Jargon lies at the other end of the language spectrum. Jargon is made up of terms — for instance, pathogens and antimicrobial agents — that are familiar to people in a particular field or who share a particular interest but that are rarely used in general conversation. It is fine to use the jargon of a field you’re writing about if the term is more exact than any general-vocabulary term you know and if it seems to be widely used in that field.

Don’t get carried away with jargon, though:

The epidemiology of pathogenic resistance to antimicrobial agents warrants careful scrutiny.

Unless you’re confident that your readers already understand the specialized terms you want to use, introduce them gradually or avoid them:

General-purpose dictionaries rarely tag words jargon the way they tag other words informal. The dictionary may give words that are jargon a tag like medicine; in other cases, it may give no tag or may not include the words at all. If you need to use specialized terms and want to make sure you’re using them accurately, check a special-purpose resource like a medical dictionary.