The people who commissioned and used protective charms would not have felt compelled to use precisely defined categorizations and terms such as "amulet" and "talisman," so these and the other words are used largely for the convenience of modern readers. These terms are often used interchangeably by scholars. For the sake of clarity and consistency, meanings have been assigned to the terms used in this study: "phylactery," "talisman," "apotropaion" (plural apotropaia), and "amulet." These terms may be used differently in other works on the subject.