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GENERAL DEFINITIONS
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# Building – As in 6 Pool. Tells you what supply you had when you made that building. Not to be confused with things like 4 Rax and 2 Fact, which refers to the actual number of buildings.
All-in - A one-time attack. If this attack does not kill the opponent, you have lost.
Build Order / BO - The order and timing at which buildings are made at the start of the game.
Cheese - Difficult to define. Generally a strategy that will immediately result in a loss if scouted or defended. Examples are proxy buildings and Cannon rushes.
Choke - An area of terrain with a small passage, such as a ramp, that is easier to defend than attack. Often the attacker needs many more units than the defender to break through a choke.
Cliffing - Dropping units on the high ground behind an expansion to deny mining. Done with ranged units or buildings; typically Siege Tanks, Cannons or Lurkers.
Cloning - Giving a group of units a different target each. Done by giving a group a command, removing one unit from the group, and then giving this new group a separate command. This process is repeated until every unit has a separate command. Examples are sending your starting workers each to a different mineral patch, or sending Scourge to each attack a separate Mutalisk.
Contain – An enemy blockade at a choke point, generally outside of your natural, which prevents you from moving out. Can be made up of any units, but is typically made up of highly defensive units, such as Siege Tanks, Lurkers, or Cannons.
Cooldown – The time a unit must wait before attacking again.
Counter - Attacking a player's base while his army is attacking another location. Typically you sacrifice an expansion to counter your opponent's main base.
Dancing – Running units away during cooldown, firing, and then running again. Repeat. Also involves rotating damaged units to the back to spread damage. Most common with Hydralisks and Dragoons.
Doom Drop - A massive drop. Generally done by Zergs.
Drill - As in Drone Drill or Worker Drill. A technique used to get past units holding position in a choke or, more typically, a ramp. Workers are told to mine minerals on the other side of the choke, putting them into gather mode and allowing them to pass through units. When these workers pass through the units on the ramp, they are told to stop, shuffling both them and the units on the ramp, and allowing friendly units to engage or run past the choke.
Expansion / Expo - A base constructed at another resource location other than your main base.
FE – Fast expansion.
Ferry / Elevator – Using a single transport to drop several units up or down a cliff.
Flank - Attacking one army from multiple angles simultaneously.
Foreigner - Non-Korean.
Gas Steal - Building on an opponent's Vespene Gas geyser so that his mining of gas is delayed.
Han Bang - "One time". Can mean an attack that is meant to do significant damage at a specific timing; alternatively, can mean the same as All-In.
Hungry – Playing extremely aggressively with very few expansions. Typically applied to Zerg. The opposite of Powering.
ICC - ICCup. The most popular, current ladder. Website
Maynard – Moving workers from an existing base to a newly formed expansion.
Macro – Unit production rate and expansion.
Maxed - Being at 200/200 supply.
Micro – Unit control.
Min Only - An expansion without Vespene gas.
Multi - Korean term for expansion.
Natural – Your closest expansion.
PGT - An old ladder, popular with Koreans and foreigners alike. Was hacked and shut down.
Powering - Building workers and expansions, rather than fighting units, with the intention of having faster production later. The opposite of Hungry.
Proxy – Building a building outside your main base, generally closer to your opponent to help execute a rush quicker, or to conceal a certain tactic or strategy.
Rush - An early-game attack; Foregoing tech and instead getting quick attacking units with the intention of killing or damaging your opponent early on.
Second Nat – Your second closest expansion.
Stacking - Clumping air units on top of one another so their numbers are disguised and they are easier to control.
Teching - Researching new technology or building advanced buildings which are prerequisites for new units or buildings.
Turtle - A defensive player who rarely leaves his base. Can be used as a verb (Turtling) to describe an extremely defensive playing style.
RACE SPECIFIC DEFINITIONS
Protoss
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General Protoss
Infinite Psionic Storm - Having so many Templar that you can cast Psionic Storm endlessly during a battle.
Manner Pylon - Building a Pylon in your opponents' mineral line. Ideally this traps workers and restricts access to one or two mineral patches, decreasing mining efficiency.
Storm Raid / Psi Raid - Dropping High Templar from Shuttles to cast Psionic Storm on an enemy's workers.
PvP
PvT
3 Gate - 3 Gateways before expansion.
Bulldog – A quickly timed attack with many Dragoons from 3 Gateways and 4 Zealots in Shuttles; Meant to defeat a Terran’s fast expansion.
Refugee Protoss – Running from base to base as Terran kills them. Generally happens when Protoss has many Carriers.
Spirit Protoss – Attacking with wave after wave of Zealots and few Dragoons. Generally involves almost no unit control with more of a focus on unit production. "Spirit" refers to the death animation of the many dying Zealots.
Zealot Bomb - Dropping Zealots from a Shuttle onto the Mines of a Terran push, causing the Mines to explode and destroy the Terran push. Alternatively, this is dropping Zealots from a Shuttle onto Tanks, causing nearby Tanks to fire and destroy the Tank due to splash damage.
PvZ
2 Gate - Making 2 Gateways before Gas. Typically used to Zealot rush.
Bisu / Beesuit – A build first made popular by Bisu; involves a fast expansion into a mid game of many Corsairs, harassing Dark Templar and relatively fast Observers.
Terran
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General Terran
Allied Mines - Laying a minefield and then allying your opponent. You unally your opponent once he is in the center of the minefield, to maximize damage. Banned from all competitive leagues and ladders.
Ball / Blob - A massive late-game army. Comes from the picture on the minimap when Terrans move out in the late game, keeping their large army grouped tightly together.
Wall-in - Blocking the entrance to your base early on, typically with Supply Depots and a Barracks.
TvP
2 Fact – Two Factories before expansion.
Biomech - Typically a rush build consisting of Marines, Medics and Tanks.
FD - Meaning "fake double" (As in fake 2 Fact rush). Terran rushes with similar forces from a Gundam, but from 1 Factory only, with the intention of expanding immediately.
Gundam – A quick rush from 2 Factories (1 Add-on), meant to push Protoss back far enough to allow Terran to Bunker and contain him. Terran moves out at the same time as an FD, but quicker than a Joyo.
Joyo – A slower timing rush off 2 Factory (2 Add-ons), meant to push Protoss back far enough to deny an expansion. Terran moves out later than an FD or Gundam, but with more units and research.
Push - The standard Terran mid and late-game offensive, led by Siege Tanks. Characterized by "leapfrogging" Sieged Tanks from the back into Tank mode, moving them to the front and Sieging them, and then repeating to move the attack towards a target.
Tornado - A build popularized by Nada, Tornado Terran involves harassing with many Vultures at the end of the midgame to stall Protoss, while Terran builds up his forces. This build's trademark is an eventual attack of almost pure Tanks in a maxed Terran army.
TvT
TvZ
2 Fact – A Tank-heavy build, with few Vessels coming from 1 Starport and many Tanks from 2 Factories.
8 Rax – Building a Barracks on 8/10 supply with the intention of Bunker rushing.
BBS – Barracks, Barracks, Supply (Depot). Building two Barracks before Supply Depot with the intention of Bunker rushing.
Eraser - Casting Irradiate on one's own Science Vessel, which is then flown over Drones to kill them.
Metal - Playing TvZ with Factory units - primarily Goliaths supported by Tanks.
MnM / M&M / MMF - Marines and Medics (and Firebats).
SK Terran – An infantry-heavy build relying on no Tanks, 2 Starports making Vessels, and 9-12 Barracks making Marines and Medics.
Sparks Terran – Making infantry from 3 Barracks with the intention to break through a Zerg’s Sunken line before his tech is complete. Sparks refers to this strategy’s heavy dependence on Firebats, as they take 3 hits rather than 2 to die from a Sunken Colony.
Vessel Cloud - Several (>7) Science Vessels.
Zerg
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General Zerg
3 cm Drop / Slow Drop – Using slow moving Overlords to drop units up or down a cliff.
Crackling - Zerglings with the Adreanline Glands upgrade researched.
Extractor Trick - Building an Extractor, then a Drone, then cancelling the Extractor to get 10/9 supply. Generally only done when 9 Pooling.
Overpool - 9 Overlord 9 Pool.
Speedling - A Zergling with the Metabolic Boost upgrade.
Sunken Line – The defensive line of Sunkens a Zerg player will make at his expansions. Mostly used against Terran at Zerg’s natural while he waits for his first tech to research.
ZvP
Sauron – An expansive, low-tech Zerg build. Initially, Zerg matches Protoss attack upgrades with Carapace upgrades, and maintains a 3:1 ratio of Zerglings: Zealots, while all remaining minerals are spent on expansions and Drones. Zerg will be making massive amounts of Hydralisks and Zerglings from the midgame through the endgame.
ZvT
2 Hatch – Getting only two Hatcheries before beginning to gather gas and tech. Usually involves highly aggressive play to compensate for lost economy.
3 Hatch – Getting three Hatcheries before beginning to gather gas and tech. Usually involves a longer game with more units and expansions made. A very common build.
Hold Lurkers - Glitching Lurker AI so they don't attack, even when units are in range.
Infinite Dark Swarm - Using the same Defiler to cast Dark Swarm in the same place just as an old Swarm runs out. The Defiler then consumes units to regain mana and repeat the process.
ZvZ