1v1
See: Duel
AA
See: Autoattack
Ability
Champions all have 4 "abilities" that have varying effects. See here.
Ace
To kill all enemy champions at the same time is to ace the enemy team.
ADC
See: AD Carry
AD Carry
See: AD Carry A ranged champion that deals damage primarily through autoattacks.
All-In
To all-in is to commit completely to a fight, such that if you don't win by a substantial margin, you will have lost out on a lot of important resources.
AoE
Stands for Area of Effect. Spells that are able to affect multiple champions or other units at the same time are called AoE. Some cases of AoE damage, such as Kayle's Righteous Fury are referred to as dealing "splash" damage, because they have a primary target and then do additional AoE damage to other nearby targets.
AP Carry
The AP Carry is typically used synonymously with "midlaner," though midlane champions aren't necessarily AP-based. An AP Carry is a champion that does a lot of magic damage and builds a lot of AP, or someone who plays such champions.
APC
See: AP Carry
Autoattack
A resourceless ability that every champion, minion, monster, tower, and some other units have. It can be melee or ranged and deals damage to the recipient. All autoattacks deal physical damage (Corki being the only exception due to his passive, making it so half of his damage is converted into Magic Damage).
B
See Recall.
Backline
Squishy, ranged champions who have high damage output but are very easy to kill. Generally, teams try to protect their backlines in fights.
Baron Dance
Refers to the process of teams trying to get more advantageous positioning around Baron in order to be able to take it, or at least stop the other team from taking it.
Baron Nashor
Generally referred to as "Baron" or "Nash." The primary objective of the late game. The team that kills it receives a buff to stats. See Baron Nashor (Unit). See Baron's location on the map here.
Base
The part of the map closer to each team's fountain than the inhibitor turrets. See Map Features for a diagram. Also referred to as the Well.
Base Gates
Passages that intercept the wall surrounding each team's base. Only teams allied to that base can walk through them and see through them. See Structures for a diagram.
Basic Attack
See: Autoattack
Blind
A type of crowd control that causes the target's autoattacks all to miss for a short duration. See here.
Blue
Short for "Blue Buff," Blue is gained by killing the Ancient Golem or a champion that had blue buff active. It grants the champion 10% Cooldown Reduction and bonus Mana or Energy regeneration for a duration.
Brawl
An informal term meaning to fight a lot, particularly during laning phase.
Brush
Brush is a map element. It doesn't collide with units, but vision to inside a brush is restricted when outside the brush; however, vision outside the brush from inside the brush is free. Line-of-sight restrictions apply within brush.
BT
Short for The Bloodthirster.
Burst
Damage that happens all at once, can also be used as a verb that means to do a lot of damage all at once
Bush
See: Brush
Cast
To cast a spell is to use a spell; "casters" are champions that use spells primarily as opposed to their basic attack (aka autoattack or AA or primary attack).
Catch
Synonym for Pick, to find a champion alone and hopefully kill them. See Pick Comps.
CC
Short for Crowd Control.
CD
See: Cooldown.
CDR
See: Cooldown Reduction.
Champion
A player-controlled unit that has four abilities in addition to an autoattack. Champions are the primary unit in League of Legends. Also see here.
Channel
See Channels. A channel is a period of time a champion must wait uninterrupted from initial cast to channel completion in order to use certain abilities. Certain forms of Crowd Control can interrupt channels. See here for more information.
Clear Speed
The speed at which a champion is able to kill jungle camps; high clear speeds result in low clear times.
Clear Time
See: Clear Speed
Cloud Drake
One of four early game objectives that spawn in the Dragon Pit. See Drakes for more information.
Commit
To commit to a fight is to use abilities that could be used defensively for offensive purposes, or in other ways become incapable of getting out of the fight other than by winning it. To commit resources is to use a lot of long-cooldown spells.
Cooldown
The minimum amount of time that a champion must wait between consecutive casts of a spell. Cooldowns can be reduced by purchasing Cooldown Reduction. See Cooldowns.
Cooldown Reduction
A stat that reduces the cooldowns of a champion's skills. Certain spells have cooldowns that can't be reduced. See Cooldown Reduction.
Countergank
When a jungler (or other player) enters a lane right after the opposing jungler (or other player) has ganked, he is counterganking. Counterganking is usually very effective because the first jungler will have already used all his abilities, not expecting the second jungler to arrive.
Counterjungle
To counterjungle is to take neutral creeps that spawn in the enemy's jungle; generally, when counterjungling, a player will leave one small monster alive so that the camp doesn't respawn, hurting his opponent even further.
Crit
Short for Critical Strike; may also be used as a verb meaning "to be a critical strike."
Crit Chance
Short for critical strike chance, crit chance is a stat that some items provide; a champion's crit chance is the probability that any given autoattack will crit.
Critical Strike
A critical strike is an autoattack that does twice as much damage as usual (or 2.5 times as much if the champion has an Infinity Edge). Critical strikes occur with frequency depending on the champion's Crit Chance.
Crowd Control
An affect of an ability that limits the actions the target is able to take for a short duration. See Crowd Control.
CS
Short for "Creep Score," see Last Hits
Damage
An effect of a spell that causes the recipient to lose health, or the loss of health by a unit, or a verb meaning "to deal damage."
Damage over Time
A set of damage caused by an ability or other special effect that is applied in stages over a set period of time.
Death
When a champion is killed, they receive a death.
Death Timer
A timer that starts when a champion dies; when the timer reaches 0, the champion respawns. As the length of the game increases, so do the durations of death timers.
Dive
See New To League/Glossary/All Terms#Turret Dive.
Dominating
To be Dominating is to get six champion kills in a row without dying in between (no time constraint). See Kill Streak.
DOT
Short for Damage over Time
Double Kill
A double kill is two kills by the same champion within a short time in between kills.
DPS
Damage Per Second, "DPS" can also be used as a verb that means to do a lot of damage over a prolonged period of time.
Drake
One of four early game objectives that spawn in the Dragon Pit. See Dragon for more information.
Dragon
Used to refer to drakes as well as the Elder Dragon. See these objectives' location on the map here.
Dragon Dance
Refers to the process of teams trying to get more advantageous positioning around Dragon in order to be able to take it, or at least stop the other team from taking it.
Duel
A duel is a fight between two opposing champions. Champions that are good at winning duels are called duelists.
Duo Lane
Typically an AD Carry and a Support, a duo lane is a pair of champions who stay together in lane and share experience, though generally only one of them takes any of the last hits.
Elder Dragon
A lategame objective comparable to Baron. See these Elder Dragon's location on the map here.
Farm
To last-hit minions is to farm.
Farmfest
An informal term used to describe games in which players mostly spend time farming rather than fighting.
Flank
To flank is to engage a group of enemies from a different angle from another group of teammates, at the same time as that other group of teammates. Successful flanks can be very difficult to pull off.
Flex Pick
A champion that can be played in more than one position, so if picked early in the Champ Select rotation, it does not reveal as much about the team's strategy.
Fog
Short for Fog of War.
Fog of War
The portion of the map not visible to one of the teams; each team has a different Fog of War. Spectators of a game can see all of the map except for the portions that are in both teams' Fogs of War.
Frontline
Tanky champions who have good disruption/Crowd Control and are able to prohibit the enemy backline from doing damage to their backline; usually melee.
Fountain
The part of a team's base where the champions spawn at the start of the game. It is located behind the Nexus.
Gank
To show up (usually unexpected) in a lane that you aren't "supposed" to be in, typically in an attempt to catch the enemy unaware and get a kill.
Gapcloser
A mobility spell, typically used to refer to mobility spells that are primarily used offensively rather than defensively.
Global
An ability is called "global" if it can be cast from any position on the map to affect any other position on the map, such as Ashe's ult, Ezreal's ult, or the suimmoner spell Teleport
Godlike
To be Godlike is to get seven champion kills in a row without dying in between (no time constraint). See Kill Streak.
Group
To group is to assemble a number of allies, typically 3 or more, on the same position on the map, typically to secure an objective or start a teamfight.
GA
Short for Guardian Angel.
Hard CC
Generally refers to forms of crowd control that completely restrict movement (snares, stuns, suppresses). Repositions are frequently included in this category as well.
Health
The primary defensive stat, "health" or "hp" is a resource that can be removed by damage; reaching 0 health causes a unit to die.
IE
Short for Infinity Edge.
Infernal Drake
One of four early game objectives that spawn in the Dragon Pit. See Drakes for more information.
Inhibitor
See here. Inhibitors are structures located here that, when destroyed, causes a team to spawn Super Minions.
Inventory
The set of items that a champion owns. A champion has six item slots and one trinket slot maximum for their inventory.
Isolated
To be separated from one's team. Isolated can also refer to a specific distance related to Kha'Zix's skill Taste Their Fear.
Item
A set of stats and secondary effects, sometimes including an activatable effect, that a champion can buy in the ingame item shop with gold.
Item Shop
Located in the well, the location at which champions can exchange gold for items.
Item Slot
A space in a champion's inventory for an item. Except for consumables, one item takes up one item slot regardless of how many components it has or its cost.
Juke
To juke a skillshot is to dodge it. One can also use "juke" to refer to running in an unexpected direction to avoid being chased down by an enemy.
Jungler
See: Jungler. A jungler farms jungle camps and ganks during the early game, and takes the summoner spell Smite.
Kill
To kill a unit is to remove it from the map. For all units except towers and the Nexus, a kill is temporary, and they will respawn after a certain amount of time has passed. Can also be used as a noun. Generally, a kill is secured by taking a unit to 0 HP, though some circ*mstances may interfere.
Killing Spree
To be on a killing spree is to get three champion kills in a row without dying in between (no time constraint). See Kill Streak.
Kill Streak
A kill streak is a streak of a champion getting multiple kills without ever dying in between. See Killing Spree, Rampage, Unstoppable, Dominating, Godlike, and Legendary.
Kit
Refers to the set of four abilities and Passive that each champion has.
Kite
To kite is to deal damage to an opponent while continually moving out of range to avoid taking any return damage. This can be done by applying slows or other forms of CC, or just by being faster.
Lane
See Lanes. One of three pathways that go from one Nexus to the other.
Lane Swap
See Lane Swaps. The act of placing players in lanes that don't correspond to their roles.
Last Hit
A verb meaning to secure last hits.
Last Hits
A last hit is a killing blow -- the last bit of damage that kills a unit. Last hits on minions are referred to as "CS" (short for "creep score"), and last hits on champions are referred to as "kills."
Legendary
To be legendary is to get eight champion kills in a row without dying in between (no time constraint). See Kill Streak.
Lock Down
To apply Crowd Control to a champion for an extended duration, frequently in an effort to kill them before they can take any action. Can also be used as an adjective to describe Crowd Control useful in locking down a target.
Lore
Refers to the stories that exist about the champions outside of the game.
Level
A threshold of experience at which a champion gains bonus stats and an additional skill point to allot.
Macro
Short for "macromanagement." A term that comes from StarCraft, "Macro play" or "Macro" for short refers to a team's strategic decision-making over the course of a game.
Marksman
See: AD Carry
Mechanics
Mechanics is a catch-all term that refers to how well a player is able to control their champion, properly executing their desired ingame actions.
Melee
A melee champion is one whose autoattack is very short-ranged; effectively, the two champions will need to be right next to each other for a melee champion to be able to autoattack. Spells can also be classified as melee.
Meta
Short for "Metagame," "the meta" refers to a set of strategies that are currently standard at any point in time. Can also be used as an adjective to describe whether champion picks are standard or not.
Micro
Short for "micromanagement." A term that comes from StarCraft, micro is generally used interchangeably with mechanics, though having good micro requires both good mechanics and good short-term planning.
Midlaner
See: Midlaner A champion that spends lane phase in the midlane.
Minion
An AI-controlled unit that's allied with a team. See here.
Mobility
Mobility spells are spells that allow a character to rapidly change locations, either by dashing (has travel time) or blinking (instant). Champions with good mobility spells are considered "mobile."
Mountain Drake
One of four early game objectives that spawn in the Dragon Pit. See Drakes for more information.
Nash
See Baron Nashor.
Nexus
The final objective of the game. Killing the enemy's nexus wins you the game. See its location here.
Objective
Any point of contention, particularly Dragon, Baron, towers, and inhibitors.
Objective Control
The ability of a champion or team to control objectives, usually pertaining to Dragon and Baron.
Ocean Drake
One of four early game objectives that spawn in the Dragon Pit. See Drakes for more information.
Outplay
To "outplay" is to demonstrate superior play over your opponent, whether on a macro or micro scale.
Passive
Either an ability that does not need to be activated in order to be used, or a playstyle in which players don't try to accelerate the course of events and instead react to what the other team does.
Pentakill
A pentakill is five kills by the same champion within a short time in between kills. Because there are only five players on a team, pentakills are very rare and usually celebrated.
Pick
Either a player selecting a champion (as a noun or verb), or ingame, to catch an enemy player alone and usually kill them.
Pick Comp
A team composition that revolves around the goal of making picks.
Posture
Generally used in similar context as the terms Dragon Dance and Baron Dance, to posture is to attempt to gain more favorable positioning relative to the other team around an Objective, usually Dragon or Baron.
Primary Attack
See: Autoattack.
Push
To push a lane is to kill the enemy creeps in it rapidly in order to advance to a tower quickly, in order to take (kill) the tower.
Quadrakill
A quadrakill is four kills by the same champion within a short time in between kills.
Rampage
To be on a rampage is to get four champion kills in a row without dying in between (no time constraint). See Kill Streak.
Ranged
A ranged ability is one that can be cast when the source and the target are not touching each other. A champion is called "ranged" if it has a ranged autoattack.
Recall
Also known as "basing" or "going B" or "blue-pilling." Recall is an ability that every champion has on no cooldown that instantly transports them to their fountain after an 8-second channel. This channel is interrupted by taking damage or the player choosing to interrupt it. See here for more information.
Red
Short for "Red Buff," Red is gained by killing the Lizard Elder or a champion that had red buff active. It causes the champion's autoattacks to slow and apply a short bonus damage over time for 3 seconds.
Respawn
To spawn again after being killed.
RoA
Short for Rod of Ages.
Role Player
A player on a team who positively impacts their team by enabling others to carry but will usually not directly carry the game themselves.
Scale
Scaling refers to a champion's power curve. Champions that "scale well" are generally strong in the late game. Champions can scale well with either items or levels.
Semi-global
An ability is called "semi-global" if it is extremely long-range but not global. Examples include Nocturne's ult, Pantheon's ult, and Twisted Fate's ult.
Shotcaller
A player on the team who decides what tactics the team will employ; in other words, calls the shots for the team. Typically, coaches and analysts will be responsible for deciding a team's overall plan, and the shotcaller is responsible for making sure the team executes it, though team environments vary.
Shut down
Literally, to kill a champion that had been on a kill streak. Also to focus a lot of resources on ensuring that a champion is unable to get the gold and/or experience it needs early on in the game.
Siege
To lay siege to a turret is to attempt to damage or destroy it over a long period of time, despite the enemy team defending it. See here for a list of similar terms.
Sight
The ability to see a location on the map and non-stealthed units there.
Silence
A form of crowd control that stops the target from casting any abilities for a short duration.
Skill
See: Ability.
Skill Point
A point that a player can allot into one of his champion's four skills. Champions start the game with one skill point and gain a new one at each level.
Skillshots
Abilities that are casted in a direction or at a location on the map, as opposed to on a target. See Skillshots.
Skirmish
A small fight, generally in the early parts of the game, and generally involving only a few members of each team. Frequently teams will not commit very many resources to such a fight.
Slow
A form of crowd control that decreases a target's movement speed temporarily.
Snare
A form of crowd control that prohibits the target from moving temporarily.
Snowball
To snowball is to build up a bigger and bigger lead by capitalizing on small advantage. A snowball is when a team snowballs. A reverse-snowball is when a team makes one mistake and then falls further and further behind.
Spawn
For a unit to spawn is for that unit to appear on the map and be able to interact or be interacted with according to its programming or, if applicable, player inputs. If a unit is spawning for a second time or later, it is referred to as respawning.
Solo Lane
Typically midlane and toplane, a "solo lane" is a lane that is occupied for the most part only by one champion on each team, allowing that champion to receive the maximum experience possible.
Splash
Splash damage is AoE damage that is dealt around a primary target, but is less than the damage dealt to that primary target.
Splitpush
To have two or three groups of champions pushing two or three lanes at the same time.
Stealth
A stealthed unit is one that cannot be seen by normal sight, but can be seen by true sight. Can also be used as a verb meaning "to become stealthed."
Steroid
An ability, generally active, but sometimes passive that increases the power of the champion's autoattacks. Generally AD Carries have one or more steroids in their kit.
Stun
A type of crowd control that stops the target from moving, autoattacking, or casting any spell for a short period of time.
Summoner Spell
See here for a description and here for a list of them. Each player may choose two Summoner Spells from a pool available to all champions to have available to him each game. Summoner spells have varied effects and are generally powerful than each champion's skills.
Super Minion
Stronger than normal minions, super minions begin to spawn when an Inhibitor is destroyed. See here.
Support
See: Support. A support is a champion with low gold income that provides utility to the team.
Suppress
A type of crowd control that prohibits the target from taking any action. Suppresses can only be removed by a Quicksilver Sash.
Synergy
When two or more champions have mechanics that mesh well together, they are said to have synergy, or to synergize.
Targeted
A "targeted" spell is one that can be cast on a unit and will affect that unit regardless of movement on the part of the targeted unit.
Team Composition
Literally, the set of 5 champions that a team picks in a game. Can also be used to imply that a team picked 5 champions that synergize well together. See Team Compositions.
Teamfight
When the majority of both teams run into each other and use a lot of abilities trying to kill each other.
Terrain
Terrain is a map element. Vision is restricted across it, and units cannot pass through it unless they cast a mobility spell that specifically allows them to.
Toplaner
See: Toplaner. A champion or player of that champion who generally spends lane phase in the toplane.
Tower
A structure allied to one team that deals damage. It is one of the primary obstacles in the way of a team winning the game. See: Towers for more information.
Triple Kill
A triple kill is three kills by the same champion within a short time in between kills.
True Sight
The ability to see stealthed units.
Turret
See: Tower.
Turret Dive
To Turret Dive is to engage the enemy underneath one of their towers. It can either be to attempt to get one kill or to force a fight when you are sufficiently far ahead that the damage incurred from tanking the turret won't affect your ability to win the fight.
Ult
Short for Ultimate.
Ultimate
By default bound to R (i.e. a player uses it by pressing 'R'), it is a spell that is generally more powerful than the other three spells that a champion has and cannot be leveled until level 6.
Unstoppable
To be Unstoppable is to get five champion kills in a row without dying in between (no time constraint). Can also be used to mean that the champion is very strong relative to the other champions in the game. See Kill Streak.
Utility
Utility spells are spells that benefit the caster's team in ways other than damaging their opponents. Crowd control, movespeed buffs, and heals are all considered utility.
Vision
A catch-all term to refer to what can and cannot be seen by a team. Sometimes used interchangeably with Sight or with True Sight.
Vision Control
Vision Control refers to a team's ability to see whatever part of the map they desire. It is established by placing wards on the map and having forward-positioned creeps and/or champions. Good vision control is typically highly valued.
Wave
A group of 6 or 7 minions that spawn very close in time to each other.
Waveclear
The ability to clear out large numbers of minions (waves) in a short period of time, or all at once.
Well
See Fountain.
Zone Control
The ability to control enemies' movements through an area, particularly during a teamfight.