This work reflects on what must be the basic object of terminological research in accordance with the needs of users. Firstly, the author argues that this object cannot be limited to nominal referential units, that is to say, to terminological units. It has to include all units with specialised meaning in specialised texts. Secondly, the author makes a distinction between relevant and non-relevant units of specialised meaning for a specific professional purpose. This difference allows for the formulation of user profiles for concrete terminological applications. The author bases her statements on the theoretical foundations of “The Communicative Theory of Terminology” (Cabré 1999, 2000), and tests it with two experiments which were carried out in the field of term detection.