Editing SmashWiki:Glossary

*'''[[Approach]]ing''': Moving towards an opponent, usually in conjunction with attacks.

*'''[[Attack]]''': Use of a move that damages the opponent.

*'''Archetype''': Category that a fighter falls into based on their most commonly used moves and gameplans. There are numerous archetypes.

*'''[[AI]]''' or '''artificial intelligence''': Programmed behavior of computer-controlled characters. "Bad" AI means the intended function was done poorly.

*'''[[Buff]]''':

*# Developmental improvement to a character in later game releases or balance patches.

*#*'''[[Nerf]]''': Developmental weakening to a character in later game releases or in balance patches.

*'''[[Buffer]]ing''': Inputting an action while still committed to another action, and have the new input occur as soon as the player is able to act again.

*'''[[Camp]]ing''': Defensively staying away from the opponent, generally in one place, and prolonging the battle. When involved with exploits or other extreme tactics, camping can turn into [[#Stalling|stalling]].

*'''[[Cancel]]''': The act of prematurely ending an animation to be free to act again sooner. Cancellable actions vary between games but often includes attacks, movements, and receiving knockback or hitstun.

**"Cancelling" can also refer to cancelling the execution of an action to remain non-committal. Characters with chargeable [[special move]]s may have the option to cancel them before release to avoid an otherwise lengthy period of vulnerability or to gut an opponent's attempt to predict or punish the attack.

**'''[[Kara cancel]]''': The ability to cancel the start-up of a move into another move. Both of these moves are dependent upon the game and character: for example, all characters can cancel their dash attack into their dash grab in every game except for ''64'' (known as a '''boost grab'''), while Ryu, Ken, and Terry can cancel their normals in the first 3 frames after activation into their command inputs. It's usually done to transfer properties of the first move (such as range or invincibility) onto the second.

*'''Clean hit''': A well-timed hit that uses an attack's initial hitbox; usually much stronger than the late hit. Many attacks don't differentiate, but examples of those that do include {{SSBM|Fox}}'s [[up smash]] in ''Melee'' and most [[sex kick]]s.

**'''Late hit''': A hit that uses an attack's later hitbox; usually weaker than the clean hit. Some attacks have a [[sourspot]] that coincides with the late hit, like the [[Knee Smash]]

**Some attacks have a '''middle hit''', and some have even more stages (e.g. "clean-mid" or "late-mid").

*'''[[Computer player]]''': A player that's entirely controlled by the game rather than by a human. In most of ''Smash's'' single-player modes, the human plays entirely against computer players. In multiplayer, they're usually only introduced by choice. Their difficulty is usually adjustable.

*'''[[Clone]]''': A character that shares most of their moveset and animations with another character, rather than having a moveset unique to them.  

**'''[[Semi-clone]]''': The "in-between point" of being a non-cloned character and a clone, this is a character that shares a significant portion of their moveset and attributes with another character, but also has a significant amount of different animations, attributes and moves, to the point where calling them a clone is not entirely accurate.

***An example in ''Smash'' would be [[Toon Link]], who uses most of [[Link]]'s attacks, much of which have altered functioning, alongside having a handful of entirely unique moves, animations, and very different attributes.

**'''Pseudo-clone''': A character that has some shared attacks, animations and attributes with another character, similarly to a semi-clone. However, whereas semi-clones are still largely based on other characters, pseudo-clones are largely unique overall, and so calling them semi-clones would be somewhat misleading.

**'''Echo fighter''': An official designation given to some clone characters in ''Ultimate''. While most of the characters designated as Echoes are extremely similar to their parent character, if not nigh-identical, {{SSBU|Ken}} was also designated as an Echo despite being less similar to his parent character than a couple clones who weren't designated as an Echo, for example {{SSBU|Dr. Mario}}. As such, "Echo Fighter" isn't exactly an official synonym of the term "clone", nor is it a defined classification based on how "cloned" a character is.

**'''Decloning''': The act of making a cloned character more unique in the transition from one game to another through giving them new moves, animations and altered attributes, sometimes in conjunction with the original character getting a few changes of their own as well. Also known as "Luigification" in the ''Smash'' community, referring to [[Luigi]], who initially started off as a clone of Mario in ''Smash 64'', but has been extensively decloned from the latter over time in later installments.

**String: A series of attacks strung together where the opponent was capable of reacting in-between blows and could have thus escaped.

*# A special move that relies on waiting to be struck first, and then retaliating, as originally seen with Marth and Roy's [[Counter]] in ''Melee''.  

*# A character who has an advantage over another; for example, in ''Brawl'', {{SSBB|Pikachu}} counters {{SSBB|Falco}}, as documented on the [[Character matchup (SSBB)|matchup chart]]. These can be further divided into '''soft counters''' and '''hard counters'''; the former refers to matchups where one character has a slight advantage and the latter refers to matchups where one character has a significant advantage.

**'''[[Rolling dodge]]''': A dodging manoeuvre that involves moving sideways via a roll or similar movement.  

**'''[[Sidestep]]''': A dodging manoeuvre that involves doing a quick dodge in place, typically with less vulnerability after completion but leaves the player intangible for a more limited time frame. Also referred to as a "spot dodge".

**'''[[Air dodge]]''': A dodging manoeuvre that involves an aerial character doing a dodging manoeuvre while moving through the air. Behaves differently in ''Melee'', in ''Brawl'', in ''SSB4'' and in ''Ultimate''. In ''Melee'', characters can air dodge once toward a small distance in any direction while leaving the character helpless afterward, and all existing aerial momentum will be halted/replaced; in ''Brawl'', characters cannot air dodge toward any direction, but will not be left helpless after air dodging, can air dodge as many times as desired, will not endure any landing lag, and their aerial momentum is fully preserved; in ''SSB4'', air dodges function similarly to in ''Brawl'', but characters endure landing lag; and in ''Ultimate'', characters can only air dodge once in the air and can air dodge in any direction, but their aerial momentum is fully preserved/merely shifted rather than being interrupted altogether, and will suffer a large amount of cooldown instead of becoming helpless.

*'''[[Frame]]''': The primary unit of time at which game runs. The ''Smash Bros.'' series runs at 60 frames per second, meaning 1 frame = 1/60 of a second, approximately 16.7 milliseconds.

*'''Footsies''': The term itself means different things to different people, but the most common definition is gameplay that takes place directly in front of the fighters. Thoughtful strategy and mind games are key at this distance, as using random moves is highly inadvisable.

*'''[[Glitch]]''': A flaw or oversight in the game's programming which results in an unintended outcome. An example would be the [[Name Entry glitch]] in ''Melee'', where the developers did not foresee a case where players would attempt to enter a name and leave the character select screen at the same time.

***'''[[Hit grab]]''': A special type of grab that is blockable, despite putting opponents in a grabbed state when connecting. Examples include [[Fishing Rod]] and [[Buster Wolf]].

*'''{{TextAnchor|Grappler}}''': An archetype of character whose most powerful move(s) is their throw(s). They usually have one or more command grabs, and are extremely powerful at close range, but fall off at further ranges. The prototypical example is ''Zangief'' from the {{uv|Street Fighter}} series; in the Smash Bros. series, the fighter most aligned with the archetype is [[Incineroar (SSBU)|Incineroar]]. The primary emotion grapplers are intended to invoke in their opponent is ''fear'', as being cornered by a grappler is more often than not a death sentence for the opponent.

**'''Disjointed hitbox''': A hitbox that extends past the character's hurtboxes, thus allowing it to pass through opposing hitboxes without hurting the user. Nearly every move technically has hitboxes that are disjointed to some degree, so this term more often gets used to refer to moves where the "disjoint" is significant enough for it to semi-reliably hit through opposing moves without the user getting hit, such as for most moves that utilize weapons.

*'''[[Hitlag]]''': The freeze frames that occur when an attack connects, where both characters are frozen in position until the effect ends (unless caused by a projectile, then only the target experiences hitlag). Although primarily used by developers to enhance the feel of an attack's power, actions can also be cancelled or buffered during this time. Sometimes called "hitstop" or "hitpause" depending on the game and language.

**'''Hitstun canceling''': The act of canceling an attack's hitstun before its duration finishes. This mechanic was introduced in ''Brawl'' and was by far at its most powerful there, where if characters were hit by a strong enough blow to induce [[tumble]], they could air dodge after 13 frames or perform an aerial attack after 25 out of hitstun regardless of the hitstun amount. ''Smash 4'' and ''Ultimate'' kept the mechanic but severely nerfed it, increasing the air dodge and aerial hitstun cancel delays to 40 and 45 frames respectively, while also now scaling with the amount of knockback sustained and so increasingly strong blows have increasingly longer hitstun cancel delays.

*'''Home stage''': A stage associated with one or more specific characters. In the context of ''Super Smash Bros.'', the most common associations are "shares a universe with the character" and "where the character is fought in a single-player mode". Is generally not related to whether a character performs well on the stage.

**'''[[Read]]''': A term used to refer to when a player successfully predicts the opponent's next action and is able to preemptively react to punish it effectively. A '''hard read''' is when the player pulls off a more significant prediction that allows them to land a particularly heavy blow or start a particularly effective combo, especially when committing to this before the opponent has performed the predicted action.

*'''[[Gameplay modification|Modification]]''': Usually shorted to "'''mod'''", is the editing of a video game by an unrelated third party, not endorsed by its original developers. Mods are done to change the aesthetics or gameplay aspects to the modder's content. [[Project M]] is an example of a popular mod for ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl''.

*'''Move''': A distinct, animated action a character can take in a fight. Examples include Fox's [[Fox (SSBM)/Up smash|Flip Kick]], distinct from Fox's [[Blaster (Fox)|Blaster]].

*'''[[Shoto]]''': An archetype that originates from the ''Street Fighter'' series; fighters in this archetype are usually very technical with some type of [[Hadoken|projectile]], [[Tatsumaki Senpukyaku|gap closer]] and [[Shoryuken|anti-air]]. The name comes from {{s|wikipedia|Shotokan Karate}}, a common real-world martial art that many video game characters practice.

*{{Anchor|Sweetspot}} '''[[Sweet spot (hitbox)|Sweetspot]]''': The hitbox of an attack that deals the most desirable effect; typically the strongest hitbox in the attack.  

**'''Sourspot''': The hitbox that deals the least desirable effect; typically the weakest hitbox in the attack.

*'''[[Technical skill]]''': Known as "tech skill" for short, refers to a player's ability to manipulate their controller to produce desired inputs. Players with greater tech skill can make inputs faster and more precisely, allowing them to more often and effectively pull off manoeuvres that require more complicated inputs.

*'''[[Time out]]''': Refers to when a match's timer runs out, resulting in the end of the match and a winner being announced, or progressing to a tie-breaker if two or more players tied. In competitive play, it is also used as a verb, referring to when a player wins a game by letting the time run out while they have a stock or percentage lead.

*'''[[Tier list]]''': The ranking of a character's potential effectiveness to perform in competitive play in relation to a game's entire character roster.

**'''Infinite''': A combo that can continue indefinitely regardless of damage while keeping the opponent locked in with no chance to escape if performed correctly. Functionally equivalent to a zero-death, but there is also the potential to stall time (which all tournaments have rules against). An example of an infinite is [[wobbling]] in ''Melee''.

***'''Wall infinite''': An infinite combo performed against a wall. An example would be using Fox's {{b|Shine|Fox}} against a wall in ''Melee'', or using {{SSBB|King Dedede}}'s {{mvsub|King Dedede|SSBB|down throw}} to chain grab an opponent near a wall in ''Brawl''.

*'''Zoner''': An archetype that encompasses fighters who excel at keeping the opponent at a distance using long ranged/disjointed moves or projectiles. The goal is to threaten the opponent without being in range to get threatened back. But just as easily as they can pressure, they can also be pressured; if the opponent is able to penetrate the zoner's barriers, they can potentially inflict massive damage, as zoners typically lack reliable defensive options.

*'''[[Aerial attack]]''': An attack that a character performs while airborne. In each ''Smash'' game, every character has five different aerials, one for each of the four basic directions and one for no directional input. The type of aerials are:

**'''[[Forward aerial]]''': Referred to as "fair" for short, an aerial inputted when the attack button is pressed in conjunction with the direction the character is facing. Forward aerials typically involve some sort of attack towards the front of the character. Effect wise, there is no common archetype for forward aerials, with their speed, power, reach, and trajectory varying greatly across characters.

**'''[[Down aerial]]''': Referred to as "dair" for short, an aerial inputted when the attack button is pressed in conjunction with a downward directional input. Down aerials typically involve some sort of attack aimed below the character. Effect-wise, down aerials are typically meteor smashes, a multi-hitting drill type of attack, or a stall-then-fall that also may or may not meteor smash; however, some moves do not fit in any of the aforementioned categories.

**'''[[Grab aerial]]''': Referred to as "zair" for short, an unique aerial inputted when the grab button is pressed. Only characters with tether grabs can use a grab aerial.

*'''[[Blastline]]''': The invisible boundaries on the four sides of a stage, that will KO a character who passes them, whether by being knocked past them or moving past one themselves. The exception is the top blastline, which will only KO when a character passes one while in knockback.

*'''Clang''': When two attacks collide into each other. It will either result in the attacks cancelling each other out (if they deal similar damage) or one overriding the other (if one is significantly stronger than the other).

*'''[[DACUS]]''': Short for "dash attack-cancelled up smash", an act where a player immediately cancels their dash attack with an up smash, which results in some characters sliding forward a significant distance while performing their up smash. It can only be done in ''Brawl''.

*'''[[Dash dancing]]''': The act of repeatedly dashing back and forth, done to either confound the opponent or to show off. This is most commonly seen in ''Melee''.

**'''Forward''': Offensive moves initiated while moving forward in the air. Also tends to be used for side ground attacks—"forward tilt" and "side tilt", and "forward smash" and "side smash", refer to the same attack; this is not true for aerial attacks, however.

**'''Back''': Offensive moves initiated while the control stick is pointed in the opposite direction of where the character is facing. Primarily only applies to aerial attacks, though there are a few [[command input]] moves that use this direction.

*'''[[Helpless]]'''/'''Special fall''': A state where a character in the air is unable to perform any action until landing. Typically occurs after performing a recovery move, and is indicated by the character being stuck in a character-specific pose while flashing.

*'''Kill confirm''': A true combo setup that can be unavoidably followed up with a KO move if successfully pulled off.

**'''50:50''': A combo setup that can lead to a KO, but the opponent can evade the followup through a single unreactable defensive option (most commonly either with an [[air dodge]] or specific [[DI]]), yet conversely the initiator can still [[read]] the opponent's chosen defensive option and punish it accordingly with a KO move. So essentially, a kill setup that the opponent can pick one of two actions to avoid the followup, and the initiator must make a coinflip guess on which action they'll take.

*'''Knee''': Shorthand for the [[Knee Smash]], [[Captain Falcon]]'s forward aerial in every ''Smash Bros.'' game since ''Melee''.

*'''[[Misfire]]''': In every game from ''Melee'' onward, [[Luigi]]'s [[Green Missile]] move has the chance to randomly "misfire" regardless of charge, resulting in an explosive animation that causes Luigi to fly across the stage, resulting in it traveling faster and farther, while dealing significantly more damage and knockback to any opponent that he collides with.

*'''[[Momentum canceling]]''': A technique, where a player in knockback performs various actions, to redirect or negate their momentum, allowing them to survive blows that would have KOed them otherwise. This technique is a defining part of ''Brawl''{{'}}s metagame, as the game's extreme [[hitstun canceling]] allowed characters to act long before their knockback finished and so gave them much greater control to redirect their momentum or perform moves that negated it. All other games besides ''Smash 64'' also have momentum canceling, but without such extreme hitstun cancelling, the technique is much more niche and the available momentum canceling methods can generally only extend survival by a couple percent.

*'''[[Moonwalk]]ing''': A technique that allows a character to move backward a small distance while dashing. It can only be performed in ''Melee''.

*'''Scrooging''': The act of a player traveling underneath the stage from one side to the other, usually to stall time. There are "anti-scrooging" rules that were implemented in many high-level ''Brawl'' tournaments. The general rule states that the character must land on the stage before scrooging again.

**'''[[Forward smash]]''': Also known as "side smash", and referred to as "f-smash" for short, inputted by pressing the attack button in conjunction with a tapped left or right directional input. Typically involves the character throwing a mighty blow in front of them, with generally more reach than their other attacks. Forward smashes are usually the character's slowest but most powerful smash attack, and one of the character's most powerful attacks, if not their strongest altogether.

**'''[[Down smash]]''': Referred to as "d-smash" for short, inputted by pressing the attack button in conjunction with a tapped down directional input. Typically involves the character striking both the front and back of them, whether at the same time or in succession. Down smashes are usually the character's fastest, but weakest smash attack, and are instead designed to safely cover both sides of a character when it is difficult to tell which side the opponent is, or if being surrounded by multiple opponents.

*'''[[Spacie]]''': Refers to [[Fox]], [[Falco]] and [[Wolf]], who are at least pseudo-clones of each other in the ''Smash'' games they appear in, alongside each having a combination of fast falling speed and high gravity that makes them to uniquely vulnerable to certain combos and chain throws that are significantly less effective against other characters, especially in ''Melee'' and ''Brawl''.

*'''[[Stale-move negation]]''': A mechanic that causes a move to weaken as it is successively used. It additionally only counts moves that successfully hit an opponent; a move that fails to land will not count towards it. In ''Ultimate'', it also applies to moves that hit an opponent's shield as well.

*'''[[Sticker]]''': A collectible item that can be applied to characters in ''Brawl''{{'}}s [[Subspace Emissary]] to boost stats.

*'''[[Sudden Death]]''': A mode used to resolve ties in versus mode matches, where all tied players will fight with only one stock and 300% damage, where the first strike landed usually leads to an instant KO. Eventually [[Bob-omb]]s start falling from the sky if the players fail to KO each other in time, and in ''[[Ultimate]]'' the blast zones will also start shrinking to farther discourage camping.

*'''[[Tech]]''': The action of pressing the shield button the moment one hits a surface while in tumble or in a launched state to cancel all knockback. When teching on the ground, one can "tech-in-place", "tech roll away", or "tech roll in". "Tech" is also used as shorthand for "technique".

**'''[[Tech chase]]''': The action of predicting what one's opponent will do when the opponent lands on the ground in a situation where they could have teched.

*'''[[Grab#Tether grabs and extended grabs|Tether grabs and extended grabs]]''': Some characters possess grabs with exceptionally long range, often in exchange for speed. The distinction between a "tether" and "extended" grab is purely technical, based on how the grab is connected to the character's animation skeleton.

*'''[[Tether recovery]]''': A method of recovery involving grabbing onto a ledge from a distance. There are multiple moves capable of connecting to ledges, including an aerial tether grab (a.k.a. "zair"), some special moves, and even a few basic aerial attacks.  

*'''[[Tilt]]''': The common term for "strong attacks", standard ground attacks that can be performed towards a direction with the control stick "tilted" instead of tapped. In ''Ultimate'', they are officially known as "tilt attacks". There are three type of tilts:

**'''[[Forward tilt]]''': Also known as "side tilt", and referred to as "f-tilt" for short. Inputted by pressing the attack button in conjunction with the control stick tilted towards the right or left direction. Forward tilts typically involves the character throwing out some sort of basic attack in front of them, while being somewhere between their jab and forward smash in terms of power, speed, and reach. Usually serves as a quick spacer or weak punisher.

**'''[[Up tilt]]''': Referred to as "u-tilt" for short. Inputted by pressing the attack button in conjunction with the control stick tilted upward. Up tilts typically involve the character throwing out some basic attack above them. Up tilts tend to be more powerful than forward tilts but with less reach, and usually serve as anti-airs or quick ground attack that can start combos and juggle opponents, while being capable of KOing at very high damages, though some up tilts are distinctly powerful and can KO as effectively as smash attacks.

**'''[[Down tilt]]''': Referred to as "d-tilt" for short. Inputted by pressing the attack button in conjunction with the control stick tilted down. Down tilts typically involve the character throwing out some basic attack that is aimed low in front of them, and are usually the character's fastest tilt, but also their weakest. Depending on the character, down tilts are often useful grounded spacing tools, decent combo starters, or even forward-moving slide attacks. Many down tilts also have the ability to induce tripping, and many semi-spike as well, or particularly in ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'', can even meteor smash.

*'''[[Crew]]''': A group of ''Smash'' players that play and practice against each other. Will also often team together in doubles tournaments and [[Crew battle]]s. They are often formed by players who live near each other in real life, but this is not necessary. Crews often use online chat services such as Skype and Discord to converse and organize matches amongst each other.

*'''Labber''': A Smasher who discovers various techniques and combos for their characters, usually in  training mode.

*'''Salty''': Analogous to "being upset, disappointed, and/or angry", such as "he's real salty he lost".

*'''[[Split]]ting''': The act of two or more players sharing their winnings from a tournament amongst themselves. It typically happens in innocuous contexts where the tournament could not finish (such as the tournament's venue closing before its conclusion), and so all players that have not yet been eliminated from the tournament split the pot. In more grey cases, it happens when two or more finalists no longer want to play at the end of a tournament and so agree to split their winnings, then play their remaining set(s) with halfhearted effort, if they play their sets at all. In clear fraudulent cases, it can involve a player agreeing to intentionally lose to another player in exchange for a portion of their winnings, sometimes in a conspiracy to target eliminating a third unrelated player that one of the two splitting players has an unfavorable matchup against.

*'''[[SmashWiki:Sockpuppets|Sockpuppet]]''': A sockpuppet is an alternative account made by a user, typically with bad faith intentions, such as to pretend being another user, to violate wiki policy without getting infracted on their primary account, to get multiple "votes" on a proposal, or to bypass a ban.

**'''Userpage''': A personal page every user is entitled to upon registering. No anonymous users may get their own user page. In addition, all users can also have user subpages. Generally, though, it's frowned upon to emphasize user page construction over wiki contributing, especially when SmashWiki enters "[[SmashWiki:SmashWiki Status System|Status Red]]".