League of Legends Dictionary: LoL Terms, Slang & Abbreviations

Communication is an important part of playing League of Legends well, and it can be the difference between dominating a game and being completely swept by the opposing team. But with players coming from all walks of life and speaking different languages, the game adopted game-specific terms to refer to many things. Terms you'll need to coordinate and communicate well in-game.

This League of Legends terminology guide covers all the relevant terms every player should know. It includes over 100 terms, abbreviations, and slang.

200 Years

The term originated from a meme when Riot Games referred to their “200 years of collective game design experience” during a game balance discussion. This is a sarcastic term used when any champion feels overloaded. Aphelios was the original champion this referred to, but it has been passed around.

AA (Auto Attack)

This refers to a champion's right-click attack that serves as the primary damage method for most melee and marksman champions.

Ability Haste (AH)

This was introduced to replace Cooldown Reduction (CDR) in Season 11, and is the stat that affects ability cooldowns. It scales infinitely with diminishing returns. 20 Ability Haste (AH) converts to approximately 16.67% Cooldown Reduction (CDR) in League of Legends. This means a 10-second ability would have its cooldown reduced to about 8.33 seconds.

Ace

This means that all five of the enemy's champions are dead. There are no defenders, making it a good time to push for towers, inhibitors, Baron, or the Nexus.

AD (Attack Damage)

One of the two offense stats in the game that affects basic attack and ability damage.

ADC (Attack Damage Carry)

This is the champion that farms in the bottom lane alongside a support, but is also called a marksman. If the bot lane carry builds AP, it's called APC instead.

AFK (Away From Keyboard)

Refers to a LoL player who is not actively playing for whatever reason, though most often refers to someone who actually stepped away from the device to attend to something. This action is penalized by Riot.

Aggro

The act of drawing hostile attention from minions, turrets, or jungle monsters. This usually involves attacking an enemy champion near their minion wave or tower.

AP (Ability Power)

The other offense stat, along with AD, affects your magic-based abilities instead and applies mostly to mages, enchanters, and some assassins. Building AP on AD champions is considered trolling.

AoE (Area of Effect)

These are abilities that target an area rather than a single target, affecting everything in said area. Examples are Malphite's Unstoppable Force, Miss Fortune's Bullet Time, and Zigg's whole kit. Chaining AoE together results in a wombo combo.

ARAM (All Random All Mid)

This is a game mode on Howling Abyss where there's only a single lane, and champions are randomly selected. This is a fast, intense fight that strips gameplay down to classic mayhem.

AS (Attack Speed)

Stat that affects how quickly a champion attacks. This is heavily utilized by ADCs and on-hit champions. Higher AS means more auto attacks per second and a higher DPS.

Assassin

Champion class that quickly deletes squishy targets with burst damage. Zed, Talon, Katarina, and Akali are classic examples of this. Gameplay involves jumping into any situation, making the kill, then jumping back out, though a CC is often all it takes to prevent them from doing their job.

Atakhan

A newer objective boss that was added in Season 2025 to provide additional objective prioritization and provide teams with powerful rewards upon defeating it.

B / Recall

Named after the keyboard hotkey, this ability is available to every champion and allows teleporting back to base. This channeling skill is canceled by any damage or displacement effect.

Backdoor / BD / xPeke

The act of sneaking into the opposing base to destroy the Nexus while the enemy team is preoccupied. Named after Enrique “xPeke” Cedeno Martinez, who pulled off one such famous backdoor.

Bait

The act of luring the enemy into a disadvantageous position. This is done by pretending to be easy prey, then countering once they commit. Usually happens around bushes and near objectives.

Ban

The removal of a champion from the selection pool during ranked or draft pick. Each player gets one ban.

Baron / Nashor / Nash

This is the giant purple worm in the top-side river pit, and the most powerful neutral objective. The team that kills it gains a team-wide buff that strengthens minions, making sieges more effective.

BG

Short for bad game. This is typed at the end of the match, but is considered an unsportsmanlike act.

Selecting champions without knowing or considering the opponents' picks. Blind picking is prone to hard-counters, though some champions are considered safe due to having few bad matchups. There's also a game mode named as such, where all participants pick blind.

Blue Buff

A buff received by killing the Blue Sentinel. Grants both mana regen and ability haste that mid lakers need.

Bot

Short for bottom lane, and may refer to either the lane or the champions laning there.

Bruiser / Fighter

A champion that is tanky enough for extended survivability but can also have enough damage dealing for carries, such as Camelle, Irelia, and Jax.

Buff

May refer to an enhancement that applies to a champion temporarily in-game, or when champions are made stronger by Riot through an update patch.

Build

Your combination of items in a game or match. Should be built based on the champion and the situation.

Burst

Refers to dealing a large amount of damage in a short amount of time, usually applying to burst mages and assassins. “I got bursted” means having been killed from full HP instantly.

Bush / Brush

This is grass scattered throughout the map where your champion becomes invisible by walking into it, except if a ward is present. Face-checking is highlight-worthy.

Carry

It may refer to a champion who scales into a damage-dealing powerhouse late game, or the act of winning the game for your team.

CC (Crowd Control)

Any ability that applies any form of restriction on the enemy, such as stun, root, knockup, silence, slow, or suppression. This is the primary way to stop the enemy's activities.

CD (Cooldown)

The waiting period after using an ability and measured in seconds. Managing this is part of game strategy, and being on cooldown at the wrong moment can cost you the game.

CDR (Cooldown Reduction)

The old game system used to reduce CD, but was replaced with Ability Haste in Season 11. Older players may still refer to this instead of AH.

Cheese

These are gimmicky strategies designed to catch the enemy off guard, and often won't work more than once. Included here are Level 2 all-ins, invades, and off-meta picks.

Coinflip

A game so random that it feels as if the game is pure luck, as if solo queueing.

Counter Jungle / Invade

This is when you enter the enemy jungle to steal camp, or deny gold and XP. Can be done to tilt the enemy jungler.

Crit (Critical Strike)

A random chance to deal bonus physical damage, which is usually about 175% of your AD. ADCs build crit using items like Infinity Edge.

CS (Creep Score)

The number of minions you dealt the last hit to. Higher CS means more gold, meaning more items and power. Pro players can hit 10 CS per minute, but 80 CS is solid for 10 minutes of play. 15 CS is roughly equivalent to a champion kill.

DC (Disconnect)

A DC'd player becomes AFK, but there is a fundamental difference. To DC usually means to drop out due to connectivity issues, and it is usually unintentional.

Debuff

A negative effect applied to a champion to reduce their performance or impair them. Slow, attack speed reduction, and Grievous Wounds are all debuffs.

Diff

Short for difference, and is the same as “Jg diff”, “mid diff”, and “support diff”. This means that the player with the same role on the other team outperforms you. A common passive-aggressive phrase that's thrown around by the losing side 90% of the time.

Dive / Tower Dive

The high-risk, high-reward act of chasing an enemy inside their turret's attack range.

DPS (Damage Per Second)

May refer to a type of champion, such as Jinx and Kog'Maw, who deal sustained damage over time, burst champions who dish out huge damage in one combo, or to a champion stat.

Draft

This is the champion selection phase before the game, including the ban picking that alternates between teams. Draft strategy can win or lose the game.

Drake / Dragon

Refers to all of the dragon objectives at the bottom side river, which grants a permanent stacking buff upon killing. There are six types (Infernal, Mountain, Ocean, Hextech, Chemtech, and Cloud), and killing any four gives a powerful team effect called Dragon-Soul.

Duo

Queueing with a friend in Ranked. Can also mean the bot lane combo between ADC and Support.

Ego

Refers to playing overconfidently. An ego play is one that players take only to show off, and is a good way to lose the match.

Elder Dragon

This is the late-game dragon that spawns after Dragon Soul is taken by one team. Killing it grants a powerful burn effect that also executes low-health enemies. On par with Baron's effect, and can be the deciding factor in a match.

ELO

A borrowed term from chess that refers to a player's skill level in League of Legends, and usually refers to a player's rank. High elo generally refers to Diamond and above.

Enchanter

A support subclass that provides buffs and healing to allies, making them important in keeping the carry alive in teamfights. Lulu, Janna, Soraka, and Nami are among this type.

Engage

The act of starting a teamfight. Some champions are better suited for this because of their kits, like Malphite, Leona, and Rakan. Engage can win or lose you the match.

Execute

Killing a target almost instantly when health is below a certain threshold, sometimes due to abilities that deal bonus damage to low-HP targets, like Urgot's ult. May also refer to dying to a turret or monster to deny the enemy gold from a kill.

Face Check

Walking into a bush or fog of war without vision or precaution. Control Wards and Oracle Lens exist to avoid this.

Farm

Killing minions and jungle monsters for gold and experience.

FB / First Blood

The first champion kill in a game and grants bonus gold that may set the tone for the early game.

Fed

A fed champion has accumulated a high number of kills and gold, making them significantly stronger than what is expected for a certain point in a game.

Feed / Feeding

Dying repeatedly, which leads to the enemy gaining more gold that makes them stronger. Can be intentional due to a bad game or intentional for trolling.

FF (Forfeit / Surrender)

Refers to the surrender vote that becomes available 15 minutes (4 out of 5) into the game. “FF 15” means someone has given up on the game well before voting time.

Flex Pick

These are champions that can fill in multiple roles in a team, making it harder for the opponent to predict the team's laning strategy.

Fog of War

Areas where your team can't see. Any enemy in the fog of war is invisible, and its presence creates face-check moments.

Freeze

This lane manipulation technique involves only last-hitting minions to keep the wave near your tower. This forces the opponent to overextend for CS, making them vulnerable to ganks.

GA (Guardian Angel)

A valuable item that revives champions exactly where they fell, and a portion of their health is recovered. This item is often used when a player is too valuable to die.

Gank

A surprise attack in an enemy laner, often carried out by the jungler to secure a kill or burn the enemy's summoner spells.

GG / WP / GL HF

Common chat messages. GG for good game at the end of the match, WP for well played after a particularly good play, or GL HF for good luck, have fun at the beginning.

Grievous Wounds

A debuff that reduces the efficacy of any healing received by the target. Essential against champions like Soraka, Vladimir, and Aatrox, who have heavy healing.

Griefing

The act of sabotaging your own team. It's a reportable offense, but it may take time for Riot's system to recognize.

Hands

Slang for mechanical skill. To “have hands” is to be able to pull off impressive combos, or play, while “no hands” means being unskilled.

Hardstuck

Refers to a player who has been stuck at a certain rank for a long time, usually related to having a fundamental skill gap that remains unaddressed. If you're in this situation, BoostRoyal's coaching lets you learn from high-elo players to address the problem.

Hypercarry

These are champions who become extremely powerful at full build, like Vayne, Kassadin, Kayle, and Jinx. Mostly weak in the early game, but they take over past the 30-minute mark.

Inhib / Inhibitor

A structure inside each base, one for each lane. Destroying an Inhibitor spawns super minions for that lane for five minutes.

Int / Inting

Short for “Intentional feeding,” which most use to describe anyone having a bad game. “Turbo Inting” means dying at an alarming rate, and being called an inter for dying twice is a normal experience in LoL.

Juke

Dodging a skill or outmaneuvering the opponent through excellent control.

Jungler

In-game role that farms neutral jungle camps and often ganks. These champions often control the pace for the early game, but they often get blamed for many undesirable results.

Kite / Kiting

This refers to movement in between auto attacks to maintain distance from the opponent. A Vayne with excellent kiting can kill tanks without receiving damage.

KS (Kill Steal)

A situation where a teammate takes the last hit on a kill you did the most damage for. The problem lies in who gets the gold.

Lane Prio / Priority

This means that the laner has an advantage over their counterpart because they can leave while the other party can't, such as when they're too busy defending the tower. This is the foundation of macro play.

Last Hit

The killing blow, which determines who collects the gold. Missing too many of these results in players falling behind.

Leash

This is the act of helping the jungler kill their first camp at the start of the game, and is usually done by the bot laner.

Lethality

In-game stat that provides flat armor penetration and scales with level. This is most effective against targets with low armor, and assassins are the ones that often build this stat.

Limit Test

Aggressive play that allows for checking the limits of your champion's capabilities, but usually results in death. It's best to limit test in normal, not ranked, and especially not in someone's promotional match.

LP (League Points)

Points earned or lost after each ranked match in League of Legends. 100 LP lets you promote to the next division, and your LP gain is dependent on your MMR relative to your rank.

Macro

Refers to the big picture and usually involves objective control, rotation, wave management, and map play. This is required to truly be a good player.

Mental / Mental Boom

Your psychological state during a game. “Metal boom” refers to having tilted beyond recovery, which matters because tilted play significantly reduces your odds of winning.

MIA / SS

“Missing in action” means your opposing laner has disappeared and may be roaming, while “SS” is the European equivalent. Calling this is the responsibility of every laner.

Micro

This refers to individual mechanical skill, as opposed to macro, which refers to the big-picture strategy. It involves combos, dodging, spacing, and executing techniques.

Minion / Creeps

These are the computer- controlled spawns from the Nexus that march down each lane. Last-hitting an enemy minion is the primary way to farm minions for gold and XP. Waves arrive every 30 seconds.

MMR (Matchmaking Rating)

The hidden skill rating that determines game matching and LP rate gains.

Nerf

The opposite of a patch buff, this refers to when Riot reduces a champion or item's effectiveness in a patch.

Nexus

This is the core structure in each base, and destroying the enemy's Nexus results in a win. Everything else you do in the game is a means to get here.

OOM (Out of Mana)

A situation where you have no mana to cast abilities. An OOM champion is limited in a fight and can only wait to regenerate mana to fight back effectively.

OP (Overpowered)

Any champion, item, or strategy that is too strong relative to everything else in the game. Being OP often results in almost any game until the nerfs come in.

OTP (One-Trick Pony)

Any player who runs one specific champion exclusively. They're often extremely knowledgeable about their champion, including any matchup or cheese strat, but are usually left helpless once their main is banned.

Overextend

Means to push too far into the lane without vision or awareness of the enemy jungler. This is the number one cause of unnecessary death in any match.

Passive

An ability that is always active without any need for activation or button press. Each champion has their own passive, such as Nasus stacking Q on minion kills or Vayne dealing bonus damage every third hit.

Patch

An update to the game that Riot sends out every two weeks to make adjustments to champions, items, or any game system. The current patch is 26.6, and each patch can buff or nerf any champion, including yours.

Peel

The act of using CC and abilities to protect your carry from enemies. A good peel wins fights just as much as great engages do.

Penta Kill

One player killing all five enemy champions in one successive chain of events. Be warned that a teammate getting quadra kill, then you swooping in for a KS is largely seen as one of the biggest betrayals in the game.

Pick

When you catch the enemy off guard and pick them off before the next team fight. This leads to a 5v4 that could be the deciding factor in a match.

Pink / Control Ward

A purchasable item that reveals and disables enemy wards in an area to help with team vision, and lasts on the field until it is destroyed. Every player is expected to help out with this.

Poke

Chipping away at the enemy's health using ranged abilities to prevent them from committing to fights. Xerath, Jaycem, and Ziggs are poke champions.

Proc

A term that signifies triggering an effect or ability. “Pro Electrocute” means landing the three hits needed to trigger a rune's burst damage.

Proxy

A high-risk strategy involving farming minions in between the enemy's first and second towers to draw pressure and waste the enemy's time. Singed players are notorious for this.

QSS (Quicksilver Sash)

This item removes all crowd control effects from your champions, and is the solution to suppression that usually spells the death of any champion afflicted.

Quadra Kill

Killing four enemy champions in quick succession, and one kill short of a Penta Kill.

Red Buff

Gained by killing the Red Brambleback in the jungle. Adds a slow burn effect to a champion's basic attacks and is effective on ADCs and junglers who mostly auto-attack.

Roam

This is when you leave your lane or position to do something else. Mid laners and supports are the ones who roam the most, often leaving their side lane to create pressure elsewhere.

Scaling

Refers to how strong a champion becomes as the game progresses and they accumulate gold and levels. Champions who scale well are weak in the early game but powerful during the late game, like Kayle.

Siege / Sieging

Involves moving as a team to push into enemy turrets with the goal of clearing out minions to take out the defense structure.

Skillshot

Any ability that requires manual aiming instead of clicking on a target.

Slow Push

The act of intentionally killing a few minions each wave to let your side's minions stack and create a mega-wave that would crash with the enemy tower and open up play windows elsewhere on the map.

Smurf

When a high-ranked player uses a low-ranked one for whatever reason. Often done to practice new champions without risking a main account's standing, and if you want a ranked-ready account without the grind to level 30, BoostRoyal offers options on that end across multiple regions.

Snowball

Describes a situation where small advantages compound to create a dominant lead in a game. Champions like Draven and Katarina can snowball hard.

Split Push

A strategy that involves pushing two lanes at the same time, usually with one champion in one lane and all others in another. This requires effective split pushers like Fiora, Jax, and Tryndamere who can 1v1 and take down towers quickly. This can force the enemy team into unfavorable rotations.

Stack

Refers to accumulating charges in an ability or item. Stacking champions like Nasus, Veigar, and Cho'Gath are weak early but monstrous later in the game if left unchecked.

Summoner Spell

These are the spells that every League of Legends player selects before the game and are separate from champion abilities. Common picks are Flash and Teleport. Other options are Ignite, Heal, Exhaust, Ghost, Barrier, Cleanse, and Smite.

Sustain

The ability to persist in a lane using healing and regeneration. High sustain champions like Vladimir and Aatrox are hard to push out of a lane because they recover health and mana after trading.

Tank

A frontline class built to absorb damage for the team, but also lock down enemies using CC. Good tanks win teamfights.

Tilt

The state of being emotionally frustrated that leads to poor play. Recognizing when you're tilted and need to step away is an important skill in ranked.

Top

Means the top lane, which is the long lane on the upper side of the map. Champions in this lane are usually bruisers, tanks, or juggernauts. Also called “the island” because junglers tend to forget about it.

TP (Teleport)

A summoner spell allowing for teleporting to an allied turret, minion, or ward. Used by top laners to join fights across the map, and a good TP flank can turn losing teamfights into an ace.

Trade

The damage exchange between champions. Trades are relative, and a good one means you dealt more than you received.

Troll / Trolling

Playing badly on purpose to ruin the game for your team.

Turret / Tower

These are the defense structures in each lane that attack enemies that enter their attack range. Destroying these also grants gold.

Ult / Ultimate

This is a champion's most powerful ability, activated by pressing the R key. It is unlocked at level 6 and upgraded at levels 11 and 16. Tracking an enemy's ult availability is a critical part of strategy.

Voidgrubs

These early game objectives replaced Rift Herald's first spawn in 2024, and killing these grants stacking buffs that deal bonus structure damage. These are most important for junglers and top laners to accelerate tower taking.

Ward / Warding

The placement of vision items on the map that reveals areas with fog. Stealth wards are invisible and temporary, while Control wards are permanent but visible and can be destroyed.

Wave Clear

This means killing a whole minion wave quickly. Champions who are good at wave clearing can push more quickly and roam efficiently, such as Anivia, Viktor, and Sivir.

Win Con (Win Condition)

This is the path that wins your team the game. It could involve getting your Vayne to three items, split pushing with Fiora, or landing a five-person Malphite ult. If you want to understand how to determine and make use of Win Con effectively, consider BoostRoyal's coaching to improve your game.

Wombo Combo

This refers to chaining multiple AoE abilities to wipe out the enemy in one coordinated burst. A good example is Malphite ult into Yasuo's Last Breath, then Miss Fortune's Bullet Time. But pulling this without converting kills can spell doom for your team.

Zone / Zoning

This is the use of positioning and abilities to deny the enemy access to a map area. Vel'Koz in a chokepoint, with abilities ready, is effective at zoning just by being there, and good zoning denies CS, prevents engages, and controls objective fights effectively.

1-3-1 and 1-4

These are team formations for pressuring multiple lanes. 1-3-1 has three teammates pushing mid and solo laners on the other two. 1-4 involves 4 players on objectives and one on split push. These all require good communication, TP availability, and overall excellent coordination that you can't get in solo queue.

Evolution of Game Terms and Vocabulary

League of Legends terminology is always evolving, with new terms surfacing in nearly every patch. With Riot Games shipping patches every two weeks, it takes effort to keep up. This glossary provides you with the necessary foundation to keep up with the language to play the game and participate in team communication. It's up to you to keep yourself up to speed on everything else.

If learning all of this, combined with climbing the ranks, is too much of a grind, consider a ranked-ready account to skip the early game grind. BoostRoyal has that covered as well, so get to learning the vocabulary so you can game seriously sooner.

Quick Chat Reference

The table below lists commonly used abbreviations for in-game chat.

Abbreviation	Meaning
GG	Good game
WP	Well played
GL HF	Good luck, have fun
BG	Bad game
FF	Forfeit/surrender
BRB	Be right back
AFK	Away from keyboard
DC	Disconnected
MIA / SS	Missing in action (enemy left lane)
OOM	Out of mana
OP	Overpowered
KS	Kill steal
BM	Bad manners (taunting/disrespect)
EZ	Easy (typed to tilt the enemy team)
MB	My bad
NVM	Never mind
TY	Thank you
WTF	What the... you know the rest