The World of Warcraft (WoW) can be a very confusing place. As with any large game, and especially any Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) there are a veritable ton of acronyms and terminology that is used by its players. This can be very daunting to the new player, and can even be confusing to many veterans that simply can not remember all the terms.

That's where this guide steps in. It is a collection of all common terms an acronyms found in WoW.

To find any term, simply go to the page that has its starting letter and either scroll down to it or press CTRL+F to bring up your find window and type in what you are looking for.

F

Term

Description

FD (Feign Death) Short form for the hunter ability of Feign Death. This ability makes the hunter appear dead to enemy players and MOBs.
Fear An effect or debuff that causes a player or MOB to lose self control and run around semi-randomly. Depending on the cause the length of time you are effected varies. Warriors, Priests, Warlocks, Hunters(beasts only) and Paladins (undead only) all have fear causing effects.
FFA Short for Free For All, a type of loot distribution system, that allows anyone pickup loot from any dead MOB.
Flagged

The is used to describe a character status of marked for PvP combat. This happens by making yourself available for PvP combat by either typing the /pvp command or by entering a hostile area on a PvP server.

To remove your flag you must use /pvp again and enter a friendly or neutral area and wait 5 minutes. Getting on a flight at a flight point will also clear the flag.

Fort Used to refer to the Priest ability of Power Word: Fortification. This ability raises the targets stamina for a length of time.
FP Short for Flight Point. This refers to any flight master in a zone used to travel from one zone to the next. A common question in zones is "Where is the FP?", instead of asking where the flight master is.
FR

Short for Fire Resistance, which is the number value use to calculate how much fire damage you will not take when hit with an fire based magic attack.

Sometime players get confused as FR could also refer to frost resistance. However FR is usually reserved for fire, and frost resistance is spelled out or referred to as FrR.

FrR

Short for Frost Resistance, which is the number value use to calculate how much frost damage you will not take when hit with an frost based magic attack.

FTL

This is short form for For The Loss. It is used to refer to something that is the caused something bad to happen.

An example would be getting feared into another group ob MOBs or entering a Battleground to find there are no healers. You could say things like "Fear FTL" or "No Healers FTL"

FTW

This is short form for For The Win. It is used to refer to something that is the best or as a compliment, or conversely sarcastically to imply something overrated or poor.

An example would be getting through a hard part of an instance using Paladin AoE tanking and saying "Paladin tanking FTW!" to imply that it is great. Similar a Hunter feigning death and then resurrecting someone with jumper cables to prevent a wipe, "FD FTW!".

A typical sarcastic use is in battlegrounds "Alliance Teamwork FTW!", sarcastically mentioning how poor typical alliance teamwork in battlegrounds is.

G

Term

Description

G Used as a short form for Gold in relation to buying something. For example: I will pay you 25g for that item. Gold is the largest denomination of currency in WoW.
GCD Short for Global Cooldown, which describes the time between using a spell or ability and the next time you can use any other spell or ability. Most spells or abilities trigger of their own cooldown as well as the GCD. The GCD is 1.5 seconds for all classes other than rogues and druids while in cat form, which have 1 second GCDs.
GL This is short for Guild Leader and refers to the leader (usually founder) of your guild.
GM

This is short for two possible things although only the first is really appropriate.

  • Game Master - This refers to the Blizzard staff that act to resolve issues in game.
  • Guild Master - This refers to a Guild Leader and should really be referred to as GL rather than GM to avoid confusion, but it remains a common used term.
Gold Farmer This is a character player by someone to farm gold to resell. A normal slang is Chinese or Asian Farmer, as a great many are from Asia, however it can be any person farming for high amounts of gold or items to resell for real world money.
GotW Short for Gift of the Wild. This is a druid buff that places a mark of the wild type buff on everyone in a party all at once.
GTG Short for Go To Go, or slang for ready.
GY Short for Grave Yard. This is where you appear when you die, in ghost form.
GY Run This is the common term for running back to collect your body and resurrect when you have died and appeared at a grave yard.

H

Term

Description

Healadin Refers to a Paladin who has spent most of their talents in the holy talent tree for healing abilities. For more information refer to our Guide to Playing a Healadin.
Hearth This refers to using your hearthstone to return to your base location. This is the inn that you last set as your hearth point by talking to the inn keeper.
HK

Short for Honorable Kill. This is the tracking mechanism to show how many kills you have done (or helped with) in the PvP environment. This could be in the open on a PvP server or in battlegrounds on a PvE server.

You also gain HK's for helping those that actually get the kill, for example DOTing the enemy or healing the damage dealer.

HoT Heal over Time.  Used to refer to a spell or effect that heals a set amount of health over time, such as a priests rejuvenation spell.
HPM Short for Healing per Mana. This is used to compare healing spells to determine which is more mana efficient. To Calculate it you divide the healing done by the spell cost.
HS

This is short for two possible items.

  • This first is your Hearth Stone. This is the item that you must carry to be able to hearth.
  • The most common reference though is to a warlocks Healthstone, that is used as a healing potion on a different timer.

I

Term

Description

IF Short for Ironforge the Dwarves capital city.
Ignore Refers to the command /ignore NAME, to add someone to your ignore list so that you do not see messages they send to you.
IMHO Short for In My Humble Opinion. This is a common gaming term.
IMO Short for In My Opinion. This is a common gaming term.
Inc

Short for Incoming. This refers to a player pulling or adding more MOBs to the fight. This can be used by the tank to let people know they are pulling, or by players that get an accidental add.

It is also used in PvP situations, such as "4 inc BE" to refer to 4 enemies about to attack the Blood Elf Tower in the Eye of the Storm battleground.

Instant Instants are spells that have no casting time and are cast as soon as selected and activated.
Int This refers to your intelligence statistic.  Intelligence ups your mana pool and your critical strike chance with spells.
Inv

Short for two possible things.

  • Can be used to request and invite to a group or raid, or to let people know that invites are starting. Used commonly in the Looking For Group channel when someone posts that they are looking for a mage, and then a mage can just respond inv.
  • Also short for inventory, which is the items you carry around in your bags.

J

Term

Description

None

K

Term

Description

KB Short form of Killing Blow. This refers to the person that stuck the player or MOB last, thus causing death.
KOS Short for Kill On Sight. This is commonly used on PvP servers to announce players that have ganked or grieved players. It is common for KOS orders to go out in guilds or even in general chat.
KZ Short for Karazhan, which is the 10 man raid instance meant for level 70's located in Deadwind pass. It is the home of the demon Prince Malchezaar and is the first raid that many players do upon reaching level 70.

L

Term

Description

L2P Short for Learn To Play, a derogatory statement to either new players that people see fumbling around or to PvP opponents that have just been defeated.
LBRS

Short for Lower Blackrock Spire, which is the first half of the Blackrock Spire instance located in Blackrock Mountain. It is meant for 5 level 55-60 players. In it you attempt to collect crystals to create a key to enter the second half of the instance referred to as UBRS.

Leeroy! This is used as a WoW term to describe charging into combat completely unprepared and unknowing or caring what is ahead. This refers to the now infamous "Leeroy Jenkins" video that circulated about a random change into the egg chamber room in Upper Black Rock Spire.
LFG Short for Looking For Group, and can be used in any of the chat channels although it is meant to be in the lfg channel. It is used to find groups for specific quests or instances. An example would be "LFG BM", meaning the player is looking for a Black Morass group.
LFM Short for Looking For Member. This is used in the looking for group channel predominantly, and is used when looking for a few more players for a quest or instance. An example would be "LF2M for Ramp", meaning that you are looking for 2 more members for the Hellfire Ramparts. You can also suffix it with the classes that you need, such as "LF2M for Ramp, Tank and CC".
LMAO Short for Laugh My Ass Off. This is used in many games to show that you think something is hilariously funny.
Lock Short form of Warlock.
LoH Short for the Paladin ability, Lay Of Hands. this is a last ditch heal ability that completely drains the Paladins mana pool but completely heals the target. It is an instant ability.
LOL Short for Laugh Out Loud. This is used in any game to show that you think something is funny.
LoS Short for Line Of Sight. This usually refers to something being out of LOS or away from you being able to see it. A great example is when a player goes around a corner and the healer can no longer see them, they die due to the heal being out of LOS.
LoS Pull Refers to Line of Sight pulling. This is where the tank or puller moves close enough to a group of MOBs to aggro them and then pulls them close by moving around a corner, out of LoS. This is commonly used when pulling caster based MOBs that would otherwise not move into range for melee.
LW Short for Leatherworking. Leather working is one of the primary professions and usually teamed with skinning.

M

Term

Description

Main Refers to the character that you either play most or is your highest level character. It may sometimes not be your highest level, but that is the most common.
Main Assist (MA) A Main Assist is the player in a raid designated with selecting the target that the rest of the players will focus their attacks on.
Mana Mana is a form of magical energy that spell casters use to power their spells. It regenerates slowly on its own, or can be gained back more quickly by sitting and drinking.
Mark Normally refers to a Hunter's Mark ability. This ability applies bonus ranged damage to the target (and melee damage with talents) and marks the target with a large red arrow.
Mats Short for Materials.  This refers to any material used in any profession such as leather for leather workers, shards and dust for enchanters, etc.
MC

Short for two possible things:

  • Molten Core, the original 40 man raid in the game. It is located in Blackrock Mountain at the end of Blackrock Depths, although there is a doorway that can teleport you there at the bottom of Blackrock Mountain. Molten Core is the home of Ragnaros the fire lord and you can find the raid tier 1 armor set there.
  • Can also be short for Mind Control. This is the priest ability to take over control of a MOB for a short while. When it fades the MOB will have huge aggro against the priest, and be very difficult to pull off.
MOB Literally this refers to a Mobile Object. It's a hold over from older online games and really means any monster that walks around. Blizzards official term for a MOB is a creep, although players refer to them as MOBs.
MP5 Short for Mana per 5 seconds, which is a bonus on gear. This is used primarily by healers as a way to regenerate mana even while casting. Also useful to other casters in long fights.
MS Warrior Refers to a warrior with the mortal strike special ability.  Usually used in PvP combat.
MT Short for Main Tank.This refers to the main tank in a group or raid. The Main Tank is the tank that will take all the boss pulls and the main MOBs.


Comments or questions? Email us ([email protected]) or post on our forums!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

About The Author

Byron has been playing and writing about World of Warcraft for the past ten years. He also plays pretty much ever other Blizzard game, currently focusing on Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone, while still finding time to jump into Diablo III with his son.

Comments

Related Content

Patch 5.4 Profession Changes