List of video game terms

Video games have a wide variety of jargon that may fly over a casual's head, so UnTrash Wiki took the time to write a list of video game words, from everyday slang to rarely used, and define them for the convenience of the casuals and the enjoyment of the people in the gaming community.

&
! - An icon that appears in places the player should pay attention to. Depending on the context, this can be a character to talk to, a new addition to a list, or a warning of an incoming attack or other danger.

? - Often placed in speech bubbles near characters who are confused or thinking.

#
1-Up - See one-up below.

100% - Completing every single goal-type objective present in the game.

1v1 - When two players fight each other one-on-one. An alternate name is PvP, or player v player.

2.5D - A game that has 3D characters and objects in a world that limits their movements to the second dimension (horizontally, vertically, and diagonally only).

360 No-Scope - When a player jumps, does a 360-degree rotation midair, fires their rifle, and kills another player without using a scope. This trick was popular in the years 2015 and 2016.

A
Achievement - A goal-type objective that challenge the player to carry out certain actions such as playing the game for a set duration or defeating a boss.

Active - Used to describe effects that need to be activated either by the player or by specific events to work.

AFC - Short for "away from controller". This is the console alternate to AFK.

AFK - Short for "away from keyboard". This means the player is currently not playing the game and is now just an er. This term is usually only used in PC gaming, but it can also generally describe when a player is inactive.

Alpha (testing) - The first phase of a game's release that is often only available to the developers.

Animation - Idle character movement that isn't caused by player input or possible jank.

Anti-aliasing - A technique in graphics that decreases how many sharp edges there are on objects, mostly rounded ones, to give those objects a better appearance.

Any% - Completing the game without any concern for how much of it has been done. This term is mostly used in by speedrunners.

AoE - Short for "area of effect".

Area of effect - The range of a move that can affect multiple enemies at once.

Attack - A harmful action that lowers players and enemies' health if it makes contact with them and breaks or damages objects or terrain.

B
Balanced - Having enough value to be viable but not too much to be unfair.

Balance patch - A kind of patch that makes overpowered aspects weaker and/or underpowered aspects stronger.

Banning - Preventing a player from playing a multiplayer game due to their toxic actions on servers. Might last longer than a kick.

Battle - A fight in RPGs. Normally, battles are had in a multi-man format in which each team has more than one fighter on it.

Beating - To complete a section of a game or the game itself, kill an enemy, or succeed at another task.

Best-in-slot - The equip that is the best in a certain gear slot (such as high-tier boots for the player's leggings slot being the best equip for that slot) or of its kind overall.

Beta - A stage in a game's development after alpha testing where players are allowed to test the game before its full release.

BGM - Short for "background music".

BIS - Short for "best in slot", seen above.

BM - Short for "bad manners". This can be considered a lower form of trolling as it includes bad sportsmanship and greediness. ''Fun Fact: It also stands for "big mammal" like whales or elephants. However, this has absolutely nothing to do with gaming whatsoever. Not-As-Fun Fact: It also stands for... you know...''

Board - A dated term for "level" (seen below).

Boss - "Boss" has more than one sense:


 * An enemy, typically greater in size than normal enemies, who is stronger than other enemies and may have to be defeated to progress in the game.
 * A very good player.

Box art - The graphic on a game's box in which its disc or cartilage is kept.

Broken - "Broken" has more than one sense:


 * A nonfunctional part of a game that makes playing the game (almost) impossible.
 * An unbalanced move, skill, weapon, piece of gear, or character that may be OP.

Build - "Build" has more than one sense:


 * A kind of character.
 * A structure the player made.

Buff - "Buff" has more than one sense:


 * A positive status effect given to players and enemies, commonly in battle, to give them an advantage over their opponent. Typically, buffs raise stats.
 * An update-caused change that generally improves a character or weapon.

Bug - Any problem that is caused by hiccups in the game's code. This can be fixed with patches from updates.

Busted - Another word for "overpowered".

Button mashing - Repetitively pressing buttons on the controller or keys on the keyboard. If this action is done on the same button or key, this is called spamming.

C
Cantrip - A magical spell.

Chatting - Communicating with other players with words.


 * Voice... - Next-level chatting with actual chatting. Uncensored, unfiltered conversations can be held in voice chat.
 * Chatroom - A place where chatting happens. Chatrooms can be found in lobbies.

Cheating - "Cheating" has more than one sense:


 * When a player breaks the rules to gain an advantage.
 * A similar sense to the one above, but it's allowed by the game using some sort of commands or set rules.

Class - Groups that characters are places in based on the characters' stats, moves, weapons, abilities, and match-ups against other characters.

Clipping - Used to describe the feature in video games that makes sure that 3D objects don't pass through platforms when they're not supposed to like floors or walls, but it can also refer to when a 3D object moves through another one (like a character going through a wall) despite both objects being programmed to be solid.

Command - A basic coding phrase, typically paired up with a slash (/) in the beginning, that alters the gameplay in some way. This can be by changing the weather, giving an item to a player, and so on.

Controls - The way the controller moves the player character. This shouldn't be confused with the physical controller itself.

Cover art - See box art above.

CPU - Short for "computer". This is used in contexts of characters who aren't controlled by human players.

Crash - When the game suddenly comes to a halt and leaves the player to do nothing. This can be fatal and needing the game to be restarted for the player to continue.

Critical hit - An uncommon type of hit that does more damage than a regular hit. Critical hits can rarely ever be controlled by the player and often occur on random chance.

Cutscene - A cinematic moment in a video game where the player is typically unable to move their character. This can play as a part of the story or when a player does a certain action.

D
D-Pad - Short for "direction pad". A T-shaped function on controllers with a button on each point. The player uses this to move their character in older games, select things in menus, and other tasks. A D-pad can also be found on other machines, like remote controls and DVD players.

Damage - An indication of how hurt a player or enemy is after being struck by attacks, losing health to certain debuffs, or being hit by the environment. Also shortened to "DMG" in RPGs and other games.

Day-night cycle - An in-game simulation of real life's alternation between daytime in nighttime most typically seen in survival games.

Debuff - A bad effect applied to players and enemies. Well-known debuffs are burning, poison, and paralysis (or anything that has a similar function and goes by a different name).

Despawning - To suddenly stop existing. This often applies to items but can also relate to characters.

Destroying - To defeat other players with ridiculous ease.

Disrespect - Attacking a player after they've either been defeated or are certain to be defeated (e.g hitting them as they fall off a floating arena).

DLC - Short for "downloadable content". Describes an additional and optional feature the player can download to their copy of the game often after purchasing it.

DPS - "DPS" has more than one sense:


 * Short for "damage per second".
 * Keeping the above sense in mind, a build that is optimized to do the most damage possible with single attacks.

Drop - Any goods that fall from an object (such as an enemy or container) once the player interacts with it enough.

Dungeon - A maze-like area, typically underground, that is filled with monsters and loot.


 * ...crawler - A game where the player explores dungeons in search of loot and slaying monsters.

E
Emote - "Emote" has more than one sense:


 * A gesture a character can do to convey a feeling or message often without saying anything.
 * A chat icon used on gaming websites that typically displays a face, word, or symbol.

Enemy - Anything the player is supposed to defeat. It may harm the player by simply touching them or with attacks.

End game - The point of the game when the player could be considered to have reached the ending, a point close to it, or where an ending would be expected.

End lag - The time after an action when the acting character is temporarily unable to do anything else.

Equip - Any gear or weapon the player can apply to their character.

EXP - See XP below.

F
"Fuck this game" - May be spoken when the player feels rage because of the game. It means they're currently frustrated due to a recurring problem, like constantly dying to the same enemy despite the player's numerous attempts to kill that enemy. This phrase has many variants.

Fall damage - The damage a player or enemy takes after traveling past a certain point downward. The farther down the fall, the more damage they take. This feature is common in open world games.

Final boss - The last boss in a game. Often by far the most powerful enemy the player has come across so far. When defeated, the game is won. The final boss can have multiple phases, each phase having a different attack pattern.


 * False final boss - A fake final boss who is normally easily defeated. This is soon replaced by the real final boss.

Frame - A single moment in a game that acts like a picture that moves with other pictures very quickly to create movement.


 * ...rate - How many frames are run in a certain amount of time, often every second.

FPS - "FPS" has more than one sense.


 * Short for "frames per second". If the game has high FPS, it's fast and showing in-game events fluently.
 * Short for "first-person shooter". First-person shooter games place the player in the perspective of their character as they traverse the map and fight enemies with their guns.

Freak out - When a 3D object jerkily moves around. This happens when the object gets stuck in a platform or other solid 3D object.

Friendly fire - Also called "blue fire". Friendly fire is when a player (accidentally) harms or kills their own teammate. This may earn the killing teammate a penalty.

G
Game - Short for "video game". This is the playable software that is available on many pieces of hardware. Anything related to gaming is made for this.


 * "Game on!" - Said by False-To-Life People in movies before the 2010s when they wish to initiate the playing and enjoyment of a video game of their choice with their close acquaintances. It also sounds like "gaymon".
 * "Game over" - The point at which the player is considered to have lost the game. They may get another chance to play.
 * Gamer - One who games. This person is a higher level of player and plays games for a living. "People" (notably those below the age of 15) call themselves this with their playernames when they want to look cool. It never works. Ever.
 * Gameplay - Refers to the overall experience that a player has when playing the game.
 * Gaming - The act of playing games. One who games is called a gamer.
 * Gaymer - A gamer who is gay (as in they are actually gay).

Ganking - To attack weaker players in a way that unfairly places them in a helpless position, then killing them after.

Gear - Wearable items that may be visible on the PC. Gear can have many effects on the wearer.


 * Gear slot - Where gear is placed to apply to the PC. The most common types of gear slots are head, chest, legs, and feet, although others (albeit less common than those listed) exist.

GG - “GG” has more than one sense


 * Short for “good/great game". This is a show of sportsmanship, not criticism of the game itself.
 * Short for “get good” or “git gud”.

GG EZ - Short for "get good, easy". Used to say that the player was able to defeat their enemy easily and that the opponent should get better at the game.

Glitch - "Glitch" has more than one sense:


 * A screw-up in the game that's normally harmless, but still needs to be patched to make the game more complete.


 * In a verb sense, synonymous with freak out.
 * Glitching out - When a game's glitches cause it to crash or reboot.
 * Glitchy - Used to describe anything in a game or the whole game itself if it has glitches.

Goal-type objective - This one's all UnTrash right here. A goal-type objective is any task that isn't related to the game's story if one is present. Examples of goal-type objectives are quests, challenges, and achievements.

Gold - A common form of currency the player collects from multiple sources. This is most seen in fantasy games.

GotY - Short for "Game of the Year".

Griefing - When a player, called a griefer, repetitively and intentionally causes (in)direct harm to other players. It's considered bullying if the griefer targets a single player instead of generalizing their attacks.

H
Hard counter - Totally nullify.

Health - A character's life force. If it hits 0, they might die. Also referred to as HP (abbreviated form of "hit points") in RPGs. Health is diminished if the player character ever takes damage and can be restored if they take medicine, drink healing potions, or sleep.

Hitbox - Not to be confused with a hurtbox. The damaging area of an attack that must hit a hurtbox to damage an enemy. If a hitbox makes contact anywhere else, there will be no damage. The hitbox is usually roughly in the shape of its character's attack.

Hurtbox - Not to be confused with a hitbox. An area of a character's body where a hitbox must touch in order to cause damage to that character. A hurtbox is roughly the shape of a character's body part such as their leg or head.

I
Inventory - Where the player's items go for storage.

Invincibility frames - Frames that make a character completely invulnerable to damage. This may be indicated by the character blinking or lighting up.

Invisible wall - The invisible boundaries of a 3D world that the player can see beyond but cannot travel any further than.

J
John - Blaming failure on something unrelated to the player's skills like the controls screwing up or a distraction in the real world.

Joystick - The stick on a controller that normally has the ability to move in 360 degrees. It may move the player or their camera around in a 3D game.

K
Kicking - "Kicking" has more than one sense:
 * An attack dealt with a fighter's foot or lower leg area, like the shin, onto enemies or objects.
 * Removing someone from a game temporarily. This can be a result of toxic actions or a server needing players to momentarily get off.

Killing - To end a character's life by diminishing their health to 0 through numerous means, most typically attacks.


 * Killsteal/kill steal - Killing an enemy (and reaping rewards) before an ally or other player can after they did all the work.

L
Lag - "Lag" has more than one sense:


 * When the game's FPS drops significantly to the point where on-screen actions are seen as choppy and it is hard for players to see what's going on. Lag may or may not affect input speed.
 * Lag death - When lag gets so bad, it causes the game to ultimately crash.
 * Laggy - Used to describe a game that has an issue with lag.
 * The time a character cannot do move after committing an action such as attacking or dodging.

Level - "Level" has more than one sense:


 * A limited area where the player plays part the game.
 * The overview of a character's power. The higher the level, the higher the stats. Levels are most common in RPGs.
 * ...up - To have a character's level increase by at least one. Also referred to as leveling.

Life - "Life" has more than one sense:


 * Another term to refer to a character's health, often represented by a health bar.
 * Unit of health that decreases when a player dies and increases when they collect a one-man, keeping them from gaming over.

Loading - When the game is preparing itself for play by getting together its elements like terrain, NPCs, and objects.

Lobby - A screen where players wait to get into online play. Chatting can be done here.

Loot - "Loot" has more than one sense:


 * As a noun, goods that can be collected by the player from containers like chests or boxes. This includes food, weapons, money, gear, and so on.
 * As a verb, free someone or something of those goods.

M
Main - "Main" has more than one sense:


 * A character or weapon a player chooses to play often. One player can have multiple mains at a time.
 * A player who chooses a certain character or weapon more commonly.
 * As a verb, picking something to play as the most often.

Match-up or matchup - "Match-up" has more than one sense.


 * How different classes work against each other in battle. Having a good matchup means one character, class, element, or weapon is more effective on another while a bad matchup is an entity being in a disadvantageous situation when fighting against another of its kind.
 * Connecting two or more players online.

Meta - Abbreviation of "most effective tactics available". The meta often comprises of the environment, the characters' abilities, stats, weapons, gear, and matchups against others, which is where the strategy of the meta comes from.


 * ...gaming - Playing the game outside of the game itself, meaning considering elements of the game that aren't readily visible in the game. An example of this is observing another player to form a strategy based on how they react to certain situations, then taking advantage of their patterns and outplaying them. This definition of "meta" is different from the definition as it doesn't refer to the most effective tactics available and instead this kind of meta (roughly sense 1).

Miniboss - An enemy between a regular enemy and a boss.

Minmaxing or min-maxing - Min imizing unwanted stats and max imizing desirable ones.

MMO - Abbreviated form of "massive multiplayer online". It is common for active MMOs to have hundreds or even thousands of players share the same server. MMOs typically have players fight and kill each other, but some can be cooperative.

MMORPG - Abbreviated form of "massive multiplayer online role-playing game". This is a combination of the two preexisting genres — the MMO and RPG — that usually allows players to choose their RPG classes and races, then play in an RPG format with many other players.

Mount - An entity, most likely an animal, a player can ride and control, such as a horse or bike.

N
Newb(ie) - A person who is new to the game.

No-clip - See clipping above.

Noob or no0b - A player who makes beginner-like mistakes despite not being a beginner.

NPC - Short for "non-player character". This is any character the player does not normally control. This is the opposite of a PC.

O
Offsetting -To negate or cancel.

OHK - Short for "one-hit kill". When only one hit is required to kill an enemy or player due to the attack being that powerful or the target being that weak. A related term is OHKO.

OHKO - Short for "one-hit knockout". It's like an OHK, but instead of one hit needed to kill, one hit is needed to knock the target out. This is an element seen in RPGs.

One-man - An object that grants the player who collects it an extra life. Some one-mans can give more than one life at a time.

One-hit - See one-shot directly below.

One-shot - Killing someone in a single hit. This leads to an OHK. UnTrash has a page about this.

One-up - "One up" has more than one sense.


 * To gain an extra life, possibly through a one-man.
 * Another name for a one-man.

OST - Short for "original soundtrack". Refers to the songs officially used in the game.

P
Palette swap - A character or other entity who is a recolor of a preexisting entity.

Party - A group of people who are allies and work together towards a common goal. This is the RPG equivalent of a team.

Passive - Used to describe status effects or abilities that automatically or uncontrollably work without the player's intervention.

Patching - To fix glitches in a game using files that were designed specifically to do so. This can be achieved with updates.

Pl0x - Please.

Polygon - A three-dimensional object used to create 3D models for characters, objects, and locations.

Pool - A word often seen after other terms that refers to the possible options for the first term. Such pools are stat pools, move pools, and skill pools.

Power spike - A sudden jump in a player's power. This is seen normally after they level up and hit a certain number.

Pro - A very experienced player.

Procing - Synonymous with "triggering". This is applied to usage of a move to cause some sort of effect in another character.

PvE - Short for "player versus environment". This is a gamemode in which the player fights CPU enemies instead of other human players.

PvP - See 1v1 above.

Q
QTE - Short for "quick time event".

Quest - A goal-type objective that is common in medieval-times games. This doesn't differ much from other goal-type objectives other than in name.

Quick time event - A seconds-long moment in a game where the player must spam buttons or press them in a specified order to succeed.

R
Rage - Anger towards the currently-played game. This may lead to a rage quit if not dealt with properly.


 * Rager - One who rages. Their rage can be found as childish or funny by others.
 * ...quit - When someone quits the game they're playing because of their stress caused by constant failure in the game.

RAM - Short for "random access memory". The hardware inside a system like a computer or gaming console that temporarily stores data which that machine can use as a sort of memory. This is to speed up read and write times and be more effective than a hard drive.

Rando - A player who is randomly selected to play against another online.

(Git/Get) Rekt - Corruption of "get wrecked". Popular slang used back in the years around 2015. This was said when one player killed another, especially if the killed player dies an especially destroyed death. Rekt was also used to describe something that got destroyed by someone or another thing.

Respawning - To return to spawn or another place after dying. In most games, only players are given the ability to do this.

S
Saving - Storing the player's progress internally. When a player saves, everything that they did will be recorded so when they return, they can pick up where they last saved.


 * Auto... - A function especially seen in newer games that saves progress for the player as opposed to manual saving.

Savescumming - To load a game before a point the player has died or met another undesirable event. The game might have been saved shortly before this point to save time.

Server - A connection between players that places them in a shared world where they may interact with each other in real-time action.

Smurfing - When a very experienced player disguises themselves as a beginner player (possibly with a new account or character), joins beginner servers, and kills inexperienced and learning players.

Spamming - "Spamming" has more than one sense:


 * The act of repetitively bashing a key or button.
 * Writing the same message over and over in chat.
 * Doing anything else repeatedly or to an excessive degree.

Spawning - To suddenly appear.


 * Spawn camping - As a player or enemy, to wait at the spawn of players or enemies to kill them and giving them little to no chance to fight back.


 * Spawn point - The place where characters are supposed to appear. Also just called spawn.

Spec - To spec ialize or invest in a stat by focusing on increasing that stat.

Speedrun - Completing a game or one of its parts as quickly as possible.

Splash damage - A type of damage that is dealt by explosions or explosion-like skills or items (such as potions) and can affect multiple targets.

Sprite - A graphic of a character or object, mainly in the form of pixel art.

Stacking - To apply an effect to the same entity (such as a player or equip) multiple times to enhance that effect's power. For example, if the player wears armor that grants them the same Strength boost, that boost will be amplified through the equips the player is wearing, increasing the Strength stat by a greater amount than if the effect didn't stack.

Start lag - Time before an action when the acting character cannot do anything else.

Status effect - A term referring to both buffs and debuffs.

Stunlocking - To take advantage of a player or enemy who cannot move and hit them, often multiple times in a row, to "fight" them.

Superboss - A boss who is not required to be defeated for game progression but can be fought for helpful rewards or fun.

T
Tank - "Tank" has more than one sense:


 * A build with great defense, commonly high strength, and below-average speed.
 * A vehicle that matches the sense above.
 * As a verb, take high damage without dying, being (greatly) pushed back, or debuffed.

Teabag - A nearly universally-doable taunt where the player rapidly switches between standing and crouching or walking and sneaking.

Team - A band of players who work together towards a single goal. It is often impossible to hurt or debuff teammates.

Tier list - A ranking of related entities on a list usually consisting of six tiers — in descending order of greatness, S, A, B, C, D, and F — that considers the overall aspects of those listed entities.

Toxicity - Defined as troll-like actions or other harmful attacks on other players with grieving, insulting, or any other negative interactions. If someone is causing toxicity, they're considered toxic.

Trolling - Intentional foul play in multiplayer games that is done to invoke anger from other players. A person who trolls is called a troll. Trolling can be done by...


 * Asking how to to basic things (attacking, jumping, moving, etc.).
 * Being generally useless by doing ineffective things (like attack a wall), constantly committing suicide, or doing Absolutely Nothing.
 * Being immature in any sense of the word.
 * Calling other players out for their lack of skills.
 * Consciously killstealing.
 * General cheating.
 * Harming or hampering your own teammates in whatever way possible.
 * Insulting other players.
 * Joining a server, then instantly leaving it to disrupt the flow of the game.
 * Meming with bad or dead memes.
 * Obviously being too young to play the game.
 * Picking a fight with someone although they did nothing.
 * Smurfing.
 * Spamming chat. Bonus Points if another item on this list is achieved through this.
 * Unnecessarily screaming, screeching, hollering, or singing in voice chat. Bonus Points if you can get everyone to yell "SHUT THE FUCK UP" within a minute.
 * Wasting other players' time by not doing anything when all participating players are required to put input in the game, such as not deciding to be ready to play the game in the lobby when a battle is about to start.

Turn-based combat - Battle in which characters switch between times of attacking and defending while their opponent does the opposite of what they're doing. These times are called the turns.

Tutorial - An explanation to players about how the game works.

U
Update - A new version of the game that's available to players. Updates change the game in some way, let it be by adding (introducing a new map), taking away (removing an OP weapon), or fixing (killing bugs) its elements. Not all updates patch the game.

V
Voice chat - See chatting above.

W
Wall - A tank-like build whose purpose is to effectively absorb damage without much or any fighting.

Wave - A series of enemies who either attack the player or go for their Bird's Egg they need to protect or else they lose.

Wiping - When a boss annihilates the player (and their party).

X
XP - Short for "experience points". This is what characters in RPGs collect to level up.

Z
Zerg - "Zerg" has more than one sense.


 * A a verb, to attack an enemy with an overwhelming amount of units in a strategy game before they can do anything about it.
 * As a noun, a large collection of units or players.