- Adobe - bricks made of compressed mud and straw, dried in the sun.
- Buttress - a structure made of stone or wood, built against a wall to strengthen it
- Campanario - A wall which holds bells
- Cloister - an enclosed area
- Convento - a group of monks or nuns, or the place where they gather
- El Camino Real - Spanish for "the King's Highway", the name of the road that connected the California mission chain
- Facade - the face or front of a building
- Font - a large, decorated bowl holding Holy Water for baptizing people
- Friar - a member of the Franciscan order
- Franciscan - a member of a Catholic church religious order, named for St. Francis of Assisi
- Fresco - paintings done directly on wet plaster
- Neophyte - new convert
- Padre - Spanish word for father, used for a priest or pastor
- Presidio - a camp or fort
- Quadrangle - an enclosed courtyard or patio, having four sides
- Reredos - the wall behind the main altar in a church
- Restoration- to repair or return something to its original condition
- Sanctuary- the area inside a church where the main altar is found
- Secular- not religious
- Secularization- to change from religious to not religious, in mission days it meant taking the California mission buildings away from the church and placing them under government rule

