World of Warcraft terminology

World of Warcraft has, like any other role-playing game, many abbreviations that can be confusing to new players. Here is a list of terminology and acronyms that are commonly used by players in World of Warcraft. Internet slang such as "omg" and "brb", as well as leet terms, are not included.

0-9
1h
One Handed weapon.
1v1
A duel between two characters, the simplest form of PvP.
2h
Two handed weapon
5-man
Refers to a 5-man party, used to distinguish from larger raids; i.e. "LFG Scholo 5-man" the player is looking for a 5-man Scholomance run, not a raid. Most quests cannot be finished when a player is part of a raid group, so those quests require that the instance be run by a single 5-man party, even if the instance is raidable.

A
AB
Arathi Basin
Adds
When additional mobs attack a player already in combat.
AE
Usually, Area of Effect, meaning an attack that affects a wide area of the field, rather than a single target. Also, Arcane Explosion (an area of effect mage spell) See AoE.
AFK
Away from Keyboard; typing /afk or not touching the keyboard for about 5 minutes will put you in AFK mode. During AFK, your character will sit down, and sender of any private message directed to you will be notified, that you are AFK. Moving or talking in the /say or /yell channel will remove AFK status.
AFK Airlines
A nickname for the various flight paths throughout the game which references the common practice for people to leave their computers while their character flies across the continent to another destination.
Aggro Magnet (AgMag)
The term used for low-leveled players that pull much higher leveled monsters due to the extended aggro range.
Aggro Range(sometimes Radius)
The invisible sphere around every monster that, when entered, causes the enemy and anything else within the Aggro Range to attack. The size of the circle increases as the monsters become higher level than you, and vice versa. When a monster's level is gray (trivial) you have to nearly walk through it for it to attack. You may draw aggro along the z-axis(vertical), so aggro range is not merely a circle but a sphere.
Aggro/Hate
Aggro is short for Aggression, or the enemies' choice of who to attack. Attacking an enemy or healing other players in your group generates Aggro. Tanks usually "Hold the Aggro", meaning become a meat-shield, or damage sponge thus keeping the rest of the group safe.
AH
Auction House
Alt
An "alternate" extra character created by a long-time player as a change of pace, or to fill a role. A player with "alts" usually has a character he/she considers his/her "main".
AoE
Area of Effect, usually referring to spells that cause damage over an area, such as a Mage's Arcane Explosion or Flamestrike. Can also be used to mean "a character who can cast AoE attacks", as in "we'll need some AoE if we're going to do Stratholme". Many times this is abbreviated "AE"(see above).
AotC
Hunter's Aspect of the Cheetah
AotH
Hunter's Aspect of the Hawk
AotM
Hunter's Aspect of the Monkey
AotP
Hunter's Aspect of the Pack
AQ
Ahn’Qiraj
Atts
Weapon Attributes (Stamina, Strength, Agility, etc...)
AV
Alterac Valley

B
BB
Booty Bay
BG/BGs
Battlegrounds
BoA
Bind on Acquire (same as BoP)
BoE
Bind on Equip. The item becomes soulbound when you equip it.
BoK
Paladin, Blessing of Kings
BoP
Bind on Pickup. The item is soulbound as soon as you pick it up.
BoP
Paladin, Blessing of Protection
BoS
Paladin, Blessing of Salvation
Boss
An NPC, usually in an instance, that is generally stationary and predictably drops quality loot
BRD
Blackrock Depths (instance)
BRS
Blackrock Spire, a raid instance. Actually two instances, UBRS (Upper) and LBRS (Lower).
BFD
Blackfathom Deeps (instance)
Bubblehearth
The term for Paladin's using their immunity to all damage spell (Divine Shield) and hearthstoning, most often directly after being engaged in PvP.
Buff
A spell that increases your attributes. A common one is Mark of the Wild. Also used as in "Buff the loot" or "Buff the Class" meening: to make better.
Build
The way a character has spent their talent points. A common discussion on forums is which build of a particular class is better for PvE, 1v1, or PvP. See Spec.
BWL
Blackwing Lair (raid instance)

Copper (coin, normally)
CC
Crowd Control; an ability or skill that delays a group of mobs from attacking in order to deal with the enemies already attacking. Frost Nova is a common one.
Cap
To capture a flag in battlegrounds.
Camp Taco/Camp T
A disparaging term for the hard-to-spell and formerly hard-to-reach Camp Taurajo.
COA
A Warlock's Curse of Agony. Does damage over time.
COD
A Warlock's Curse of Doom. Does 3600 damage after a 1 minute countdown; or a "Cash on Delivery" payment made through the in-game mail system.
COE
A Warlock's Curse of the Elements. Increases fire and frost damage against the enemy. May also refer to Curse of Exhaustion, which reduces movement speed.
COR
A Warlock's Curse of Recklessness. Increases enemy attack ability but decreases armor and prevents enemies from running in fear.
Corpse Camping
When a player deliberately stays near a players corpse, waiting for them to resurrect in order to kill them again. This is not considered grief play according to the PvP polices. (Can read more under the help "?" icon on the toolbar)
Corpse Run
Running, or wisping, a character "ghost" avatar from the graveyard to the site of the fallen body.
COS
A Warlock's Curse of Shadow. Increases shadow and arcane damage against the enemy.
Creep
Same as Mob
Crit
Critical strike/hit. A hit that multiplies the damage of your typical strike. (Typically 1.5 x for spells and 2 x for physical)
CS
Counterspell, also Cheap Shot (rogue ability)
CTF
Capture the flag, referring to the Warsong Gulch BattleGrounds. (See WSG.)

D
Direct Damage: Refers to a spell or ability that targets one enemy and does all damage for the ability immediately.
Debuff
A spell that decreases the stats of an enemy.
Ding
An exclamation used when gaining a level, (ie. Ding! 34!) A reference from EQ where, upon gaining a level, the game would make a "ding" noise.
DK/DHK
Dishonorable Kill
DKP
Dragon Kill Points. These are a form of bidding for items that are won in end game guilds. The more raids you go on, the more points you have, so the more bidding power you have to get items.
DM
Deadmines/Dire Maul (instances). On some servers this currently refers to Dire Maul, Deadmines is called VC, after Van Cleef, a boss. On others DM still refers to Deadmines while DiM is used to refer to Dire Maul
DMF
Darkmoon Faire, a bi-monthly event that takes place in Azeroth (In the Alliance area of Elwynn Forest) and Kalimdor (In the Horde area of Mulgore.) Here, players can take on quests that reward them with Darkmoon Tokens; special rewards that can be traded in with the fair owners for rare items.
DnD
Do not Disturb; typing /dnd will put you in this state, notifying all private message (whispers) senders, that you are DnD. Do not mistake it for Dungeons and Dragons.
DoT
Damage over Time. A reference to an effect that deals its damage over a set amount of time.
DPS
Damage per Second. In a party, "DPS" refers to the players who are actually inflicting damage on monsters, as compared to those who are tanking and healing. For example: "BRD group already has tank and healer, needs DPS." DPS usually means mages or rogues, who are the major damage-dealing classes.
Drain Tanking
A common tactic Warlocks use whilst levelling, essentially using a high-damage pet and all their damage-over-time effects to drop a target whilst they're using 'Drain Life' to offset the damage being dealt to them.
Drood/Dr00d
A slightly derogatory term for druid, originating from the Everquest culture at a time when the druid class was perceived to have an over-abundance of "leet" players.
Drops
Items looted from mobs.
DS
Darkshire
DW
Duskwood

E
Elite
Mobs with a golden dragon around their portaits are elite. Elite mobs are much stronger than regular ones; their relative strength varies, and typically are extremely difficult to solo. Instances contain mostly elites. Do not confuse elites with named mobs, who have silver dragons around their portaits.
EP/EPL
Eastern Plaguelands

F
Face Melting
This term is used when describing what Priests (Shadow Priests) do to other players in PvP. The term originated from the observation that the icon for Mind Flay (priest spell) resembles a melting face.
Farming
Grinding mobs in an single area to get a rarely-dropped piece of loot, lots of a common drop, or just money. Named because you end up killing all of the available mobs, and then waiting for them to respawn, like a farmer growing crops and harvesting them. "I'm busy farming wool for the AH." See "Gold Farmers".
FedEx Quest
A type of quest where you are intended to deliver something from point A to point B.
FFA
Free-For-All; usually refers to the party loot system where anyone is free to loot any corpse they find, first come, first served style.
Fort
Common term used to describe fortification a highly desired priest hit point buff.
FP
Flight Point/Path
FTL
For the loss. Used to indicate the cause of a loss or failure. Excessive server lag resulting in a player's death could be indicated with "Lag FTL."
FTW
For the win. Used to indicate the cause of a success. A critical strike that resulted in the expedient death of an enemy could be indicated with "Crit FTW!"
FR
Fire Resistance

G
Gold (coin)
Gold Farmers
Characters (typically played by a group so they can be online 24/7) that do nothing but farm money and high-value vendor trash in order to sell gold to other players for real-world money. The typical usage is "Chinese Gold Farmer", since many of these characters are/were run by companies in China and other parts of Asia.
Gad/Gadget
Gadgetzan
Ganked
To be attacked and/or killed by another player or group of players; implies the battle was extremely unfair, such as the hostile players being of much higher level than yourself.
Gimped
A word used to describe an underpowered character class. A result of the enthusiastic debates surrounding the balance of the classes in WoW.
GG
Grom'Gol/Good Game
GM
Game Master/Guild Master
Gnomer
Gnomeregan (instance)
Gratz
Congratulations
Grind
To repeatedly kill mobs in the same area for a period of time to gain exp and/or farm items, rather than questing.
GS
Goldshire
Guildie
Guild/Clan-mate
GY
Graveyard
Gz
Congratulations

H
Hearth
To use a hearthstone to return to one's home location.
HK
Honorable Kill
HoT
Heal over Time
HS
Hearthstone; as in 'I'm going to HS back to IF'.
HWL
High Warlord, the highest PvP rank for Horde players

I
INC
Abbreviation of (Inc)oming, usually applied in Battlegrounds matches when opposing faction members are bearing down on a location. Eg: "Inc Zerg Tunnel" which informs team members that a large group of enemy players are bearing down on the Warsong Gulch tunnel leading to the flag room. This can also apply when Patrolling mobs can be seen pathing towards a party. Eg: "Inc pat left."
IF
Ironforge, (Alliance capital city)
Imba
Imbalance(d)/unfair.

K
Kite/Kiting
The process of fleeing from an enemy (normally an NPC or mob) while maintaining their hate/aggro towards you, thus leading them around like a kite on a string. This technique, combined with Damage Over Time (DOT) abilities, can be used to defeat enemies that are too powerful to confront directly. It can also be used to keep an enemy unit occupied while your comrades defeat its companions. (Please note that this is actually a generic MMORPG term, and its use is not confined to WoW.)
KOS
Kill On Sight. Used to describe the nature of an enemy unit to attack upon sight, or the state of your reputation with that enemy's faction that would cause them to attack you. (i.e. "These mobs are KOS" or "I'm KOS to Steamwheedle Cartel.")

L
LBRS
Lower Blackrock Spire (instance)
LEEROY
(Also Leeroy'ed, Leeroying.) The act of charging unprepared into combat and causing your party/raid group to be wiped out. This is a reference to the "Leeroy Jenkins" gameplay video circulating online.
LF
Looking For...
LFG
Looking for Group
LFM
Looking for Members/More
Link
The act of placing the stats of an item in the trade/party/guild/say channel by shift-clicking the item while the chat bar is open
Lock
Warlock
LoH
The Paladin's Lay on Hands spell, which recovers an amount equal to their total hit points; commonly called the "Pally's Extra Life."
Loot
To take the items off enemies when you kill them.
LS
Lakeshire

M
MA
Main Assist, the player picking targets for the group
Mara
Maraudon (instance)
Mats
Abbreviation for "materials" needed in a trade recipe or pattern.
MC
Molten Core (raid instance) or Mind Control (as in the priest spell.)
MH
Menethil Harbor, also called Men Harbor or Meneharb.
ML
Master Looter A player designated at the time the "Master Looter" looting option is chosen by a group or raid leader. The ML is the only group/raid player able to see and loot green or higher items. The ML has the sole power to distribute these items to individual members of the group/raid.
Mob
Monster/Enemy. Mobile Object Originally an acronym for, "Monster or Beast".
MotW
Mark of The Wild, a Druid's Buff.
MT
Mistell; used when a player sends a message in the wrong channel. 2. Main Tank; the member of a party or raid who tries to take damage in order to protect other players- usually a warrior.

N
Need, used in a Party/Raid Group Chat to signify that a player needs the loot that has come up for roll. Patch 1.7 implemented a "Need before Greed" system that makes the v/n system obsolete.
Named
An NPC that usually has a generic model but unlike other, similar NPCs, has a name (for example, a wolf called "Fang" amidst a whole pack of "grey wolf" mobs). Sample usage: "kill the named".
Nassus
Darnassus, Night Elf capital city.
NE
Night Elf
Need before Greed
A looting system implemented with Patch 1.7. In the new system, when a piece of loot comes up for roll in a Party, the players can click on a dice (need) or coin (greed) icon. Those that need the item (dice) roll before those that clicked on greed (coin). If no players click on the dice, the item goes to the player who rolled the highest after clicking on the coin.
Nerf
When the developers change something in the game to make it weaker. IE: Read every "Rogue" section for each WoW patch.
Ninja or Ninja Looter
A member of a party who loots items of greater need to other members, or Need-rolls items of greater value without truly needing them. A player's status as a "Ninja" is often broadcast on local channels as a way of punishing his greed.
Noob/N00b/Nub
Reference to a new player, "newbie"
NS
Druid's Nature's Swiftness. Can also mean Northshire.
Nuke
A direct-damage spell with a high amount of damage.

O
Org
Orgrimmar (Horde, Orc capital city)
OL
Onyxia's Lair (raid instance)
OOM
Out Of Mana
OT
Off Tank. Handy for when there is a main boss and his/her minion/s, one or two people usually off tanks the minion/s to hold aggro, while the others work on the main boss.

P
Pally
Paladin. Sometimes referred to as Bubbledins or Lolladins, though these terms are more derogatory in nature. Those who specialize in holy talents are also known as a Healadins.
Pat
Short for Patrol. This indicates the presence of a group of wandering mobs, usually found in instances. (i.e. After you defeat a boss in the deadmines 3-4 Defias will come behind you.)
Proc
Short for special procedure. Used to refer to an effect on an item, usually with a chance of occurring on a hit.
PST
Please Send Tell; used at the end of requests indicating that anyone interested should send a private message rather than use the general chat. An easy way to remember this one is to know that PST sounds like 'psst'.
Pull
To pull an enemy away from a large group using a ranged weapon.
PuG
Pick Up Group, a group of random players (usually 5 in a party) who have joined to complete a common quest or instance. The name comes from the phrase: "Picking up a group".
PvE
Player vs. Environment
PvP
Player versus Player

R
Rag
Ragnaros - The end boss of Molten Core.
Raid
A raid is a large group of players (up to 40) that serves one of two purposes. One is to go into an instance (instances have player limit cap, such as Dire Maul which is 5 and Maraudon which is 10) and take down a freakishly difficult boss (such as Azuregos). The other is to attack a city/area of the opposite faction.
Res/Rez
Resurrect; usually by a spell cast by a priest, paladin, druid or shaman.
RFC
Ragefire Chasm (instance)
RFD
Razorfen Downs (instance)
RFK
Razorfen Kraul (instance)
RH
Razor Hill or Raven Hill (cemetery)
Roll
To start a new character (i.e. I rolled a mage); also refers to rolling for rare items while in a party.
RP
Role-playing , Role-playing server.
RPPVP (server)
Role Playing Player vs Player server
RR
Redridge Mountains

S
Silver (coin)
Scholo
Scholomance
SFK
Shadowfang Keep
SH
Sentinel Hill
Shammy
Shaman
Sheep
To cast the Mage's Polymorph spell on a mob, thus turning it into a sheep temporarily (e.g., "sheep the add!")
Shield
Short for Power Word: Shield, a priest ability
SNES
An acronym. "Slutty Night Elf Stripper." Refers to a when player with a female Night Elf toon removes all of the toon's clothes and types /dance. Not to be confused with "Super Nintendo Entertainment System."
SM
Scarlet Monastery, a level 35-40 instance for both Alliance and Horde. It is not one main instance, but 4 seperate sub-instances, each one more difficult than the last - this goes in order of Graveyard, Library, Armoury, Cathedral.
SMAT
An acronym. "Send Me A Tell." Is an alternative to PST, "Please Send Tell".
SoS
Swamp of Sorrows
Spec
Short for specialization. This refers to the talent tree or talent tree type or which a player has chosen. See BUILD.
SS
Southshore, also when in a group with a Warlock, Soulstone, a stone that allows its target to instantly resurect.
Strat (or Strath)
Stratholme
ST
The Sunken Temple (instance)
STV
Stranglethorn Vale
SW
Stormwind (Human capital city)

T
Tank
"To tank" (verb) is to cause the enemy monsters to attack you, effectively body-blocking attacks for other player characters and preventing the more fragile characters in your group from being attacked. "A tank" (noun) is a character who can absorb high amounts of damage without dying, and who can hold the attention (or "aggro") of the monsters. A party's tank is usually a Warrior, who can use heavy armor and shields, and has specific "aggro-management" abilities. Paladins, Shamans, Druids in bear form, and some Hunter and Warlock pets can tank in a pinch. See also MT (Main Tank)
TB
Thunder Bluff
Tick
Used to determine the amount of health or mana regenerated. Constitutes a two second span of time.
TM
Tarren Mill, a Horde town in Hillsbrad.
Toon
Another word for character (player characters only), or more specifically avatar.
Trash Mob
A non-boss mob found in an instance that is easily defeated by a party.
Twink
Characters that have been given support and items far beyond their current level range, or (as a verb) the act of giving that support and items. A high-level player can twink himself by sending a low-level "alt" character money and items that are easily acquired at the higher level. Twinks often grow to levels ending in nine - 19, 29, 39, 49, and 59 in order to have the highest level which falls within a given level bracket for battlegrounds.

U
UBRS
Upper Blackrock Spire (instance)
UC
Undercity
ULD/Ulda
Uldaman (instance)

V
V
Vendor, used in the v/n loot system to mean that the rare item that came up for roll wasn't need by the player, but would be sold to a vendor if no one typed "n" for Need. Obsolete since Patch 1.7 implemented "Need before Greed."
VC
Van Cleef - End boss in the Deadmines. Can be used as the abbreviation for the instance, as opposed to DM as, on some servers, DM is now more commonly used to mean Dire Maul since its addition to the game.
Vendor Trash
Useless loot that is sold to in-game NPCs. Usually colored grey or white when linked.

X
XR
Crossroads, short term for horde town in the middle of Barrens. It is often a staging point, well known for PvP raids.
XP
Experience Points.

W
WC
Wailing Caverns
Wipe
When a party or group of player characters are all killed by enemies (wiped out).
W00t/WOOt
Universal to most MMORPG's, an expression of excitement at a fortunate turn of events.
WoW
World of Warcraft
WP/WPL
Western Plaguelands
WSG/WG
Warsong Gulch, a 10-man capture the flag battleground, added in the 1.5 patch.
WT
Wrong Tell, used when a player sends a message in the wrong channel.
WTB
Want to Buy
WTS
Want to Sell
WTT
Want to Trade

Z
Zerg
To overwhelm, to utilize superior numbers in lieu of skill. This is taken from Starcraft, another Blizzard game, where the basic Zerg soldier unit, the Zergling are produced in great quantities (2 spawn per order) and use overwhelming numbers to defeat enemies. Ex: We got zerged in Blackrock Mountain when 40 Alliance came past on their way to Molten Core.
Zul/ZF
Zul'Farrak
ZG
Zul'Gurub

Article Source: http://www.phalenes.org/articles

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