The purpose of the study is to determine the essential features of the concept "teaching method" and to give its correct definitions. The materials of the study are definitions of this concept in didactic and methodological texts. The methods of the study are conceptual analysis, terminological analysis, and logical analysis of this concept. Results of the study are the following: 1) most of the existing definitions of the concept "teaching method" do not contain its essential features; 2) scientific definitions of this concept can be formulated by its analysis in the context of philosophical categories "general" / "specific" and "part" / "whole"; 3) essential features of this concept are reflected in its definitions as a generic concept, as a specific concept, as a component of a system, and as an independent system. The study of the teaching method from these positions allows us to formulate four basic scientific definitions of this concept. The teaching method can be considered: a) as a didactic phenomenon characterized by the isomorphism with the teacher’s and learners activities and ideal nature; b) as an image of the teacher’s and student's activity in the teacher’s mind; c) as a component of a system of teacher's views, the function of which is to design the teacher’s and students’ activity; its place in this system is determined by this dependence on the objectives and content of instruction; d) as a set of interrelated techniques of teaching and learning. This study allows us to clarify the essential features of the “teaching method” as a didactic category. The four ways of the concept definitions may be used in the training of future researchers, in particular, researchers in pedagogy.