Health Education Research has taken a lead in publishing findings from the recent wave of studies reporting the effects of tailored health education interventions. However, in this journal and elsewhere, there has been considerable variation in what is meant by the descriptor `tailored'. As a growing number of health education researchers and practitioners have added the language of tailoring to their vocabulary and the possibility of tailoring to their repertoire of intervention methods, it is increasingly important that the field provide a clear definition for tailoring and seek to standardize related terminology.