Someone becomes an applicant the moment they submit a form, CV or chat application, and stays one until the team moves them into active consideration or closes the application. Applicants arrive through job boards, careers pages, referrals and agencies. In most tracking systems, one person applying to three roles counts as three applications, which matters when comparing volumes across teams or periods.
How many applicants a team receives, and how quickly each is acknowledged, shapes both workload and reputation. Applicants who hear nothing for weeks often withdraw or accept work elsewhere. A prompt acknowledgement, clear expectations about next steps and timescales, and a first review that holds every applicant to the same criteria are basic good practice, especially when hundreds apply for a single role.