packaging is a warning sign about its source. The 'New York THC symbol' (sometimes called the universal symbol) is a standardized mark New York requires on cannabis product packaging to clearly identify it as a product containing THC; seeing that official symbol, along with required warnings and the batch information, is part of how you confirm a product came through the legal, regulated supply chain. These packaging rules exist for safety and identification, and they're some of the easiest tells of a legitimate, compliant product. As always, packaging requirements can change as regulations evolve, so treat this as general orientation and rely on current OCM guidance for the exact rules in force.
Slang you'll still hear, and what it actually means
Beyond the official vocabulary, a few informal words persist on menus and behind counters, and they tend to confuse newcomers more than anything. 'Zip' is just slang for an ounce (about 28 grams). 'Eighth' and 'quarter,' covered above, are themselves a kind of retail slang for fractions of an ounce that stuck around. 'Nug' means an individual bud; 'shake' refers to the small, loose bits of flower that settle at the bottom of a container, and 'trim' (in this informal sense) can mean the leftover leafy material trimmed off buds. 'Top shelf' is a marketing phrase for a store's higher-priced premium flower — it signals price tier and presentation, not a verified quality or strength rating. 'Solventless' describes concentrates made without chemical solvents (rosin being the classic example). When you see this kind of language, read it as informal shorthand or marketing rather than as regulated, defined terms — the words on the official label and the COA are the ones that carry actual meaning, and a glossy adjective on the front of a jar is not a substitute for the batch number, the symbol, and the lab sheet that tell you what you're really holding.
FAQ
How much is an eighth, and how does it compare to other sizes?
An eighth is an eighth of an ounce, about 3.5 grams, and it's one of the most common purchase sizes. For reference: an ounce is roughly 28 grams, which equals four quarters (about 7g each), two halves (about 14g each), or eight eighths. The weight is just a unit of measure and says nothing about quality or strength.
What is a COA, and does BudAbout test products?
A COA, or certificate of analysis, is the lab document reporting a product's testing results — cannabinoid content like THC and CBD, plus contaminant screening. It's produced by an independent lab, not the dispensary. BudAbout is a review and directory site; we do not lab-test anything, and any THC/CBD figures we show are producer-reported.
Does the indica, sativa, or hybrid label tell me how a product will make me feel?
No. Indica, sativa, and hybrid are naming and lineage classifications — a way to sort and find strains — not a prediction of effects. The popular idea that one category is automatically relaxing and another energizing is not something the labels actually establish, and individual responses vary. We use these terms only as classifications.
What are terpenes, and do they predict effects?
Terpenes are the aromatic compounds that give a strain its smell and flavor — like citrus, pine, or pepper — and they're found in many plants, not just cannabis. A listed terpene profile describes a batch's aroma chemistry only. It is not a prediction of effects, and we describe terpenes strictly as smell and taste.
What's the difference between OCM, CAURD, and a dispensary license?
The OCM (Office of Cannabis Management) is the New York state agency that regulates legal cannabis and issues licenses. A dispensary license is the state authorization a business needs to legally sell adult-use cannabis to consumers. CAURD (Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary) was an early New York licensing program associated with some of the first licensed shops. Only OCM-licensed retailers operate legally; the OCM's published list is the authoritative source.
How can I tell a product came through the legal supply chain?
Look for the required packaging signals: child-resistant packaging, the official New York THC symbol identifying it as a THC product, required warnings, and a batch or lot number that ties the product to its COA. Flimsy packaging, a missing symbol, or no traceable batch information are warning signs. This is general orientation, not legal advice — rely on current OCM guidance for the exact rules.