Mosques in Scandinavia are a highly diverse phenomenon, which hasled to the emergence of a rich vocabulary within the field of academicresearch. This article examines the conceptualization of mosques in thediaspora, with a particular focus on purpose-built mosques, and arguesfor a rethinking of this frequently used term. We suggest replacing theterm with a more nuanced typology that goes beyond mere physicalstructures to include aspects such as the size, status, and mutual positioningof large Scandinavian mosques, and consequently propose a terminologythat includes “grand”, “central”, and “Friday mosques” as wellas “multipurpose cultural centres” as key categories. To link the abstracttypology to the empirical, we apply the terminology to a number of Scandinavianmosques and discuss how to deal with cases where the typologydiffers from the mosques’ own designations.