A mortgage is a method of using property (real or personal) as security for the payment of a debt.
Each legal system tends to share certain concepts but vary in the terminology and jargon they use.
In general terms the main participants in a mortgage are:
Creditor
The creditor has legal rights to the debt secured by the mortgage and often make a loan to the debtor of the purchase money for the property. Typically, creditors are banks, insurers or other financial institutions who make loans available for the purpose of real estate purchase.
A creditor is sometimes referred to as the mortgagee or lender.
Debtor
The debtor or debtors must meet the requirements of the mortgage conditions (and often the loan conditions) imposed by the creditor in order to avoid the creditor enacting provisions of the mortgage to recover the debt. Typically the debtors will be the individual home-owners, landlords or businesses who are purchasing their property by way of a loan.
A debtor is sometimes referred to as the mortgagor, borrower, or obligor
Other participants
Due to the complicated legal exchange, or conveyance, of the property, one or both of the main participants are likely to require legal representation. The terminology varies with legal jurisdiction; see lawyer, solicitor and conveyancer.
Because of the complex nature of many markets the debtor may approach a mortgage broker or financial adviser to help them source an appropriate creditor typically by finding the most competitive loan.
The debt is sometimes referred to as the hypothecation, which may make use of the services of a hypothecary to assist in the hypothecation.