Glossary of Minecraft Terms

Click a link to read more about that specific item/term. This is just the beginning of Minecraft. We recommend exploring the Official Mincraft Wiki for more items, blocks, monsters, recipes and more.

Terms	Definition
Admin/Operator	A player who is listed on the OP (operator) list, having access to most or all of the commands on a server.
Bedrock	A material at the bottom-most level of the world. It cannot be broken and is not craftable in the game (except in creative worlds)
AFK	Away From Keyboard: when a player is away from their computer.
Agro	Short for "Aggravated" - A verb meaning you have aggravated an enemy and they now want to fight.
Biome	An area in the game that is themed to a certain climate or geographic style. Like "Plains" or "Forest" or "Mesa".  Each biome has its own style, materials, weather and sometimes monsters.
Beef	Meat from a cow consumed as food. Also it could be "cooked" but that's usually called "Steak".
Block	Either a block of material, like stone or wood, or to obstruct something; or to block with the sword or shield.
Buff	A special positive ability, like status effects. Debuff refers to a negative effect.
Butter	Jargon or a joke term for gold ore. It is called like that because of the appearance in-game. Now, rarely used.
Brewing	You can brew potions in the game.
Creative	aka "Creative Mode" a mode of gameplay not normal to our world. It gives the player unlimited materials and no game challenge allowing you to build whatever you want. Some worlds may be creative worlds, but the main world is Survival.
Cheater/Hacker	The toxic part of the community; sometimes typed differently to avoid chat censoring (eg. Haxor), it describes someone using modified clients to gain unfair advantages. Most servers forbid the use of those clients, and their use is not moral as well. However, some servers also forbid accusing players of being hackers on chat and whisper, but do provide an alternative method of reporting to staff like forums or dedicated in-game commands.
Cobble	A shortening for cobblestone.
Craft/Crafting	Following a recipe to make something out of other materials. For example, you could use wood and iron to make a pickaxe.
Creeper	A monster in the world that sneaks up behind you and explodes.
Defend	Sometimes a miscalling for blocking rather than defending something.
Diamond	A precious material in-game.
Enchanting	You can enchant an item from the game so that it has magical powers. This is done on the Enchanting table.
Emerald	A precious material in game
Enderman	A neutral monster, until you look him in the eyes. He can teleport and water kills him.
The End	One of the two "underworlds" of the game - Contains a dragon that if you defeat, you "win" the game.
FnS	Flint and Steel
FPS	Frames Per Second - A term used to describe how fast the video of your game runs. On less powerful computers, the FPS value will be lower and the game may look laggy or slow.
Fully automatic farm	May mean a traditional place where you grow crops, but also can mean a mechanism built by a player that performs in-game tasks without any player intervention.
Full Diamond/Iron/Chain/Gold/Leather	Full set of armor made of one material.
Gapple	Golden Apple; may refer to the enchanted one too, however, a term for those is also Notch Apple (official until 1.12, as seen on achievements), God Apple, or Enchanted Golden Apple (Now official, as seen by its in game item name).
Gear	Armor and weapons. Geared means "having armor equipped".
GG	Good Game. Goes with EZ too, as GG EZ (Good game, it was easy).
Mod/Modded	Changing your game software with mods. You can download our official mods at http://downloads.madminers.com .
Mob	Usually a monster or other animal in the game that could be combative.
Mojang ("Moe-yang")	Mojang is the company that created Minecraft. It's now owned by Microsoft.
Nether	One of the two "underworlds" in the game. The Nether is a vast dangerous world similar to the typical "hell".
Obsidian	A hard material found in-game, deep in the lowest depths of the world. It also can be made with lava and water.
OP	Depending on context: operator (admin) most of the time, over-powered:too powerful (equipment only, a term used mostly on modded servers and in other games), original poster (forums and sites, not necessary Minecraft related) or end-game equipment and gear.
Pick noun	Pickaxe
Pillar jumping/Pillaring/ Nerd Pole	When a player repeatedly jumps followed by quickly placing a block beneath. This is very helpful when getting high off the ground in a short amount of time, and it can be done by just looking down and holding jump and use with a proper block selected.
Portal, Portal_Hub	Portals are gateways that teleport you to ther places portals can take you to another world, or to an underworld like The Nether or The End. A collection of portals is called a portal hub. Learn more about Nether Portals
Pumpkin vision	The effect of wearing a Pumpkin on your head.
Quad (jump)	When a player has to sprint-jump over a 4-block gap horizontally, which is the furthest a player can jump while sprinting without any (de)buffs. This term is often used when playing on parkour maps.
Raiding	While similar to the destructive form of griefing, the most notable difference is that raiding is done with the purpose of gaining material assets (i.e. items) or strategic advantages towards an enemy and in most cases, it is on a relatively large scale. This term is mostly used on Factions servers.
Redstone	A material in the game that allows you to create "wires" and "circuits" and complicated electronic machinery.
Skin	A customization to your character akin to a costume or outfit. You can customize your skin on the Minecraft website.
Slimestone	Slime based flying technologies.
Splash	Splash Potion, or now more commonly, splash text (also known as Splash Screen).
Sprint-jumping	Sprinting and (continuously) jumping. It is the fastest way a player can run without the use of potion effects, Spectator Mode, or client modification. One can run faster by manually spamming or holding the jump key, but this is effective only in spaces 2 blocks tall.
Staff	Players that were granted additional commands to use compared to regular players, in order to help administrate the server. Staff members aren't necessarily Admins as they might not have even nearly full access to all of the commands, just like the real-life meaning of the term, where a staff member might not be on top of the hierarchy.
Steve	Steve is the basic character in the game that you start with before customizing your skin.
Troll	A player who messes with people, stealing minor items such as cobblestone, iron, etc. is not as bad as a griefer.
Vanilla	Minecraft without mods (including hacks). This term can be used for any piece of software.
Survival	The normal mode of gameplay, where you have to find your own materials, craft your own tools and monsters are mean.