This is a case study of a 13-year volunteer effort by a dedicated committee of the Federation of Societies of Coatings Technology to write the Paint/Coatings Dictionary. The committee's motivation, philosophy, and objectives are discussed as are the three parts of this dictionary: definitions, thesaurus, and bibliography. Typical examples of definition, jargon, and classification are included. This effort continues with the current writing of a more encyclopedic, illustrated second edition.