Homeowners googling this question usually aren’t curious about Victorian masonry terminology, they got two quotes using two words and want to know if they’re buying the same thing. Short answer: almost certainly yes. Longer answer, because the history is genuinely useful for reading quotes:
Repointing: the structural spine
Cut out failed mortar to depth, repack with fresh matched mortar, tool the joints. This is the work that restores weather-sealing and load transfer, the full craft. Every legitimate quote for joint renewal includes this, whatever word sits on the letterhead.
Tuckpointing: the historical flourish
In its strict 18th-century sense: after repointing in a mortar tinted to match the brick, a thin line of contrasting putty (usually white) is “tucked” along each joint’s center, creating the illusion of impossibly fine, perfectly regular joints. It was a Georgian-era trick to make rough brickwork imitate expensive gauged masonry. Gorgeous on the right restoration; rarely requested on a Plano two-story.
What American usage did
Over here, “tuckpointing” drifted into meaning… repointing. Most of the trade, us included, uses them interchangeably, and search engines agree. On genuinely historic work, the distinction revives, if you own a period property where the original joints had that fine-line treatment, restoration-grade matching is its own conversation.