Terminology (League of Legends)

There are League of Legends terms that are used in and outside the game, with some terms being used to simplify and facilitate rapid communication. This is a list of these terms and their definitions.

Please contribute to the page by adding more terms and definitions alphabetically.

These terms are mostly used in the English language.

#

1v1

A challenge to a duel.

A custom game between two players. Usually done on Howling Abyss but occasionally done on Summoner's Rift in mid lane. Could also refer to Showdown.

A champion's capability of winning trades against an enemy champion. Fighters like Jax and Irelia have good 1v1 capabilities.

A

AA

Auto attack

Basic attack, which is nicknamed Auto attack since the champion can repeat without new orders.

AAS

Archangel's Staff.

ABAM

All Blind All Mid: a custom game type where players pick champions in Blind Pick to fight only in the middle lane.

Ace

When all champions on a team are dead at the same time.

To kill the last living champion on the opposing team.

Active

Abilities possessed by champions and certain items that require activating (via clicking and/or hitting a key) to function, as opposed to "passive".

AD

 Attack damage.

ADAM

All Draft All Mid: a custom game type where players pick a champion to only fight in the middle lane.

ADC

Attack Damage Carry: a champion that deals high amounts of attack damage as the match progresses. Can also refer to the bottom role assumed by a marksman.

AFK

Away From Keyboard: a player who is not currently in control of their champion in a match.

Agency

How much control a player have over a situation or how much a player is capable of responding an enemy's actions. For example, enchanter supports are often said the remove agency from assassins because enchanter supports can deny all possibilities of an assassin from doing their job (to burst squishies) without them being able to do anything back, effectively removing all control the assassin has over the match.

Aggro

The targeting priority (or enmity) of an A.I. controlled minion, turret, monster, etc.

Ali

Alistar.

Ani

Aniv

Anivia.

AoE

Area of effect.

AP

 Ability power.

AR

All Random. Used in ARAM and AR URF.

ARAM

All Random All Mid: A matched game type where players randomly pick a champion to play on the Howling Abyss.

ArP

ArPen

 Armor penetration.

AS

 Attack speed.

Assassin

A champion type whose forte is rapidly ambushing and slaying enemy champions. They have abilities that may include stealthing themselves or having a strong dash skill.

Aura

A passive ability that usually applies to the champion and those around the champion.

Aura platform

Aura bot

A champion who is equipped with multiple aura-producing items to assist teammates.

Atmog's

A deprecated build that utilized Atma's Impaler and Warmog's Armor. Could also be referred to as Warma's.

B

B

Back: to retreat in the general direction of your base or away from the enemy.

Recall: To return to the base by pressing the "B" key by default.

Babysit

For one champion to continually assist another champion in order to assist them in getting more powerful.

For a champion (usually jungler) to cover a lane and see to it that the minions don't push to the friendly tower, while the usual laning champion is temporarily elsewhere.

Bait

To feign weakness in order to lure the enemy into a trap.

Ball

The untargetable mobile object under Orianna's command.

Banana

Soraka's autoattack which is shaped like a banana. Inspiration for Order of the Banana Soraka.

Baron

Baron Nashor.

Hand of Baron. (Aka "Baron Buff")

Base

The walled area where the shop, nexus and inhibitors are situated.

BC

The Black Cleaver

BD

Backdoor

To attack the enemy's nexus while most of them are focused elsewhere. Typically this is done by sneaking through the jungle and only becoming revealed to the opposing team as late as possible.

To capture a capture point, typically the middle one, which is close to the enemy fountain and surrounded by two other enemy capture points.

BE

Blue Essence

Bear

Volibear

Annie's Summon Tibbers

Udyr's Bear Stance

Bench

The swap available champion pool in ARAM.

For the TFT meaning, see here.

BF

BFS

B. F. Sword.

BG

Bad Game.

Bird

Anivia.

Sometimes refers to the crows from Fiddlesticks' Dark Wind.

Biscuit

Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will

Blitz

Blitzcrank.

Blue

Blue Buff: Crest of Insight. By extension, can also refer to the Blue Sentinel.

Glyphs, a removed type of rune.

BM

Bad mannered / bad manners, to perform ludicrous actions meant to taunt an enemy at a disadvantage.

Boosted (animal)

Describes a lower skilled player that has been undeservingly placed in a higher skill bracket. (Coined by Michael Santana)

BoRK

BotRK

BRK

Blade of the Ruined King.

Bot

Bottom lane.

The Quarry/Boneyard capture points in Dominion.

An A.I. controlled champion.

When used alongside a mechanic name or ability name or letter, it means a champion that is extremely reliant on that particular mechanic or ability to work in a certain stage of the game. For example, Nidalee is often called a heal bot, since her Primal Surge is the ability that defines Nidalee's late game, with the rest of her kit falling off. See also: Ult bot.

Bot game

Co-op vs. AI.

A custom game where nearly all of the players are bots.

Box

Boxes

Shaco's Jack in the Box

BRB

Be right back.

Broken

When something within the game is viewed as grossly imbalanced or malfunctioning (a champion, an item, a spell, etc.).

Bruteforce

To agressively push an objective without regard for enemy counterattack.

BT

The Bloodthirster.

Buff

(Abilities) A positive effect applied to a champion.

(Patch) An official modification to the game mechanics which makes something more powerful, as opposed to a "nerf".

(Jungle) Red Buff or Blue Buff.

Bug

A defect in the mechanics of the game that is not intended.

Kha'Zix.

Skarner.

Rek'Sai.

Burst

A large amount of damage being dealt in a short time, pertaining particularly to the damage dealt by a single champion. Nuke is also a commonly used term.

BV

Banshee's Veil.

C

Cait

Caitlyn.

Camp

To gank the same enemy laner multiple times in a short amount of time. Can be effective at making them fall behind or to tilt them.

A jungle monster's spawn location.

Cap

Rabadon's Deathcap.

Wooglet's Witchcap.

To capture a point in Dominion.

A limit which something can not exceed (For instance, attack speed is capped at 2.5 attacks per second).

Care

To be careful, implying a possible gank incoming or any other kind of danger.

Carry

A champion that generally starts off weaker than other champions, but becomes more powerful as the game progresses.

The action of being ultimately responsible for winning a game.

Cass

Cassiopeia.

Caster

A champion whose main source of damage is their abilities. The damage can be either magic or physical damage, and can scale with either  AP or  AD.

Cat

Nidalee.

Rengar.

CC

Crowd control: A category of status effects which limit movement or actions.

CD

Cooldown

Waiting for an ability's cooldown to finish before commencing an action.

CDR

 Cooldown reduction.

Chain CC

To consecutively use multiple crowd control spells on an enemy champion.

Champ

A champion; a particular character that the summoner calls on and controls.

Char

Short for "character", used to mean champion.

Cheese

A strategy, often early game oriented, that allows a player to kill or otherwise significantly cripple an enemy (generally during the first two levels), gain a lead, then snowball. Cheeses are often unusual, and can be effective against enemies that do not expect them. However, should those cheese strategies fail, the enemy will be the one at a significant advantage. Also, cheeses often don't work against prepared enemies, or if the player fails to take advantage of their lead and let the enemy recover.

Cho

Cho'Gath.

Classic

The standard MOBA game mode in which players focus on laning, pushing minion waves, and destroying the enemy structures.

Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline.

Clown fiesta

A derogatory term used to refer to games, especially from lower elos, where one or both teams have no coordination or proper strategy, and the champion compositions are random and poorly planned.

A teamfight where, from the spectator point of view, is difficult to properly understand what exactly happened.

Clutch move

To perform a well-timed action while under pressure.

Collapsing

When allied players converge and overwhelm the enemy team.

Commit

To not retreat. To stay in a fight until the battle is over, or until your champion is slain.

Counter gank

Setting up an ambush in immediate response to an enemy ambush with the intention of negating or thwarting the advantage gained by the enemy's attack.

Counter jungle

To slay the neutral creeps in the enemy's side of the jungle, depriving the enemy team of buffs, gold and experience.

Counter pick

To choose a particular champion during the selection phase in order to oppose a particular enemy champion.

Counterplay

Things that one can do to counteract or minimize the impact or dominance of a champion, ability, item, or rune. For example, against an ability that is a skillshot, the main counterplay is to dodge it.

Counterpush

To neutralize a shove or splitpush.

Cover

A player request for another teammate to hold the player's lane while they're not there. (See "babysit" and "hold.")

Cow

Alistar and more specifically Moo Cow Alistar.

Creep

The perception that an amount of something has gradually increased in the game when compared to the past. This could be caused by multiple changes, such as direct buffs to champion potential, nerfs to deterrents, etc. For example, cooldown reduction creep is used to refer to  cooldown reduction being more abundant in items and easier to obtain for more champions, compared to the past.

Creeps

Monsters or minions.

Crown

Rabadon's Deathcrown.

Wooglet's Witchcrown.

CS

Creep Score, an adapted DotA term. The amount of creeps killer.

The Crystal Scar.

Zilean's Chronoshift.

Custom

Custom game: the match mode created by player with the freedom to determine the team size, map, A.I. controlled champion participation and install a password for limited access.

Cup

Chalice of Harmony or Athene's Unholy Grail.

Another name for a Clash tournament.

Cupcake

Caitlyn's Yordle Snap Trap.

Caitlyn (coined by Vi)

Bittersweet Lulu's polymorphed victims

CV

Clairvoyance.

D

Dar

Darius.

D

The first of two summoner spells the player can allot, bound to D by default.

Def

Defend: to protect the tower or base without attacking aggressively.

DFG

Deathfire Grasp.

DC

Disconnected.

Dirt Dragon

Mountain Drake

Debuff

A negative effect applied to a champion; the opposite of a buff.

Deny

Denial

To kill allied minions or pets, preventing the opponent from earning the gold and experience from killing them. While this feature is common in other MOBA games it is intentionally absent from League of Legends and replaced with zoning tactics.

Dive

To pursue a specific target into a highly dangerous area, typically beneath an enemy turret.

Dodge

To disband champion select without mutual consent.

A deprecated champion statistic, which determined the possibility to avoid a basic attack.

Following the removal of the dodge global stat, it is the status effect granted by Jax's Counter Strike.

Dog

Doge

Nasus.

Dom

Dominion

A game mode that differs from the classic MOBA-style gameplay, and focuses on seizing capture points.

Donger

Heimerdinger (coined by Michael Santana.

DoT

Damage over time effect.

DotA

Defense of the Ancients: Allstars: a successful mod created from Warcraft 3. It has inspired similar games such as League of Legends. "Dota" is also used to categorize games of this particular sub-genre within the real-time strategy genre.

DPS

Damage per second. A measure of how much damage a champion or team can deal each second.

A champion who specializes in dealing steady sustained damage.

Drag

Drake

Dragon.

Drain effect

Drain effect is a conjectural term for various healing effects that are based on damage dealt, but are not  life steal and  spell vamp.

Drain tank

Drain tanking

The act of lifestealing (or using spellvamp/other forms of sustain in case of casters) damage done against enemies to tank their damage. Champions which do this are difficult to kill, especially in 1x1 situations, because they heal through all the damage done, and even if they don't do a lot of damage back, they can win the duel just because the enemy cannot burst them down quickly enough to prevent them from healing back. However, if their sustain is reduced or denied (because they are under CC effects or unable to attack), they can become easy to kill, since they tend to not have or to have less actual tankyness to fall back on. Examples of champions designed to be drain tanks are Aatrox, Warwick, and Olaf.

Dubstep Ignite

• The act of casting Ignite on a very low-health target and proceeding to walk away carelessly.

Duelist

A champion who excels at combating enemy champions one on one (e.g. Fiora, Jax).

Dunking

A flashy or rewarding kill on a champion, described in terms of a slam dunk.

To use an aerial leap ability to severely damage or slay an enemy champion. Examples of dunking abilities include Darius' Noxian Guillotine, Jarvan IV's Cataclysm and Jayce's To the Skies!.

E

E

The third champion ability which is bound to the "E" key by default.

EC

Executioner's Calling.

Effective health

EHP

Health multiplied by the various damage reduction affecting it (normally  armor and  magic resistance), i.e. the damage that the champion needs to receive in order to be killed.

Egg

Eggnivia

Anivia during Rebirth, officially dubbed by the game's chat.

Elo

A mathematical rating system for a player's relative skill level.

Elo hell

A perceived Elo level where it is very difficult or frustrating for a player to get out of.

Elojob

When a low-elo player pays a higher-skilled player to boost the low elo's account to higher elo. This practice is extremely controversial and is generally condemned by players and punished by Riot due to the problems that result from the inappropriate matchmaking.

ER

Essence Reaver

Eve

Evelynn

Execute

An ability intended to eliminate a champion. Examples include Pyke's Death from Below and Jinx's Super Mega Death Rocket!.

Exp

xp

Shorthand for experience points.

Ez

Ezreal

Easy

F

F

The second of two summoner spells the player can allot, bound to "F" by default.

Flash.

Face check

A champion blindly walking into a brush to see if an enemy champion is hidden in there. This can be a very risky action.

Fail flash

When the player uses their Flash spell in an unintended way, or when they try to escape over a wall but end up at the same side they started.

Fall off

A term used for when a champion stops getting stronger towards later stages of the game. Those champions are generally strong during the early and/or mid game to compensate, thus have a limited window of time to win the game before being outscaled by the enemy. Example of champions that are considered to fall off late game are Lee Sin, Elise, and Zed.

Farm

To seek out and kill creeps to obtain experience and gold.

Farm lane

When, during the lane phase, neither of the opponents are able to kill each other or to effectively push without jungle interference, resulting into a lane phase where they both just farm.

FB

First Blood: the first kill of the game.

Fed

A champion becoming disproportionately powerful after obtaining multiple kills on enemy champions.

Feed

To repeatedly die to the enemy team, giving them gold and experience. A player who does this is a feeder.

FF

Refers to /ff or 'forfeit', another term for surrendering.

FFS

“For fuck's sake”. An expression of anger or frustration.

Fid

Fiddle

FS

Fiddlesticks

Fiesta

Clown fiesta

A game with many mistakes made by both sides.

Fish

Fizz

Nami

Flank

To try to bypass the enemy frontline and go directly to the enemy backline by going from an alternative route, mainly from behind. This strategy is useful for assassins and divers because they don't have enough durability to survive a barrage of CCs and direct damage.

FM

Frozen Mallet

Fratma's

A deprecated build that utilized Atma's Impaler and Frozen Mallet. Could also be referred to as Atmallet.

Fratmog's

A deprecated build that utilized Atma's Impaler, Frozen Mallet and Warmog's Armor all at once.

Freezing

Farming a lane by only last-hitting minions. This pushes the wave as slowly as possible to prevent an opportunity to be invaded.

Fog

FoW

Fog of War

The shadowed areas of the map which are out of the vision range of allied champions, minions and structures.

FoN

Force of Nature

FotM

Flavor of the Month: a champion that suddenly becomes very popular among players. This can be for reasons such as their usage at a competitive level, an overtuned buff or the discovery of a bug that is highly beneficial to the champion.

Fountain

The raised stone platforms located in each team's base, where champions will respawn after death, regenerate health and mana, and can purchase items.

Fourchan

4Chan

A nickname for Miss Fortune based on her ability to dominate early-game bottom lane if played right. Namesake from the infamous image board.

FPS

Graphic Frames Per Second the game renders.

Franky

Vi

Frostmancy

A build type flexing on most ranged mages where they go top with Kleptomancy and Spellthief's Edge (And upgrade it to the Frostfang.). While top, they will completely ignore killing minions for gold, instead opting to rely on the aforementioned Keystone Mastery and their starting item for income. Because of this, they will spend the time that is otherwise allotted to CSing bullying their lane opponent, disallowing them from farming, or in more extreme cases, preventing them from remotely netting experience. While the Reddit post that brought the playstyle to the general public's attention was stylized around Kennen, the most common user of Frostmancy appears to be Zilean.

Full damage

To build all offensive items, contrary to generally building some defensive items for survivability. Consequently, these champions tend to do very high amounts of damage, but are very easy to kill.

Full tank

To build mostly defensive items, contrary to generally building some offensive items for damage. Consequently, these champions tend to do very little amounts of damage, but are very hard to kill.

FWotD

WotD

First Win

First Win of the Day: a daily mission that rewards the summoner with experience and some Blue Essences upon winning a matchmade game.

G

GA

Guardian Angel

GP

Gangplank

Gank

To ambush unsuspecting enemies. Portmanteu of 'gang kill'.

Gap closer

An ability or spell that shortens the distance between the champion and the enemy.

Gauntlet

Iceborn Gauntlet

GG

Good Game

GG EZ

GG IZI

Good Game, easy win

GGMF

Gun Goddess Miss Fortune

Ghosting

In competitive terms, to gather knowledge from the opponent's perspective in order to gain an advantage during the match.

GJ

Good Job

GL

Good Luck

GLHF

Good Luck; Have Fun

Glass cannon

A champion/build that is high in damage but lacking defense. This primarily refers to building a champion purely for offense, sacrificing survivability.

Global

An ability that can strike anywhere on the map (e.g. Gangplank's Cannon Barrage).

Golden Pose

Any stasis effect.

Gold per 10

GP10

Items that generate extra gold over time. Gold generating items are often incorrectly referred to as GP5.

Gold funneling

Funnel

Funnel strategy

A strategy where two champions lane together (and go to the jungle whenever possible), where one takes all farm and gold for itself, while the other will fall behind, and try to build cheaper items with utility to compensate. The one that takes farm is a carry champion such as Master Yi, Twitch, or Graves, whereas the one that does not is an enchanter support or a champion that can be played like one, such as Kayle, Taric, or Lulu. It is generally done to increase the possibility for the carry champion to construct and snowball a lead. This strategy was nerfed with the jungle gold changes.

Grag

Gragas

Gutted

A champion or item that has been rendered completely unviable to play (or buy in case of items).

H

Harass

Attacking an enemy while they are preoccupied with an action.

Hard CC

A crowd control effect that disrupts the channeling of abilities.

Hard leash

To aid the allied jungler by helping them kill a monster without the use of Smite.

Hat

Funny Hat

Funky Hat

Rabadon's Deathcap

Heal bot

Refers to Soraka contributing nothing but healing.

Hec

Heca

Hecarim

Heim

Heimer

Heimerdinger

Hero

The equivalent term for 'champion' in other MOBA games. Coined from DotA.

Hexa

Hexakill - Single-handedly achieving six champion kills in short succession, leaving the enemy nexus exposed to shredding.

HF

Have Fun

Hold

To keep the lane from pushing into allied defenses. Primarily done by junglers while the laner is away.

Hook

Ability which prevents movement and brings an enemy towards the champion's position. Examples include Thresh's Death Sentence or Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab

Horse

Hecarim

Hourglass

Zhonya

Zhonya's Hourglass

HP

Health, also known as "Hit Points"

HP5

Health Regeneration per 5 seconds

Hybrid

A champion with significant ability scalings from both AD and AP.

A build that includes both AD and AP.

A champion that does significant amounts of both physical and magic damage.

Hypercarry

A champion that has an extremely weak early or mid-game, but scales extremely well late game to the point of being nearly unstoppable if well fed and farmed. This term often describes ADCs that are often highly dependent on auto-attacking (i.e. Tristana, Kog'Maw, and Vayne) and can be used to describe other champions as well in a lesser extent (i.e. Karthus, Jax, Azir).

I

IE

Infinity Edge

IBG

Iceborn

Iceborn Gauntlet

Inhib

Short for Inhibitor

Initiate

A champion performing an action which signals allied champions to begin the battle. The initiator may act as bait and take heavy damage from the enemy in order to protect their allies from taking major damage.

Innate

A champion's passive ability separate from their four main abilities, shorten to P or I.

Insec

A type of play where a champion tries to position behind an enemy, then knockback them in the direction of the allied team. This makes them a vulnerable target. During the early game, it can be an effective gank setup, and at late game, it can be a game changing move. Popularized by a pro player named "inSec", which used to do this with Lee Sin (by wardjumping behind an enemy, then using Dragon's Rage to knockback them in the direction of an ally). Despite this, it is possible to insec with other champions too. The second most popular example is Azir, which can use Conquering Sands and Shifting Sands to reposition himself behind an enemy, then use Emperor's Divide to knockback them in the direction of allies. Other champions which can potentially insec include Tristana, Poppy, Shyvana, and Janna.

Instagib

Instakill

Instant giblets or Instant kill: when a full health or nearly full health champion/monster takes lethal damage within such a short time that they essentially died instantly, with no chance to react.

Instalock

Instalocking

Instant lock: to quickly select and lock-in a particular champion (or a random one) to prevent someone else from getting them, usually without previous warning to the rest of the team. This is often perceived as poor sportsmanship.

Int

Short for "Intentional feeding".

Invade

To go into the enemy's territory, particularly their jungle.

Ire

Irie

Irelia

J

J4

Jar

Jarv

Jarvan IV

Jack

JitB

Shaco's Jack in the Box

Jay

Jayce

JoJ

Journal of Justice

Juggernaut

A term coined by Riot, used to describe fighters that are extremely durable, but are lacking in mobility. They tend to be difficult to duel, but at same time easy to kite and inflict CC. Examples of juggernauts are Darius and Garen.

Juke

The act of feinting an enemy into the wrong direction, usually done by breaking line of sight.

Jungling

To kill monsters in the jungle.

K

Kar

Karth

Karthus

Kass

Kassadin

Kat

Katarina

Kay

Kayle

Kayn

Kanye

A gross misspelling of Kayn.

Ken

Kennen

Kha

K6

Kha'Zix

Kill lane

A combination of the bottom lane selected for the specific purpose of slaying the opposing two champions during the laning phase.

Kit

A champion's set of abilities.

Kite

Kiting

Continuously backing away and attacking a pursuing enemy champion so they suffer damage while unable to attack.

Kog

Kog'Maw

KS

Kill steal: A kill assistant taking kill credit.

KYS

“Kill yourself”.

L

Lag

Slow response during the match due to high network connection latency.

Some players also refer to the slowdown due to an insufficient computer system as lag.

Lag specifically refers to the time between when information is sent and when it is received. This can be caused by a network latency, in which data is delayed between a user's computer and the game server, or by a slow computer. Lag most often manifests as "outbound lag", or delay between when a command is given and when it is performed. Lag can also manifest as "inbound lag", or a delay between when an event is registered on the server and when it is displayed on a user's computer. This causes "jumping", or the appearance that a champion's position, health, mana, etc. has suddenly changed.

Lag Spike

A sudden and often momentary period of severe lag.

Laner

The champion or player who occupies a certain lane during the early game.

Lane bully

A champion designed to win the lane phase against other champions. They try to constantly harass the enemy laner and deny them farm, making them fall behind. Most lane bullies fall off late game in order to compensate for their early game strength.

Lane swap

A strategy of laners switching lanes to compensate a disadvantage. This strategy used to be very common in competitive games (and very rare otherwise) because it can allow teams to counter some top laners which cannot effectively lane against the power of a bottom laner and support. Recent changes make this strategy very risky, the bot lane has less durable towers, and first tower gold is highly contested.

Laning

Remaining in lane to push or farm.

Laning phase

A stage in the match where players are farming for their first items, ends when one or two towers are destroyed and laners start rotating to other lanes.

Lantern

Thresh's Dark Passage

Laser

Lux's Final Spark

The Nexus Obelisk's basic attack.

Last hit

Getting the killing blow on a minion, creep, or enemy champion.

LB

LeBlanc

Lich Bane

Leash

A tactic where an assistant draws monster aggro, or attacks with the jungler.

Leave

Leaver

Exiting the match before the game is finished, whether voluntarily or not. This is regulated by the Leaver Buster system.

LS

Lee Sin

 Life steal

Leech

Staying within range of enemy units to gain experience points without directly assisting teammates.

Leo

Leona

Liss

Lissandra

Lockdown

Applying crowd control to the point a champion cannot perform a certain action.

LoL

League of Legends, the title of the game itself.

lol

“Laughing out loud”.

LOM

Low On Mana – See also Out of Mana

LW

Last Whisper

M

Main

A player's best or favorite champion to use.

A player's best or favorite role.

Mal

Malphite, Malzahar

Malp

Malph

Malphite

Malz

Malzahar

ManBearPig

ManBearPheonix

ManBearTiger and combinations thereof

Udyr

Man drop

Pantheon's Grand Skyfall

Mao

Maokai

Map awareness

To be conscious of the events occurring around the map. To increase Map awareness, there are abilities and items (e.g. wards and jungle plants) which reveal the fog of war at strategic areas.

Map control

To have vision and influence over areas around the map. Ways to increase Map control include placing wards and destroying enemy towers.

Map objective

A valuable mob or structure whose acquisition goes towards winning the match. These tasks include getting the blue and red buffs, slaying the Dragon and Baron, destroying towers and inhibitors, etc.

Matdud Gank

When both laners die during a solo player's gank.

Mermaid

Nami

Meta

metagame

The game's current effective play style, consisting of aspects such as lane setup, jungling, and team composition.

Metagolem

An incredibly strict build that can be flexed on a certain type of, or in more extreme cases, every champion, that dictates the meta by being unbelievably overpowered. The term is a portmanteau of the words "metagame" and "golem".

A now archaic metagolem that consisted of Warmog's Armor, Atma's Impaler, Frozen Mallet, Trinity Force, and Mercury's Treads.

To a lesser extend this term also applies to a trend in early 2016 for many champions that were supposed to build squishy, to build tanky. This is because back then, items like Sunfire Cape, Iceborn Gauntlet, and Titanic Hydra, as well as the  Grasp of the Undying mastery, used to be overpowered. They allowed almost any champion to work with a tanky build because those items provided artificial sources of damage, with Grasp of the Undying providing health-scaling sustain and high base damage as well. A lot of champions that were otherwise supposed to build glass cannon started to build tanky. The most popular examples include Master Yi, Fiora, Ekko, Fizz, and even Akali. Most of those champions had their base damages nerfed to encourage them to build glass cannon, and the aforementioned items were also nerfed to make them more expensive or do less damage, discouraging their purchase on non-tanky champions.

MF

Miss Fortune

Mid

Mid

The Refinery/Drill capture points in Dominion.

Mid top

At the beginning of Dominion, a player declares to capture the nearest middle capture point then rushes up to top.

MM

Marksman: a champion that deals high amounts of attack damage as the match progresses, sacrificing it's defensive power and utility. An official term substitutes "ADC" (attack damage carry).

MOBA

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena: a genre of games which brings many of the RPG (Role Playing Game) and RTS (Real-Time Strategy) elements together.

Mobi (boots)

Boots of Mobility

Monkey

MonkeyKing

Wukong

Morde

Mordekaiser

Morg

Morgana

MP5

 Mana regeneration per 5 seconds

MPen

 Magic penetration

MR

MRes

 Magic resistance

MS

 Movement speed

Mundo

Dr. Mundo, who isn't actually a doctor, so he is called Mundo.

Mummy

Mumu

Amumu

Murder bridge

Another name for the Howling Abyss map. (At the start of the match, the announcer will occasionally refer to the 'Murder Bridge' rather than 'Howling Abyss'.)

Previously, the custom game version of the Proving Grounds map, before it was replaced by Howling Abyss.

N

N1

Nice One

Naut

Nauti

Nautilus

Nerf

An official modification to the game mechanics which makes something less powerful, as opposed to a "buff". Coined from EverQuest forums describing patches reducing effects to the power of nerf weapons.

NJ

Nice Job

Noc

Noct

Nocturne

Nid

Nida

Nidalee

Nuke

Any ability that deals huge amounts of damage, such as Javelin Toss or Requiem. Burst does not mean the same because most characters' burst combos consist of multiple abilities.

O

OC

Original content

Occult

Sword of the Occult

OE

Orange Essence

Off tank

A champion that has some attributes of a Tank (ability to soak damage, initiation ability, CC, etc.), but lacks in one or more areas.

Off meta

A champion being used in a completely different way from what is considered meta for them. For example, it can refer to going with a different lane than intended (e.g. jungle Brand, support Jarvan IV) or a different build (e.g. AD Ahri, AP Tristana).

Sometimes the champions themselves may be considered off-meta if they are uncommon enough, even if they are played as intended. Examples include Volibear.

Unusual strategies that are very rarely seen on most games. For example, going dual top instead of going with one top and one jungler, or playing a melee champion as your ADC.

OMW

On My Way

One point wonder

An ability that has very little change in level scaling, so it is almost full power at rank 1.

One-Trick

One-Trick Pony

OTP

A player who can play only one champion effectively.

OOM

Out Of Mana – See also Low On Mana

OP

Overpowered

Open mid

After falling behind early, a team may allow the enemy team to push down mid lane for an early victory.

Oracle

Oracle's

Oracle's Extract or Looted Oracle's Extract, used to detect invisibility.

Orange

Gangplank's Remove Scurvy

Ori

Orianna

OTW

On The Way

Overextending

A champion moving too far in lane/enemy territory, which can open them up to sudden engages.

Overloaded

A champion which has too many tools or their kit, allowing them to do many different things at once; either because their abilities have an excessive amount of effects, or because their abilities are just too versatile. Champions like this can be considered difficult to balance due to that reason, as simple numbers changes are usually not enough to bring them in line with other champions.

This can also be applied to items; if an item is too versatile (either due to having many different stats, or effects, or both), it can be considered overloaded.

Overkill

The act of dealing (substantially) more damage to an enemy than is needed to kill him off.

Overtuned

A champion which has overbearingly high numbers on their abilities (base damage, scalings, range, missile speed, etc) or their stats (base HP, HP per level, base AD, etc).

An item can also be considered overtuned if its stats or the numbers on their passive or active effects are too high.

P

Pant

Panth

Pantheon

Pass

Battle Pass

Event passes that links with event tokens and exclusive prizes.

Path

Pathing

The route that will be taken towards a destination.

PBE

Public Beta Environment, a testing realm for upcoming content.

PD

Phantom Dancer

Peeling

To use crowd control abilities to stop enemy champions from attacking an allied champion.

Penta

Pentakill - Single-handedly achieving five champion kills in short succession, leaving the enemy nexus exposed to shredding.

PFE

Pulsefire Ezreal

Philo

Philosopher's Stone

Pink

The removed Vision Ward colored pink, which is succeeded by Control Ward.

Poacher

Poacher's Dirk

Poacher's Knife

Poke

A form of harass which uses long ranged attacks to cause small to moderate damage in order to weaken an enemy, while keeping a safe position.

Pony

Hecarim, generally used in a derogatory manner.

Position

Positioning

A champion's location during a fight. Good positioning is determined by the player knowing the optimal location their champion should be at.

Pot

Potion(s), usually Health Potion.

Premade

Multiple players, who know each other, forming a team together before entering the champion selection phase.

Pro

An act of calling someone that is very talented when playing, short for professional.

Proc

The activation of an effect.

Projectile

The visual particle representing certain basic attacks and abilities. They can be blocked by Yasuo's Wind Wall, intercepted by Braum's Unbreakable, and dodged by untargetable abilities like Fizz's Playful/ Trickster, even if they are point-click (and thus would otherwise always hit the target).

Proxy

A high-risk, high-reward strategy (generally done at the top or bottom lanes due the length of the lanes) that involves farming enemy minions between the enemy turrets to prevent the opposing laner from effectively pushing or farming.

Pubstomp

When an organized team of good players thoroughly defeat random public players in a match.

Pull

A tactic used to draw monster aggro, benefiting the jungler. Same as leash.

An ability that brings the enemy closer to you (e.g. Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab).

Purple

Purple team: The group of players that start out at the upper-right side of the map, once called Team Chaos.

Hand of Baron. (Aka "Baron Buff" or "Purple Buff")

Push

To continue advancing forward in a lane, clearing it of minions and towers.

PvP

Player versus Player: game modes that do not include bot-controlled champions.

Q

Q

The first champion ability which is bound to the "Q" key by default.

QQ

Depicts a pair of crying eyes, implying that the other player is complaining.

QSS

Quicksilver Sash

Quadra kill

Slaying four enemy champions within a certain length of time.

Quint

Quintessence, the removed most expensive/powerful type of rune.

R

R

The fourth champion ability (usually the ultimate) which is bound to the "R" key by default.

Rage

To display in-game frustration.

Ragequit

An incident where a player quits (leaves) the game due to in-game frustrations.

Raka

Soraka

Rakan

Rambo

Diving into a fight alone, usually a suicidal tactic.

Rat

Twitch

Razors

Bloodrazor, Stormrazor

Rdy

Ready

Re

Short for reappear, meaning an enemy champion is no longer MIA.

Used once someone is no longer AFK.

Recommended

A category of champions whose controlling difficulty is relatively low and suitable to new League of Legends players.

The recommended items listed in the shop for shortcut purchase. Player can edit their recommended items manually.

Red

Crest of Cinders. Also known as "red buff." By extension, can refer to the Red Brambleback.

Marks, a removed type of rune.

Red ward

Control Ward

Ren

Rene

Renek

Renekton

Ren

Rengo

Rengar

Rep

Report: An action after each match to report a player to official for inappropriate behavior such as verbal abuse or intentionally feeding the opponent.

Req

Request

Require

Karthus' Requiem

Revolver

Hextech Revolver

Riot

The development company that created League of Legends.

Rito

An intended misspell of Riot Games, the company that develops League of Legends. This word is usually used semi-ironically when players spot humorously blatant problems in the game, which they typically respond with 'Rito pls'.

RNG

Random number generation, game mechanics that utilize randomness. See RNG in WoW.

RoA

Rod of Ages

Roam

Movement by a laning champion away from their lane to a different area of the map to gank or otherwise apply map pressure.

ROFL

Rolling on the floor laughing.

RP

Riot Points

RQ

Ragequit

Run it down mid

Run it down

A phrase coined by streamer Tyler1 meaning to feed the opposing mid lane player by repeatedly running past their mid turret

Rylai

Rylai's

Rylai's Crystal Scepter

S

Satan

A derogatory nickname for Teemo.

Scaling

How well a champion's efficiency increases as the game continues and as they gain levels and items. Champions that scale well are normally called carries.

Scrim

Scrimmage: two teams competing against each other for fun in a non-tournament game.

Scrub

An insult indicating that the player has a low skill level for the game.

Secret/Sleeper OP

A champion which is potentially powerful enough to become meta, but is still unpopular and most people don't realize how strong that champion is.

Sej

Seju

Sejuani

Shop

The location where items are bought.

To return to the base and buy items. Interchangeable with "b" or "brb".

Shroom

Teemo's Noxious Trap

Shotgun Knees

Urgot's Echoing Flames, sometimes used in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

Shyv

Shyvana

Siv

Sivir

Skar

Skarner

Small indie company

A derogatory term used to mock Riot for things such as small but useful features that have yet to be implemented, weird bugs, things that are supposedly easy to fix or need a urgent fix, or for poor/controversial decisions. Coined from the fact that Riot used to actually be a small indie company.

Smurf

A secondary account of lower level or rank than a player's primary account. Coined from Schlongor's second account "PapaSmurf".

Snake

Cassiopeia

Snare

A debuff which prevents a champion from moving. Can also be referred to as a root or an 'immobilize'.

Snowball

Situation that occurs when a champion or team gains an advantage that allows them to progressively grow stronger.

Mark / Dash

Snowball item

An item that grows in power as you gain kills/assists, e.g. Mejai's Soulstealer.

Soft CC

A crowd control effect that still allows you to move freely and does not interrupt ability channels.

Soft leash

To draw the aggro of a monster briefly before moving away.

Solo

A champion (usually the top and mid laners) that guards an entire lane on their own.

Sora

Soraka

SotO

Sword of the Occult

Space AIDS

Malzahar's Malefic Visions.

Spell

Summoner spell: The battle abilities which are not provided by the champion, but rather designated by the summoner to their champion before entering the match.

Split push

To continuously advance in one lane while teammates are focused elsewhere.

Squishy

A champion that can be killed easily due to low base health/defenses.

SR

Summoner's Rift

SS

Enemy champion missing, shortened form of "miss". "SS" (along with "miss") is more common than "MIA" on the European servers.

Stat check

Stat checking

A champion that wins trades just because it has superior stats, instead of because it outplayed the enemy or because it used a certain combo. Any champion can potentially be a stat check, but some champions are considered stat checks because due to how their kit works, they rely mostly or exclusively on stat checking to deal with enemy champions.

A champion can be a stat check because it simply has better stats (ex: having more max HP than the enemy), because it has a lot of a stat that directly counter the enemy (ex: having a lot of armor against an enemy that does fully physical damage), because it can heal more than the enemy can damage, or because it can reduce the stats of an enemy (ex: reducing the enemy's attack speed).

Stat stick

An item which either does not have an unique passive or active, or has one that is very weak. In either case, the item is considered useful mostly for its stats; indeed, most items which are considered to be stat sticks tend to have superior stats compared to items which have useful passives and/or actives. An example is old Phantom Dancer, which did not had a 12% damage reduction passive, and was useful mostly because it used to offer 50% attack speed and 35% critical strike chance, which was superior to old Statikk Shiv's 40% attack speed and 20% critical strike chance, allowing Phantom Dancer to compete with Statikk even though the latter had a lighting passive that did burst damage and waveclear. Phantom Dancer was even stacked, because the stats were just that high.

Steroid

A temporary, self applied, straight-forward ability that increases one's performance without tangentially altering it.

More specifically: an ability that provides an increase to a champion's base stats, or the part of the ability that does so.

Stonewall

When a champion is effectively able to turn the lane into a farm lane, denying all kill pressure from the enemy and countering their pushing potential, even if they would otherwise have both. They do this without having kill presusre themselves.

Store

Riot Store: the 'shop' accessible in the client interface where player can purchase Riot Points, champions, skins, Rune pages, Experience Boosts, etc. The term 'shop' dominantly refers to the Shop in the Field of Justice where the actual match is played.

Stronk

A typo of the word "strong," mostly used sarcastically due to being a misspelling.

Stunlock

A phrase used to express being continually hit with hard crowd control, thus being unable to not do anything.

Super

Super minion: a stronger minion that is spawned by destroying an enemy inhibitor in classic game mode.

Super Hard CC

Hard crowd control that is also capable of abruptly canceling the enemy champion's dash rather than it finishing mid-stun. Hard crowd control includes but is not limited to Veigar's Event Horizon, knockbacks, and all knockups.

Super Soaker

Hextech GLP-800, often used along with Glacial Augment rune.

Susan

Nasus' name spelled backwards, often as a derogatory term for most Nasus players.

Sustain

Sustainability

A champion's capacity for staying in a lane or jungle without having to go back to the base.

Sustained damage

A large amount of damage that is done over a long period of time. Essentially the opposite of burst. Despite the name, sustained damage does not always come with actual sustain (but most of time, will do). Sustained damage is considered to be better to deal with tanky targets, while burst is more effective against squishy targets.

SV

Spirit Visage

Synergy

How well two or more champions/players work together.

An item that benefits a particular champion without wasted stat boosts or inefficient abilities. ("Synergy" sections were removed from the item pages due to the definition being fairly subjective and cumbersome.)

T

Tankiness

The quality of being able to take high amounts of damage, primarily through items that give defensive stats.

Tanking

To take high amounts of damage. Usually refers to damage being done to tanks and fighters, who have the durability to survive such damage.

Tanky DPS

An alternative term for a "Fighter" type champion. Though the term can be used to describe any champion that has obtained high survivability and damage through levels and items.

Team comp

Team composition: A specific champion set-up for a team in which they work together to achieve an overall strategy. Examples include Poke comp, Heal comp, Push comp, AoE comp, CC comp, etc.

Teamfight

When multiple champions, from each opposing side, gather in one area to battle.

Teeto

Nickname for Teemo made popular by PhantomL0rd with this video

TF

Twisted Fate

Trinity Force

Teamfight, when multiple champions, from each opposing side, gather in one area to battle.

TFT

Shoft name for Teamfight Tactics game mode.

Thunderlord's

Thunderlord's Decree

TLD

 Thunderlord's Decree

Tilt

See Tilt (poker) and Tilt Type

Tower

A commonly used alternative term for the turret.

Tower hugging

To stay near the tower to deter enemy champions from attacking them.

Toxic

Used to describe a person whose attitude negatively influences the game.

TP

Teleport

Twisted Fate's Gate

Trade

Trading

Trade champions: to switch champions with another player during the champion selection for Draft or Ranked games after all players of both teams have finished selecting champions.

Trade damage: when players from each side deal equivalent injury to each other during a confrontation.

Trade kills: when players from each side suffer an equivalent number of deaths after a confrontation.

Tree

Maokai

Tri-brush

A particular "Y" shaped brush that covers three directions, such as those located on Summoner's Rift near the top exit of the jungle of the purple team's side of the map and near the bottom exit of jungle of the blue team's side.

Trinity

Triforce

Trinity Force

Tris

Trist

Tristana

Troll

A person who causes acts of disruption to other players and to the community. These acts may include writing offensive messages or intentionally feeding the enemy. Trolls are also referred to as griefers. See Troll on Wikipedia for more information.

Mythical beings originating from the Norse mythology. In League of Legends, Trundle belongs to this race.

Troll pole

Fizz's Playful, which is tormenting to enemies attempting to eliminate him.

Troll pool

Vladimir's Sanguine Pool, which is tormenting to enemies attempting to eliminate him.

TT

Twisted Treeline

Tryn

Trynd

Trynda

Tryndamere

Turtle

Turtling

A defensive strategy that involves protecting turrets, playing safe, and avoid dying as much as possible until late game comes. It is often used alongside champions with high waveclear potential and hypercarry champions.

U

Ult

Ulti

Ultimate ability

To tell a player to use their champion's ultimate ability.

Ult bot

A champion whose ult is very powerful or a lot more impactful compared to the rest of their kit. Sometimes those champions have the rest of their kits or their base stats nerfed to compensate, but are still worth picking due to their ultimate alone. Examples of champions which are or were considered ult bots are Miss Fortune, Malzahar, Malphite, and Shen.

Unique

An aura or ability that does not stack, common to item effects.

UP

Underpowered

URF

Ultra Rapid Fire

Urf, the Manatee. Referring to the day innocent as celebracón

Utility

Spells or abilities that have a quality of being beneficial for the team. support champions are known to have a lot of utility.

V

Var

Varus

Vel

Vel'Koz

Vision hack

An ability which allows a player to see through the fog of war, such as Twisted Fate's Destiny.

Veig

Veigar

Vent

Ventrilo: a third party voice chat software.

Vertical Jungling

A style of jungling mainly seen in higher elo and competitive play where the de facto jungle border between both teams' jungles is the middle lane rather than the river. Instead of the red side owning the first & second quadrants with the blue side owning the third & fourth, one team will own the first & fourth quadrants as well as the southeast (Dragon) river, and the other will own the second & third quadrants plus the northwest (Baron) river.

Vik

Viktor

Vlad

Vladimir

Voli

Volibear

W

W

The second champion ability which is bound to the "W" key by default.

Ward hop

Using a dash ability (e.g. Lee Sin's Safeguard and Jax's Leap Strike) to target a ward. This is useful for escaping enemy attacks or intercepting an enemy that has used walls to juke away.

Ward bait

To place down a ward in order to set up an ambush. When an enemy champion attempts to destroy the ward, usually due to having an Oracle, the player initiates their surprise attack.

Warma's

A deprecated build that utilized Atma's Impaler and Warmog's Armor. Could also be referred to as Atmogs.

Wet Noodle Fight

Describes a fight between two champions that are building very little damage - usually tanks. This often takes place in the top lane during competitive play.

Win Button

A term generally used tongue-in-cheek or in frustration to express that a champion may only need to use what is usually only their ultimate ability to win a fight.

Winions

Minions, especially when they overwhelm objectives such as towers or the nexus. Also, when they contribute to a lot of damage against a champion.

Wombo combo

When teammates effectively and consecutively chain together their abilities on enemy champions. Coined from a Smash Brothers Melee match.

WotA

Will of the Ancients

WP

Well Played

Wu

Wuk

Wukong

WW

Warwick

X

Xin

XZ

Xin Zhao

Y

Yas

Yasou

YS

Yasuo

Yellow

Seals, a removed type of rune.

Yi

Master Yi

Yor

Yorick

Z

Zeke

Zeke's

Zeke's Convergence

Zerg Rush

Building up smaller units into a giant wave to rush an enemy. Can be achievable by withholding minions, Zz'Rot Portal, and playing Yorick. Coined from Starcraft.

Zil

Zilean

Zone

Zoning

Tactics used to prevent enemy champion(s) from gaining gold/experience.