League of Legends terminology

It often happens while playing that some players refer to some term or acronym that we do not know. Here is a constantly updated list of all the most used League of Legends terminology.

  • 1/9
  • TO
  • B.
  • C.
  • D.
  • IS
  • F.
  • G.
  • H.
  • THE
  • J
  • K
  • L
  • M.
  • No.
  • OR
  • P.
  • Q
  • R.
  • S.
  • T.
  • U
  • V.
  • W
  • X
  • Y
  • Z
  • See also: Intare meaning

Acronyms and LoL Terms

1/9

1vs1 : a match or a clash between two players, precisely one on one.

TO

AA : Auto Attack ( automated attack ). The basic attack done by the champions via right click.

Ace : All champions on a team are dead at the moment.

Active : active . Ability of some champions or some objects that require activation to function, via a click or a predefined key.

AD : Attack Damage (Physical Attack). A champion stat that can be upgraded with runes, masteries and items.

ADC : Attack Damage Carry – A champion who does physical damage, which increases as the game progresses.

AFK : Away From Keyboard ( away from the keyboard), when a player is not actively controlling their champion.

Aggro : the attack priority of minions, towers and monsters (the units controlled by the game in short).

Ali : Alistar .

All in : throwing yourself in the middle using everything you have, and risking a lot. Term coming from poker.

Aoe : Area Of Effect, ( area effect ) when a spell does area damage and therefore can potentially hit multiple enemies.

AP : Ability Power ( Magic Power ). A champion stat that can be upgraded with runes, masteries and items.

ARAM: all Mid All Random. Game Modes (in the Howling Abyss map) All Mid All Random.

ArP / ArPen : Armor Penetration, armor penetration.

AS / ATS / ASPD : Attack Speed, Attack Speed .

B.

B / Back : retreat towards your nexus, or at least away from the enemy.

Babysit : A champion continuously helps another champion in order to make him stronger. It can also refer to “taking care of the lane” and then farm in a lane while its laner is elsewhere, thus avoiding losing gold, losing a tower, etc. It is usually the jungler who babysits, but it could also be a laner who goes to another lane very often.

Bait : tactic which consists of pretending to be an easy victim to lure a champion into a trap (ambushed by one or more champions).

Banana : Soraka’s auto-attacks .

Baron: Baron Nashor, can also refer to the team buff given by Baron Nashor.

Base : the walled area where shop, nexus, inhibitors are located.

Bd / Backdoor : attack an enemy tower or base without the help of a wave of minions. Usually it is done by sneaking out of the jungle to get noticed by enemies as late as possible to have more time to take undisturbed targets.

BF : item BF Sword. MC Spada is translated into Italian.

BG : Bad Game, bad game.

Bird : bird . Usually we talk about Anivia. Some refer to Quinn (in the form of Valor) by the same term.

Blind: a CC that causes auto-attacks to fail.

Blink : Blink is a movement similar to summoner spell flash. Here is a list of Blinks -> HERE .

Blitz : Blitzcrank .

Blue : refers to the Ancient Golem, or its buff, precisely the Blue Buff.

BoRK : item Blade of the Ruined King, in Italian Blade of the Ruined King.

Bounty : the gold value of a target.

BRB : Be Right Back, I’ll be right back.

Broken : broken , something in the game that is considered unbalanced (too strong) or malfunctioning (a champion, an item, a spell, etc.).

Bruiser: a champion with a lot of life (or rather tanky) and good DPS.

Bush : the bushes.

BT : item the Bloodthirster. In Italian Gladio del massacro .

Burst : how much damage done in a short time.

BV : item Banshee’s Veil. In Italian Veil of the Banshee .

C.

Cait : Caitlyn .

Care : be careful.

Carry : A weak early game champion, but who becomes more powerful as the minutes pass. It can also be understood as a verb ( to carry ), which means having the merit of victory (carriare a game).

Cassio / Casio : Cassiopeia .

Caster : A champion who has his main damage in skills, and these can be AD or AP, so we will talk about Caster AP / AD.

Cat Cat : Both Nidalee and Rengar are called this .

CC : Crowd Control, of states that limit movements and actions.

CD: Cooldown, in Italian Reload time, the time to wait to be able to reuse skills.

CDR : Cooldown Reduction, Reload Time Reduction .

Champ : abbreviation of Champion.

Channeling : the time it takes for some spells to execute (Cait’s Q for example), spells that have channeling can be interrupted via Hard CC.

Chase : chasing a fleeing enemy.

Cho : Cho’gath .

Clutch move : Performing an action with excellent timing while under pressure.

Commit : don’t back off, stay in the fight until it’s over or until you get killed.

Counter jungle : clean the fields of the opponent’s jungle.

Counter-Pick : Pick a particular champion who has a skillset suitable for beating another champion.

Cover : Cover . A player requests cover for example when he goes back (see also Hold ).

Cow : Alistar.

Crash / Crashare : Sudden shutdown of the game or computer.

Creeps : monsters and Minions.

CS : Creep Slain or Creep Score, a term originating from DotA, which indicates the number of minions killed.

CV : the summoner spell Clairvoyance ( Clairvoyance ).

D.

DFG : item Deathfire Grasp (Grasp of Death ).

DC : disconnected, disconnected.

Debuff : A negative effect applied to a champ, the opposite of a buff.

Disable : a form of crowd control that prevents any action for a certain time.

Dive : chasing someone into a dangerous area, for example under an opponent’s tower (tower dive).

Dodge : dodge, avoid. For example: queue dodge, avoid a queue or Dodge Skills, ability to avoid skillshots.

Dog : Nasus .

Donger : Heimerdinger.

DoT : Damage Over Time, in Italiandamage every second .

DPS : Damage Per Second, damage per second.

Drake : the dragon.

IS

Elo : The mathematical ranking system for a player’s relative level. It is still present and it is this number that determines which league it belongs to.

Elo Hell : An Elo level where it is very difficult (or frustrating) for a player to get out of.

Eve : Evelynn .

Execute : An ability that deals damage based on an enemy’s missing health.

Executed : being killed by a tower, a minion or a monster, without the kill being attributed to the opponents.

Exp : experience.

Ez : Ezreal .

F.

Face check : A champ who goes to an un-warded bush to see if anyone is inside. Very risky movement.

Fail Flash : A badly used flash, for example failing to flash over a wall and staying in place.

Farm : Kill minions and earn Gold accordingly.

FB : First Blood, the first kill of the game.

Fear : a debuff that causes the champ to lose control and move in the opposite direction of the caster.

Fed : a champ that becomes extremely you can thanks to a multitude of kills, or to farm clearly superior to the opponents.

Feed : repeatedly die against opponents and make enemies fed.

SBB: For F ** k Sake, an expression of anger or frustration.

Fid, Fiddle or FS : Fiddlestick .

Fighter : new name of the Bruiser.

Fish : Fizz .

Flash : a summoner spell.

FM : item Frozen Mallet, the Frozen Hammer .

Focus : To focus a team’s efforts on killing a particular target, the champions to focus on are usually the carries.

Forced Teamfight : when a team starts taking a target in order to force opponents to come and question them. Typical example: Force Baron.

Fountain: the stone platform next to the shop in the bases.

FPS : Frames Per Second.

G.

GA : item Guardian Angel, Guardian Angel .

GP : Gangplank .

Gank : ambush an enemy with at least two champ involved (the laner and one or more sneaking in).

Gap closer : skill or spell that shortens the distance between the champ and his enemy.

GG : Good Game, Good game .

GJ : Good Job !, Great job! .

GL : Good Luck, good luck .

GLHF : Good Luck Have Fun, good luck and have fun .

Glass Cannon: A champ or build with high damage but low defense. Glass Cannon refers mainly to those who only build damage without thinking about defense.

Global : an ability that can hit at a great distance in the map (the utility of Pantheon, of gp, of tf, noc, etc.).

GP10 : Items / masteries / runes that generate extra gold over time.

Grab : see “Hook”. Thanks to xDashen for the tip .

Grag : Gragas .

H.

Harass : putting pressure on an enemy by doing damage without taking it in return.

Hard CC : A heavy crowd control that can also interrupt skill channeling.

Hat : item Rabadon’s Deathcap ( of Rabadon Headgear ), Hat hat and it means the item is in fact shaped hat.

Heca : Hecarim .

Heim / Heimer : Heimerdinger .

HF : Have Fun, Have Fun .

Hold : stay in lane and protect the tower from enemies. Mostly junglers do it when laners are elsewhere.

Hook: literally means “hook”. We refer to the Qs of Blizcrank and Thresh.

Horse : Horse -> Hecarim.

HP : Hit Point, the life points .

Hybrid : a champion who benefits well from both the CEO and the AP.

Hypercarry : an extremely weak champ in the early and mid game, but who climbs very well in the late game and is almost unstoppable if well farmed and / or cheated.

THE

IE : Infinity Edge.

IBG : item Iceborn Gauntlet, frost glove.

Ignite : a summoner spell.

Imba : Imbalanced, unbalanced -> describes something unfairly powerful.

Inc : Incoming, literally “is coming”.

Inhib : Inhibitor, inhibitor -> structure that prevents opposing super minions from spawning.

Initiate : When a champ takes an action that signals allies to start a teamfight. An initiatior can do an initiate by baiting most of the damage, while not letting his teammates take it.

Instakill : When a full life champion is killed instantly with no chance of reaction.

It invades: invading enemy territory, usually we talk about jungle.

IP : influence points.

Item : An item that can be bought by a champion to increase their stats.

J

J4 / Jarv / Jarv : Jarvan IV .

Juke : Juke means the act of “feinting” the enemy he is chasing to make him go in a different direction from that taken by the juker, using bush, fog of war, special spells or even flash. With Juke we can also mean dodging skillshots.

K

Karth : Karthus .

Kass : Kassadin .

Kata : Katarina .

Ken : Kennen .

Kha : Kha’Zix .

Killing Spree : When a champ makes three kills without dying, when he enters a killing spree he acquires a bounty of 500 g.

Kit : A champ’s skill set.

Kiter : A champ particularly effective in kiting (e.g. Ashe).

Kite / Kiting: continually retreating while always attacking a chasing enemy champion. In this way the tracker is damaged, but it is not able to damage itself.

KnockBack : Push the target in the opposite direction of the caster. The target cannot interact during the knockback animation.

Knockup : disable the target by “blowing it up”. The target only moves vertically and does not change position.

Kog : Kog’Maw .

KS : Kill Steal, stealing a kill, is basically when a champion arrives and just does the lasthit, or keeps his spells to do the last hit and take the kill.

L

Lag : lucky you if you don’t know what lag is xD More info on this article .

Lantern : the W of Thresh.

LB : LeBlanc .

Lee : Lee Sin .

LS : Life Steal, Steal of Life.

Leo : Leona .

Liss : Lissandra .

LW : item Last Whisper, Fatal Whisper .

M.

Main : the champion you know best or just your favorite champion.

Manaless : Champ who have no mana.

Malph : Malphite .

Malz : Malzahar .

Mao : Maokai .

Map awareness : know what is happening on the map. To do this you can help yourself with item and spell.

Map control : have a good view and check one or more parts of the map well. It is increased by placing wards and destroying enemy towers, in order to have more control in the opposing jungle.

Meta : the current style of play, we talk about aspects such as team composition, jungling and the lane phase.

MF : Miss Fortune .

MIA : Missing In Action, a military term that means that you do not know the position of an enemy, and therefore could be around the corner to ambush you. Few use the term MIA in EUW, SS is more used.

Minion Wave : A group of minions that spawn together. They can build up and form larger waves.

Miss : The famous SS that is often read is missing and I ss cut.

Monkey : Monkey , used to indicate Wukong .

Morg : Morgana .

No.

Nauti : Nautilus .

Nerf : An official gameplay change that makes something less “powerful”. When something is boosted it is referred to as a Buff.

Nida : Nidalee .

Noc Nocturne .

Noob : is a derivative of the word Newbie, which indicates an inexperienced player, who has just started and is not familiar with the game mechanics. Over time it has become almost an insult and the meaning has morphed into “unable player”.

NPC : Non-Player Character. Characters not controlled by a human.

Nuke: a skill that does a lot of damage, not to be confused with Burst, which is usually a combo and not a single spell.

OR

OMW : On My Way, I’m on my way .

OOM : Out Of Mana, I ran out of mana .

OP : OverPowered, excessively powerful, unbalanced.

Ori : Orianna .

Outplay / Outplayed : when a summoner “plays better than you”, basically when a player makes a great play (for example dodging your ulti with a flash that otherwise would have killed him and return to base with the kill). Thanks to xDashen for the tip .

Overextending : a champ who goes too far into enemy territory, exposing himself unnecessarily to ambushes and gank.

P.

Panth : Pantheon .

Path : also called “route” is the path that the jungler makes in the jungle (in which order he cleans the fields).

PBE : Public Beta Environment , is a Beta version, where various patches are tested before official publication.

PD : item Phantom Dancer, Ghost Dancer .

Peeling : (peel someone) Use CC to block enemies who want to attack an ally.

Penta : Pentakill.

Pink : item Vision Ward, Light of Vision .

Poke: A form of Harass in which long range attacks are used from a safe position.

Pony : Hecarim.

Position / Positioning : the position of a champ during a fight. Having a good positioning is when a player knows very well where he must be in a given situation (for example the adc must not be on the front line).

Pot : item Potion, potion .

Proxy : farming between two opposing towers, usually done in the top lane, is a very risky tactic if you have no vision and in any case you are very vulnerable to gank.

Push : Advance down the lane, quickly killing the minion waves and towers.

Q

Quint : Quintessence, the most powerful runes. In Italian Quintessenza .

R.

Rage : showing frustration in game.

Ragequit : When a player quits (leaves the game) due to in-game frustrations.

Rat : means Rat and refers to Twitch .

Re : short for Reappear ( reappear ), used to say that the enemy is no longer MIA (ss).

Rene : Renekton .

Report : at the end of each game a player can be reported for breaking the summoner code (verbal abuse, intentionally feeding, etc.).

Riot : the company that makes League of Legends.

RoA : item Road of Aegis, the Age Staff .

Roam / Roaming : move around the map (leaving the lane) to support, jungle or gank.

ROFL : Rolling On the Floor Laughing, literally rolling on the floor with laughter .

Root : A debuff that does not allow the champion to move (he can still attack in place). Snare and immobilize are synonymous.

RP : Riot Points, RIOT points.

S.

Scale / Scaling : how well the efficiency of a champ increases as the minutes pass in the game, leveling up and buying items. champions who climb well are usually carries.

Scrim : Scrimmage, two teams that play with each other for fun, in an unranked game, outside of a tournament.

Scripter : player who uses third-party software against the regulation that allows you to hit or 100% dodge a skillshot. (Thanks Snaico user’s valuable advice)

Scrub : an insult that indicates that the player is not very capable.

Sej / Seju : Sejuani .

Shroom : short for Funghi . Teemo’s ultimate.

Shutdown: to kill a champ that is in killing spree. Or try to keep a champ out of the farm or kill him repeatedly to prevent him from becoming a threat.

Shyv : Shyvana .

Silence : A debuff that doesn’t allow you to cast abilities.

Siv : Sivir .

Skar : Skarner .

Skillshot : A skill that requires aiming and can miss.

Skin : in Italian Aspetti , a different appearance of a champion, which can be acquired through RPs or Codes.

Slow : A debuff that reduces a target’s movement speed.

Smart Cast: a way to use skills with just one click, by default it is done with shift + skill link. In practice, the mouse click is eliminated to confirm the skill used.

Smiteless : Don’t use smite to clean a field.

Snare : see Root .

Snipe : Use a long range skill to hit the target.

Snowball : When a player is ahead of gold / levels and takes advantage of it by increasing that advantage even more to win the game.

Alone : do something alone, just drake killing the dragon alone, only lane take care of a lane alone, etc.

Spell: are the skills not specific to the champ, but chosen by the player before the start of the game.

Split Push : moving forward relentlessly in one lane while the rest of the team pushes in another

Squishy : A champion that is easy to kill due to low total HP or poor defenses.

SS : abbreviation for miss which means Missing, more used in EU, in the US they prefer to use MIA (missing in action).

Steal : Steal . In lol it means that you have managed to last hit something that was about to be last hit by someone else (baron steal, kill steal, etc.).

Stealth : a skill that allows you not to be seen by enemies.

Steroid: skill that increases a champ’s base stat (defense, attack speed, etc.).

Stronk : Strong’s sarcastic use, strong .

Stun : A debuff that prevents the target from moving or taking any action for a set amount of time.

Summoner : the name given to the player.

Surrend : Surrender, surrender .

Sustain / Sustainability : the ability of a champ to stay in lane / jungle without going back.

SV : item Spirit Visage, Spiritual Armor .

Synergy: how effective are two or more champions together. Or when an object is particularly suitable for a champ.

T.

Tank : A champ designed to resist damage, usually has several CCs at his disposal. It is also used in the form of a verb (cmon, i’m tankin tower!) To say that you are tanking, or taking the aggro of enemies upon yourself.

Tankiness : being able to resist damage well, mainly thanks to purchased defensive items.

Taunt : A disable that forces the target to attack the caster.

Team comp : Team Composition. A specific set-up thanks to which the team can have a global strategy. For example: Poke comp, heal comp, shield comp, CC comp, etc.

Tenacity : a stat that determines the reduction of the duration of the effect of the CC.

TF :

Twisted Fate .

itemTrinity Force, Force of the Trinity .

Acronym for Team Fight, when several champions from different teams face off in the same area.

TD / Tower Diving : chase an enemy and attack him under his tower.

TP : Teleport, summoner spell.

Trade / Trading : Trade in champion select, trade champ with another player. Trade damage , when two enemy champ attack each other by exchanging damage without killing each other we are talking about trade. Trade kills means that the teamfight ended in a draw, with the same number of kills per side.

Tribrush : The Y-shaped brush that covers 3 directions.

Tris / Trist / Tristy : Tristana .

Troll : A person who causes disturbance to other players and the community. He can do this by insulting others or intentionally feeding opponents. The term troll can also be referred to as Trundle .

Tryn / Trynd / Trynda : Tryndamere .

U

Ult / Ulti : short for Ultimate, the R skill, in Italian Supreme skill .

Unique : ability or aura that does not detach with others of the same type, common to items .

Utility : spell or skills useful to the team. Champ supports usually have a lot of utilities.

V.

Var : Varus .

Vel : Vel’Koz .

Veig : Veigar .

Vent / Ventrillo : third party voice chat software.

Vik : Viktor .

Vlad : Vladimir .

Flights : Volibear .

W

Ward : item Lume , it gives visibility in areas covered by the fog of war.

Ward Jump : Ability of some champions (lee sin, Katarina, jax, etc.) to use an ability that targets a ward. In practice, you “jump” on the ward placed, to escape or to overcome obstacles to reach your victim.

Ward bait : Bait using a ward. You set a ward that will be a trap for an opponent who will waste time getting rid of it.

Ward coverage : the amount of ward placed for better vision.

Wombo Combo : When players on a team chain their champ’s skills well over their opponents.

WP : Well Played, nice play .

Wu / Wuk : Wukong.

ww : Warwick .

X

Xin : Xin Zhao .

XP : Experience, experience .

Y

Yas : Yasuo .

Yi : Master Yi .

Z

Zone / Zoning : tactic used to deny gold / xp to enemies.