Starcraft 2 Terms and Abbreviations

Seeing as there will be a large number of players new to starcraft and even RTS games in general I've compiled a dictionary of frequently used SC and SC2 terms.

SC2 dictionary standard:

Micro- Unit control in an individual battle or harass. A player's ability to get the most out of the units he/she owns through superior control.

Macro-The combination of a player's ability to gather resources and produce units. The player's ability to produce a large army.

Cheese- An all in strategy that is highly unorthodox and usually involves taking an opponent by surprise.

Tech or Teching- Concentrating on advancing up to better buildings and units. To tech or the act of teching involves racing to or attempting to get the most advanced units in the game.

Rush- Attempt to amass a large army very quickly. In a rush you sacrifice your economy and tech in order to overrun your opponents early on while he/she is unprepared.

Harass- As the name implies. Rather than trying to overrun your opponent completely you attempt to weaken him with smaller attacks. workers are the standard target although occasionally you'll see a player take out lone units or buildings.

Pro- Professional, people who actually make their living in SC2 tournaments. Seriously don't think you're "pro" just because you get the basics of the game.

Build, Build Order, or BO- A set order of constructing units and buildings. Often expressed in terms of supply count. A 9 pool for example is a spawning pool built at 9 supply/workers.

Proxy- Buildings that are built near your opponent instead of in your own base. It usually means you're attempting to build your units closer to your enemy so you can attack without having to cross the map. See Starcraft 2 Cheese.

Main- Your first base, your starting location

Natural- The mineral/gas location directly outside of your Main.

Third, fourth, etc- additional base locations.

AA- Anti-Air. Standard RTS term.

Zerg related:

Ling- zergling, SC1 term. Avoid if possible to avoid confusion with baneling

Speedling- speed upgraded zerglings. Speed upgrade is critical.

Crackling- zergling with speed upgrade AND the attack upgrade at pool. SC1 term.

Muta- mutalisk

Muta ling- A strong combination of mutalisks and zerglings

Muta ling baneling- muta ling with small numbers of banelings.

Ultra- Ultralisk.

Hydra- Hydralisk

Pool- spawning pool

Hatch- hatchery

Terran related:

MMM or 3M-Marine, Marauder, Medivac.

Bio- See MMM

Mech- builds consisting primarily of Factory units. Occasionally with viking and/or marauder support.

Stim- stimpack

Rax- barracks

CC- Command Center

Protoss related:

Lot- zealot, used rarely.

Blink Stalkers- Stalkers with blink.

Chargelots- Zealots with charge

VR- Void Ray

DT and HT- Dark Templar and High Templar, respectively.

FF- Force Field

Hallu- Hallucination. SC1 term, relic term and rarely used.

MS- Mothership