World of Warcraft Slang Guide: A Beginner's Guide to WoW Leetspeak

World of Warcraft is among the most popular video games of all time. As of 2009 it holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG, with over 10 million subscribers. The game has also made its mark on pop culture, spawning popular web series "The Guild" as well as being lampooned in its own episode of "South Park." It's so big, it's even developed its own dialect!

For new players, the game's slang and abbreviated language can be confusing. Some of the lingo comprises existing "Leetspeak" or gaming slang terms, like "LOL" (Laugh Out Loud) or "pwn" (a corruption of "Own," a way to gloat over victory). Many others are specific to World of Warcraft, abbreviating game terms and features. To make your trip to Azeroth go more smoothly, here are some of the most frequently used terms:

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Char - Short for character, meaning a character avatar within World of Warcraft. Also referred to as "toon," short for cartoon.

Main - Main character. This is the character you play most often.

Alt - Alternate character. Any character you play besides your main.

Ding - Slang for increasing your character's level. A friend who knows you just reached a new level might congratulate you by saying, "Grats ("Congratulations") on ding."

Gear - Equipment. Your character's armor and weapons.

XP or Exp - Experience points. Points gained when defeating enemies or completing quests, which go toward increasing your character's level.

Loot - Treasure, usually found on the corpse of a fallen enemy.

NPC - Non-player character. Any character that can be interacted with that isn't controlled by another player. NPCs include quest givers, merchants, and city guards.

Mob - Attackable enemies, or a class of enemies such as "Those bats are level 24 mobs."

Dungeon - An area that can only be entered by a single group, with more difficult enemies and better loot. Dungeons are often referred to as "instances" in World of Warcraft. Dungeons may have their own abbreviations, e.g. "RFD" for Razorfen Downs, or "UK" for Utgarde Keep.

Raid - A group that holds up to 40 players, used primarily to fight in World of Warcraft's most difficult dungeons. A guild that does these sort of dungeons regularly is called a "raiding guild" or "raid guild."

BE, UD - Short for Blood Elf and Undead, 2 of the available player races within World of Warcraft.

Buff - Status effects that improve your character's performance for a limited time. "Debuff" indicates negative status effects, like poison or disease.

DK, Lock, Pally - Short for a few of World of Warcraft's player classes. DK is short for Death Knight, lock means Warlock, and pally is short for Paladin.

Rez - Short for "resurrection," or being brought back to life after dying within World of Warcraft. Some classes can resurrect friendly players, such as priests and paladins. If there's no one around to rez you, your spirit will appear at a graveyard. You'll need to run in "spirit form" or "ghost form" back to where you died. This is called a "corpse run" or "rez run."

Zone - An area within World of Warcraft. Usually indicates open areas rather than cities or dungeons. May be used as a verb to indicate switching areas, such as "Zone into the dungeon." Nearly every zone or dungeon in World of Warcraft is referred to as an acronym. The Stranglethorn Vale zone is known as STV, for example.

PST - "Please Send Tell." Also known as "tells" or "whispers," this means sending a direct message to another World of Warcraft player, i.e. "/tell Player Hi!"

LFG, LFM - Looking for group, or looking for more. Used to recruit players to play together, usually for a specific objective like a dungeon or quest.

Hearth - Your character's home point, to which you can teleport at any time, set by an item called a hearthstone. Used as a noun, as in: "My hearth is in Dalaran." Also used as a verb, as in: "I need to hearth to check my mailbox."

AH - Auction House. World of Warcraft's marketplace, responsible for most of the game's trade between players.

WTB, WTS, WTT - Willing (or wanting) to buy, sell or trade. Used to trade directly instead of using the AH. These terms will be yelled out in populated areas, along with the goods or services players are interested in.

Soulbound - When an item or piece of equipment is "bound" to your character and cannot be traded to other players.

BoE, BoP - Bind on equip, bind on pickup. BoE items can be traded as long as they're never worn; these are usually items you find as loot. BoE items become soulbound as soon as they're equipped, while BoP items are soulbound immediately.

Craft - Creating goods through in-game crafting professions. Many of the crafting professions have their names abbreviated, such as WS for weaponsmith.

Mats - Short for "materials," or the ingredients needed to create a crafted item.

Tank - A character designed to take most (or all) of the damage from enemies, especially in dungeons. Also used as a verb, as in "My pet can tank that mob."

PvE, PvP - PvE (Player vs. Environment) indicates when players are fighting against monsters or NPCs. PvP means fighting against other players. BG - Battleground. One of the PvP-specific areas within World of Warcraft, such as Warsong Gulch (WSG).