The purpose of the article is ordering the use of the term “mapping” in the scientific field. The history of the issue and the situation with the consolidation of this term in the normative documents (GOST) is considered; a critical review of the definitions used in the cartographical reference and educational literature is given. The reasons for the errors in its use may be related to the linguistic features of the pair of terms “cartography” and “mapping”, and the specifics of cartographic terminology in general. It reflects the triple essence of cartography as a field of science, technology and production. The place of mapping in the system “creation – use of maps” is shown on the basis of the model-cognitive concept in relation to the branches of thematic cartography. The author substantiates the inadmissibility of using the term of “map-ping” to denote the scientific directions being borderland between cartography and various geographical and technical sciences. The definition of the term of “mapping” as a process of creating cartographical works is proposed.