Glossary

A - E

 * AA : Initialism of Ancient Apparition.
 * AC : Initialism of Assault Cuirass.
 * AM : Initialism of Anti-Mage.
 * Aggro : Abbreviation for aggression. The programmed aggression of AI controlled towers and creeps. Refers to getting the attention of a particular hostile unit, e.g. "I have aggro" means a hostile unit is focusing on attacking you.
 * AoE : Initialism for area of effect. It refers to a spell or attack that affects a large area instead of just a single unit. Also used to refer to the range of an area of effect attack, e.g. "500 AoE" refers to the area 500 units, in radius, around the target point.


 * B : Abbreviation for Back. Used to call for a retreat. A player saying "b" is usually suggesting that everyone pull back.
 * BAT : Abbreviation for base attack time.
 * Barracks: Structures found in each lane that when destroyed permanently grant mega creeps to the team that destroyed it.
 * BB : Initialism of Bristleback and Buy Back status.
 * BD : Abbreviation for Backdooring. This is the act of teleporting into the enemy base whilst the outer towers are down in order to take down the remaining buildings. See also Backdoor protection.
 * BKB : Initialism for Black King Bar, an item that grants magic immunity.
 * Bot or Bottom : Refers to the bottom lane of the map.
 * BoT's: Abbreviation for Boots of Travel.
 * Buff : A beneficial spell or effect placed on a unit.
 * Buffer : A hero that can use or place buffs as their primary function.
 * Burst or Burst Damage : Refers to high amount of damage dealt over a short period of time.


 * Carry : A type of hero which can overpower the enemy team in the late game. These Heroes usually require large amounts of gold and experience in order to be successful.
 * Caster : A hero whose primary function is their skills.
 * CC : Crowd Control. See Disable.
 * CK : Initialism of Chaos Knight.
 * CM : Initialism of Crystal Maiden or Captain's Mode.
 * Cooldown (CD) : A period of wait time before a spell, ability, or item power can be used again.
 * CS : Abbreviation for Creep Score. This refers to the amount of last hits and denies a player has.
 * CW : Abbreviation for Clan War. Usually refers to a match between arranged teams.
 * Debuff : A detrimental spell of effect placed on a unit. Refers to the opposite of a Buff.
 * Deny : Killing your allied unit, hero or building, in order to prevent an enemy from gaining the gold and experience it gives. You can manually attack your own creeps if their health is below 50%, your own towers below if they are below 10%, and heroes affected by certain DoTs if they are below 25%. See Deny for more information.
 * Disable : A spell or ability that prevents enemy hero from moving, casting and/or attacking, leaving them helpless for a short period of time. See Disable for more information.
 * DoT : Damage over Time, generally abbreviated as DoT, or simply dot, refers to inflicting some damage which will be applied at a regular interval for a limited duration.
 * DPS : Initialism for Damage per second. A measure of the damage dealt by a hero or unit over one second.
 * ES : Initialism of Earthshaker and Ember Spirit and Earth Spirit.

F - J

 * Fade Time: The amount of time it takes for a unit to become invisible.
 * Farm or Farming : The process of slowly earning gold and experience by killing hostile creeps. This tactic is usually slow and tedious, but often required for Carries to reach their maximum potential.
 * fb : Acronym for First Blood.
 * Flash farming : A sub-type of farming when you farm your lane creeps until the enemy tower and then proceed to clear neutral creep camps. This is often the fastest method of farming, but it also allows the enemy to farm your creeps freely by their tower and is often extremely risky, as it allows for enemies to gank you.


 * Feeder : A player who "feeds" the enemy team gold and experience by getting killed frequently.


 * FoW : Acronym for Fog of War.


 * Gank : Abbreviation for Gang Kill. A strategy where a group of Heroes will try to kill one player by surprise.
 * gg : "Good game". Usually said by either teams when they are winning or losing and the match is either about to end, or the losing team has given up or accepted defeat.
 * glhf : "Good luck have fun". Usually said at the start of a game to encourage other players, or just for plain courtesy.
 * Hard Carry : A carry hero, which scales incredibly well with items and requires a substantial amount of farm to be effective. Examples of this are Anti-Mage and Spectre


 * Jungling : The process of killing creeps in the woods between lanes.

K - O

 * Kite or Kiting : See pulling. A technique where a hero gets the attention of a hostile unit to draw them away or force them to follow. Can also be used to refer to a period of repeated hit-and-run attacks where the target is kept out of range.
 * KotL : Ezalor, the Keeper of the Light.
 * Long lane : The longer, or "safe" lane (see Lane).
 * Lothars or Lothars Edge : Shadow Blade
 * Mid : The middle of the three lanes in the map.
 * Micro : Micromanagement. Refers to (effective) control and usage of multiple units, items, and abilities in quick succession. Bad micromanagement can result in the many units becoming a hindrance or a liability rather than an asset or ability combos being wasted or used in the wrong situations, while a good one can easily overpower an enemy in seconds. Meepo, Invoker, and Chen are good examples of Heroes who require good "micro".
 * Miss or MIA : Mentions that a particular Hero has gone missing and is probably setting up for a Gank, e.g. "Earthshaker mia" or "Earthshaker miss" means that Earthshaker isn't visible to the team. "MIA" is an acronym for "Missing In Action".
 * MKB : Initialism of Monkey King Bar
 * Necro : May refer to Necrophos or the Necronomicon. Rarely used to refer to Visage, the Bound Form of Necro'lic.
 * Nuke : A spell whose purpose is to deal a large amount of damage immediately.
 * OOM : Out of mana, indication that you're unable to cast any more spells because you're out of mana.
 * Orb Walk : Using your Orb i.e. Frost Arrow, Searing Arrow, to slow the enemy while moving forward to gain distance on the target, also eliminates unnecessary aggro.

P - T

 * PA : Initialism of Phantom Assassin.
 * Pet : A creature that a Hero can summon or convert to their side. For example, the Eidolons are an example of Enigma's pet.
 * PL : Initialism of Phantom Lancer.
 * PotM : Mirana, the Princess of the Moon.
 * Proc : Short for "Programmed Random Occurrence". It refers to the probability of triggering chance effects associated with attacks. Such as chance of triggering critical strikes on Wraith King's attacks or chance of triggering Chain Lightning when Maelstrom is equipped.
 * Pull or Pulling: A technique where a hero gets the attention of a hostile unit to draw them away or force them to follow.


 * QoP : Initialism of Queen of Pain.


 * Rax : Abbreviation for Barracks.
 * Ricer : Hardcore farmer whose main goal is to be extremely strengthened by the time they come out of their farming.
 * Roamer : A hero who jumps between lanes, especially in the early game, in order to Gank enemy Heroes or defend allies.
 * Roshan or Rosh : Roshan is a difficult-to-kill neutral creep that drops the Aegis of the Immortal when killed. Spawns at the beginning of the game, respawns 8-11 minutes after it is killed.
 * Safe lane : See Long lane.
 * Silence : An ability that prevents the target from using Skills and certain Abilities.
 * Short lane: The shorter (suicide) lane (see Lane).
 * SK : Abbreviation for Sand King, Skeleton King and/or Soul Keeper (the last two now called Wraith King and simply Terrorblade in Dota 2).
 * Solo : Being the only hero on the lane. A player may call for "solo" to prevent other players from interrupting or farming in their lane.
 * Suicide lane : See Short Lane.
 * SS : See miss. Mentions that a particular Hero has gone missing and is probably setting up for a Gank, e.g. "Earthshaker ss" means that Earthshaker isn't visible to the team.
 * Stacking : A technique which allows several groups of neutral creeps to spawn at once.
 * Static Farming : A sub-type of farming where you aim to only kill enemy lane creeps when they have low hitpoints and deny the allied lane creeps whenever possible, with the goal of maintaining an equilibrium of the lane creeps in a safe position. This is often a slower method of farming, but allows you to farm safely with little risk of dying to a gank.
 * Summoner : A Hero whose primary function is summoning or controlling Pets.
 * Support : A Hero whose primary function is to help their own team through heals, buffs, and detection, or sabotaging the enemy team through disables, slows, or debuffs.


 * TA : Initialism of Templar Assassin.
 * Tank : A Hero that can take a lot of damage and abuse before dying. See also Durable.
 * Top : Refers to the top lane of the map. For the Radiant, this is the lane to the West. For the Dire, this is the lane to the North.
 * TP : Teleport, can also be used as an initialism for Scroll of Town Portal.
 * True Sight: Anything invisible caught in the radius of True Sight will be revealed. Towers, a Gem of True Sight, Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, and some abilities of certain Heroes (like Slardar's Amplify Damage and Zeus' Lightning Bolt) all provide True Sight.

U - Z

 * Wards: Items that can be placed almost anywhere on the map and provide vision around the location for 7 minutes.
 * Wipe : The act of an entire team dying at once. Also known as a teamwipe.
 * WD : Initialism for Witch Doctor.
 * wp : "Well Played". Usually said by either teams when they are winning or losing and the match is either about to end. Usually paired up with "gg".
 * WR : Initialism of Windranger.
 * WW : Initialism for Wind Walk (From DotA), or sometimes generalized for enemies who gained invisibility (through runes, items, or buffs).