At the present stage of the development of international relations, the role of professional terminology is constantly growing. On the one hand, it is connected with the rapid development of all spheres of social life, science, and technology, and on the other hand - with the penetration of information technology in all spheres of human life. A term is a language unit, so it is characterized by having specific functions. The choice of the terminological scope is predetermined by the rapid growth of international relations and the development of the appropriate vocabulary of the border protection sphere. A border protection term is a lexeme possessing main features of a unit of a terminological system, including functions. Our research focuses on the analysis of the border protection terms functions and on their difference from the common language functions. The functions (nominative, descriptive, signifying, communicative and cognitive) are interrelated and expose different facets of a term.