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Learn to speak LEGO! – ADVANCED TERMS

Want to learn to speak LEGO fluently like a true AFOL? Here is a detailed LEGO Glossary containing Terms and Acronyms often used in the LEGO hobby. Learn to use them, so if you end up going to a wonderful LEGO convention you won’t feel like a stranger in a strange land, listening to a strange language! Also make sure you check out the BASIC TERMS section! And if I’m missing something from the list let me know and I will ad it! 🙂

A

  • AFOL: “Adult-Fan-of-LEGO”. Pronounced to rhyme with “hay-foal”.
  • AFFOL: “Adult-Female-Fan-of-LEGO” (See also FAFOL and SHEFOL.)

 B

  • Bignette: a large LEGO creation (larger than a Vignette, but smaller than a Diorama).
  • Billund: Billund, Denmark. Headquarters and primary design center for The LEGO Group.
  • Blay/Bley: “Bluish Gray/Grey” refers to the current LEGO gray/grey, compared to the old version “Old Gray/Grey”.
  • Brick-Built: a LEGO creation that is composed of basic LEGO elements, instead of more specialized elements. (For example brick built figures, animals, or objects.)
  • BURP: “Big-Ugly-Rock-Piece”. See here: BURP

C

  • CC: “Classic Castle”. A LEGO castle fan site. See here: Classic Castle
  • CC: “Cafe Corner”. A very popular LEGO set with adult fans. See here: Cafe Corner
  • Cheese Slope: a LEGO part with a 33° slope, 1×1 stud wide and 2 plates high. It is named after the fact that yellow pieces look like a wedge of cheese. See here: Cheese Slope
  • Clone Brands: construction toys similar and often compatible with LEGO, but cheaper in quality and price, designed to compete with the LEGO brand. They are often greatly despised by LEGO-fans.
  • Cracklink: a descriptive name for Bricklink, referring to its addictive nature due to being able to buy individual LEGO parts and minifigs in whatever quantity you want.
  • CSF: Classic-Space Forum. An online LEGO space fan community. See here: Classic Space
  • Custom: a LEGO creation or individual element that uses non-LEGO parts or modified parts, or accessories from third-party vendors like BrickArms and BrickForge. Contrast with Purist.
  • Customizer: a LEGO-fan who is not afraid to modify LEGO parts. Customizing may include painting, cutting, drilling, melting LEGO elements, adding other non-LEGO parts to a creation, or adding details with custom-made stickers and decals. These are all considered herecy by a “purist”.

D

  • Dark Ages: the period in a LEGO-fan’s life when he/she sets aside LEGO in favor other, non-LEGO pursuits.
  • Diorama or Dio: a very large LEGO scene, larger than a Bignette or Vignette.
  • Draft: an activity common at LEGO club meetings, in which LEGO-fans each bring a copy of a LEGO set, sort out all of the LEGO elements, and take turns picking the parts they want. An easy way to get the parts you want in larger quantities without buying multiple copies of the set yourself.
  • DSS: “Dreaded-Sticker-Sheet” (See also STAMP.)

F

  • FAFOL: “Female-Adult-Fan-of-LEGO”. (See also AFFOL and SHEFOL.)
  • FBTB: “From Bricks To Bothans”. A LEGO Star Wars fan site and online community. See here: FBTB
  • FFOL: “Female-Fan-Of-LEGO”. An other acronym for female fans. (See also AFFOL, FAFOL and SHEFOL.)

G

  • Greebles: pseudo-technical detail added to a LEGO creation to enhance its appearance, frequently seen in LEGO space and mecha creations.

H

  • Half-Stud Offset: a building technique that allows building without regard to the standard alignment of studs on a plate, usually achieved with a jumper plate.

I

  • Illegal: LEGO building techniques that break the “rules” for connections between LEGO elements used by official LEGO set designers – particularly connections that stress the LEGO elements.
  • Inventory: the list of LEGO elements included in an official LEGO set. Several LEGO fan sites host set inventories, including Peeron and BrickLink.

J

  • Jumper Plate: a 1×2-stud LEGO plate with only 1 stud in the center. Useful for half-stud offset building. See here: Jumper Plate

K

  • KFOL: “Kid-Fan-of-LEGO”. The LEGO Group’s primary target demographic – boys aged 5-12.

L

  • Legal: LEGO building techniques that follow building guidelines for official LEGO set designers.
  • Legos: Don’t you say that! The official plural form for more than one LEGO element is “LEGO® brand building bricks”. That’s ridiculous, though, so most LEGO-fans refer to one or more bricks as “LEGO”, following the grammatical convention of “fish” and “sheep.” 😎
  • LUG: “LEGO-Users-Group”. Local or regional LEGO clubs that meet and interact primarily in an offline or “real world” context, although many of them now have online presence as well.
  • LURP: “Little-Ugly-Rock-Piece”. See here: LURP

M/N

  • MF: Minifig
  • Microfig: small figures (half the size of regular minifigs) from the LEGO Games series
  • Midi Scale: refers to sets that are between miniature and minifig scale. They do not include minifigures, but are much more detailed than mini sets. So far only Star Wars sets have midi versions.
  • Minifig Scale: a LEGO creation built for the scale of standard LEGO minifigures.
  • MOC: “My-Own-Creation”. A LEGO creation designed and built by a LEGO-fan without instructions. Pronounced as “mock.”
  • MSRP: “Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price”. The official price for a LEGO set as established by the LEGO Group for a particular market. Individual retailers may set their own prices higher or lower than MSRP, and MSRP may vary from country to country.
  • NLP: “Non-LEGO-Person” or “Non-LEGO-Parent”. Referring to those unfortunate “outsiders” who don’t play with LEGO. 😉

P

  • PAB: “Pick-A-Brick”. Buy individual bricks in the quantities you want form LEGO’s online store or brick-and-mortal stores. See online PAB here: Pick-A- Brick
  • PAB Wall: Pick-A-Brick wall at LEGO stores.
  • Purist: A LEGO-fan who only uses official LEGO elements. Or a LEGO creation that only contains official LEGO elements with no modifications or custom parts. Contrast with Custom.

S

  • S@H or SAH: LEGO’s Online Store
  • SHEFOL: “She-(Female)-Fan-of-LEGO”. (See also AFFOL and FAFOL.)
  • Sigfig: the minifig version of a LEGO-fan that he/she uses in online communities as an avatar, or “signature minifig.”
  • SNOT: “Studs-Not-On-Top”. A building technique that places LEGO elements on their sides or even upside down to achieve the shape or structure the builder wants in their creation.
  • STAMP: Stickers-Across-Multiple-Pieces”.  (See also DSS.)

T

  • TFOL: “Teen-Fan-of-LEGO”
  • TLC: “The LEGO Company”
  • TLG: “The LEGO Group”. The privately held parent company for all LEGO-related brands and companies worldwide
  • TRU: “Toys‘R’Us”. TRU is a great source for LEGO products. They frequently have LEGO sets earlier than any other retailer (including LEGO’s own stores), and their selection is one of the largest. However their prices are often inflated.

U

  • UCS: Ultimate Collector’s Series. A series of large LEGO Star Wars sets designed for older teens and adults. They are larger than minifig scale. See here: UCS Sets

V/W

  • Vignette or Vig:  a small scene recreated on a small plate.
  • WIP: “Work-In-Progress”

Y

  • YFOL: “Young-Fan-of LEGO”. See also KFOL.
{ 67 comments… add one }
  • Katie January 13, 2011, 11:44 PM

    Good idea.

    Some things I thought about as I am reading it (I’m not done yet) are that FFOL is often for Female Fan of LEGO; that’s the term they use for the FFOL group on flickr. Also, CC can also mean Cafe Corner; you really have to use context to figure out which is meant. 😉

    • admin January 14, 2011, 10:29 AM

      Thanks, Katie, I added both. That’s too funny though! Female fans have 4 acronyms, versus everybody else. I guess gals always have to be complicated! 😀

  • Katie January 13, 2011, 11:47 PM

    Okay, nice! 😉

  • Guckes March 9, 2011, 1:45 PM

    Interesting! I read some of these terms before on forums but didn’t know what they meant! Thanks! 😀

  • Corrin Gresl March 9, 2011, 11:46 PM

    Thanks for posting this! Very helpful! Yeah, Lego fans definitely have their own language! 😀

  • Steffanie Arnoldy March 10, 2011, 5:40 PM

    Great post! Thanks for sharing! BTW, I love the Beginners Guide section! Lots of stuff I didn’t know about! Good to get up to date so to speak!

  • Lawanda Kopper March 12, 2011, 6:07 PM

    Nice! Getting Myself educated here so I don’t look dumb on lego forums! LOL! 😀

  • sean August 22, 2011, 10:22 PM

    i found this guide while looking for another one 🙂 this one is good and i liked it to my FB, but i was hoping for a sort of technical glossary for on-line PAB. ie: you might think it’s a grey steering wheel, but it’s actually a 1 x 2 x 3 podium with weather vane (just kiddin on the ‘real’ description) but you know, a what’s-this doodad-called type glossary. it’s very hard for me to find specialized bricks in PAB.

    • admin August 23, 2011, 10:09 AM

      Sean, excellent idea! So, it could be like a glossary with online PAB terms = Bricklink terms = and layman terms. Is that right? It would be some work to put it together, but could be done. I know what you mean by finding things in the online PAB! I’m always surprized of how they categorize and name some parts! 😆

      Actually, now that I think about it, the same thing could be done with colors. PAB colors and Bricklink colors do not match, nor is it always obvious what they mean in layman terms. I put both ideas on my to-do list, and of course if you want, you can write them too! 😉

  • Quad September 19, 2011, 10:46 PM

    Another version for KFOL is YFOL (Young Fan Of Lego), And I’ve heard of it more than KFOL. And there’s the new Microfigs from the Games.

    • admin September 20, 2011, 9:57 AM

      Thanks, Quad, I will add them to the dictionary! 🙂

  • Akiva September 21, 2011, 8:53 PM

    Nice job! You’re missing DS(dreaded sticker sheet) though.

    • admin September 21, 2011, 9:05 PM

      LOL! That is just too funny! I haven’t heard it before! I’m gonna add it right now! 😆

  • Tobymacboy December 17, 2011, 7:00 AM

    Man , I hate clone brands!!!!! Y cant losers get their own ideas! Specialy the ones that look like lego!!! Reply If you ever found a copycat brand and almost bought it(till u saw the name) I use lego digital designer to see if parts legally fit (but I call it legolley!) Here’s

  • Tobymacboy December 17, 2011, 7:05 AM

    My list of lego vocab! Legolley – legally. Bricking – building. Bricky CHRISTmas – You got bricks for Christmas. Knock-off bricks- STUPID FAKE BRANDS! Im done bricking- I gota go to the bathroom , be back in 5! lol!

  • Justine December 30, 2011, 5:37 PM

    Hi. I love this, it’s great. I’m a VERY proud fafol. And a purist. I pity nlp. I have some moc in my beautiful town that consists of cc, grande emperium (is that GE?), fire station, pet shop etc. my moc’s are a bike shop, bakers, florist, Italian cafe and I’ve extended market street. I found this while looking for names for the roads in my town. One will be brick avenue but I need two more names. Any suggestions? I live in a place called west bridgford and my town is called west brickford.
    Thanks for the entertainment!

    • admin December 30, 2011, 9:40 PM

      Justine, welcome to our little corner of the LEGO universe! Would love to see photos of your LEGO town! Well, if you have the Market Street set, you could call a whole street after that. Other than that I would probably go thru the BrickLink catalog for names of LEGO sets and parts until something clicks. 😉

      • Justine January 1, 2012, 10:07 AM

        Thank you. And thank you for the tips for street names. I will get round to taking some photos and send them to you.

        • admin January 2, 2012, 11:10 AM

          Justine, that sounds good! Looking forward to them! 🙂

  • Tobymacboy January 2, 2012, 5:29 PM

    Here is some of my vocab-
    Legolley – legally , no stress to bricks
    Magnafig- minifigure from a magnet set
    KRM- Keychain-removed minifig
    Bricktographey-professional lego pictures
    Brick-made- A regular picture or structure (exmpl , family photo , statue of liberty) remade into lego form
    Retired-when a lego brick or minifig get loose or damaged so you put it away
    Bricking- building
    Un-Clean Creation-A creation that uses legos and or copy-cat brands
    WPB- A lego build or set that can float on water
    I will have more soon if I can.

    • admin January 2, 2012, 7:01 PM

      Tobymacboy, thanks for sharing! 😉

    • Nathanael January 24, 2012, 1:45 AM

      The brick stress rules must be relatively new. Some of the 1980s sets and Idea Books include official instructions which cause severe brick stress (and actually broke a brick on me once).

      • admin January 24, 2012, 10:41 AM

        Nathanael, yes the brick-stress rules are fairly new. For example, wedging a plate in between studs used to be pretty common. Now it is no longer allowed for designers to use. I have run into a stress-problem just in the past couple weeks though. But I don’t think it has to with technique, but more like a defective part. But yeah, LEGO has to keep testing and retesting parts to make sure they fit right. Especially with all the new parts they are producing. 🙂

  • Tobymacboy January 2, 2012, 5:31 PM

    WPB means water proof build

  • Brian February 7, 2012, 7:00 AM

    BOOB = Brick Out Of Bricks, POOP = Piece Out Of Pieces.
    Both mean the same thing. One example is using three 2×4 plates directly stacked on top of one another to form a 2×4 brick (Hey! you have SNOT!! So don’t say BOOB and POOP are “dirty” words!!)

    • admin February 7, 2012, 8:31 AM

      Brian, thanks for contributing! Please note that the terms currently included in the Dictionary are widely used in the AFOL community. I have not heard either of the terms you mentioned before. They are fun, but unless I see it used by AFOLs around I won’t be able to add them to the Dictionary. Let me know which AFOL communities are using the terms and I will consider adding them. 😉

      • Brian February 7, 2012, 8:35 AM

        I do not remember when or where I heard these terms, since they are very very seldom used. Feel free to delete this chain of comments.

        • admin February 7, 2012, 9:04 AM

          Brian, discussions and suggestions are perfectly all-right. It may even start making a term popular as other members read them. 😉

  • NRG Jay April 10, 2012, 4:02 PM

    Really helpful. Can use these on lego forums!

  • ntk743 August 16, 2012, 12:36 PM

    I see you haven’t added NON! 😉 U know what that stands for?

    • admin August 16, 2012, 2:08 PM

      Never heard of that one being used in the LEGO community. 😕

  • Kat August 23, 2012, 12:35 PM

    I am coordinating a TEAM BUILD event during our Employee Appreciation Week in September. We are going to use a Lego theme and have the different departments build a model that best represents our line of business. Can you assist me in coming up with a Team Build Theme using the word LEGO. My son is a brick master club member so I have him helping his mom come up with a catchy theme as well, but we are both stuck.
    Thanks for your help!

    • admin August 23, 2012, 8:51 PM

      Kat, so sorry for not responding earlier; I have been out of town for a few days. What is your business about? 😉

  • Håkan, Sweden September 18, 2012, 5:49 PM

    I think you should add the term “impulse (set)”, the small sets sold to give a feel to a theme or special new parts or minifigs. It’s not self-explanatory.

    • admin September 18, 2012, 8:21 PM

      That is actually a great idea. I will add that! Thanks for the suggestions! 😉

  • yodaman5556 October 31, 2012, 4:45 PM

    I have a page that is similar to this on my site. See it here: http://brickextra.com/how-tos/lego-abbreviations/

  • tgb.legoguy November 28, 2012, 5:04 PM

    What does MOTD mean?

    • admin November 28, 2012, 7:33 PM

      Not sure. Never heard it mentioned amongst LEGO fans. 😕

      • tgb.legoguy January 11, 2013, 3:54 PM

        I just found out that MOTD means MOC Of The Day!

        • admin January 11, 2013, 7:58 PM

          Hm… never heard that before. I guess for someone who does MOCs daily it would make sense. Or for blogs who feature a new MOC every day. Maybe we should do a section like that too. Thanks for sharing! 🙂

  • tgb.legoguy January 9, 2013, 2:36 PM

    Whats a greebles ship mean? I saw it on mocpages.

    • admin January 9, 2013, 2:41 PM

      Greebles in LEGO terms usually refer to added details and decorations – especially in machinery, robots, space-ships, steampunk and other creations. They serve no structural function besides making the MOC looking really cool and detailed. 🙂

  • tgb.legoguy January 30, 2013, 3:59 PM

    How about steampunk?

  • tgb.legoguy January 30, 2013, 3:59 PM

    and LDD (lego digital designer)

  • Fikko3107 March 15, 2013, 9:22 AM

    you forgot BOLOCS!(Built out of lots of colors)

    • admin March 15, 2013, 10:25 AM

      Hm… never heard of that one. Which LEGO community uses it? 😕

  • TX-008 1998 May 5, 2013, 1:35 PM

    RIP, Rest In Progress 😉

  • Strider May 27, 2013, 9:26 AM

    Actually I was reading an article where someone asked the Lego groupbwhat the plural for the word Lego was and they said it was an adjective so it should always be followed by something else. Lego products, Lego toys, Lego Starwars etc. 😉 I didn’t know either for a while. And again that was straight from the Lego group.

    • admin May 27, 2013, 9:55 AM

      Yep, that is actually correct. If you want to be super technical. But hardly anybody speaks or writes like that, including LEGO employees. In their broshures, books and other materials yes, but not in everyday language. I follow their rules as much as capitalizing the word LEGO and never using LEGOs, but I do use LEGO as the plural at times without anything following it, even though it is technically still not correct. I guess both the Grammar Police and the the LEGO Secret Service are after me. 😈

  • Strider May 27, 2013, 11:09 AM

    Nothing wrong with that. I am what some people would call a grammar freak though mainly because I cannot stand bad grammar and things like that. I suppose it doesn’t really show seeing as I made a misspelling in that comment above :p

    • admin May 27, 2013, 1:54 PM

      Strider, I appreciate your endeavor. I actually like grammar myself, and I like languages. It is a fascinating subject about human expression, and also the way you can play with language and grammar (see poetry). It’s actually funny that we are talking about this as I’m planning to write a post about the proper use of the word LEGO. It is already on my to-do list. 😉

      • Strider May 27, 2013, 7:51 PM

        Sounds great 🙂

  • Daniel June 7, 2013, 3:33 PM

    What is the acronym for a MOC that covers all studs with tiles or other elements such that there are no visible “LEGO” studs? I heard it once, but have forgotten it.

    • admin June 7, 2013, 5:45 PM

      Daniel, I have to think about that. I know I have heard it too, but I can’t remember. There is SNOT, but that’s not exactly what you are describing. If I remember I will let you know. 😉

      • Lloydguy May 15, 2014, 4:17 PM

        Is it a MD, Mosaic Diorama?

  • Shane July 12, 2013, 5:54 PM

    I picked up a couple thousand pounds of legos and manuals
    I have been sorting by color and shape
    Have boxes of manuals
    The dedicated space is 30×20 room for me 5 and 10 year old (ok me to:)!
    All my friends are amazed when they see it,
    Anyway my question involves decoding part #
    There are a lot of very Old sets I want to stay true as I can in
    Reconstruction
    For example a simple gray dynamite tile the number is
    3059 can see what set they came in
    But also it reads as this
    3059
    307 this #?
    24 this # ?
    I have looked everywhere online for some kind of
    Decoder with no luck
    Is there a simple thing I’m overlooking on these other#
    Tanks for any help!!’

    • admin July 12, 2013, 9:04 PM

      Shane, awesome loot you got there! As far as the part numbers, I highly recommend you ask these kind of questions at the Bricklink Forum. There are quite a few old LEGO fans there who are very knowledgable about this stuff. I know they will help you out. There are many people who attempt to lovingly restore old sets with elements made in that era. Here is the link to the Forum: http://www.bricklink.com/messageList.asp

  • K July 31, 2013, 6:28 PM

    Very educational. Thanks

  • Lego Indonesia March 28, 2014, 5:17 AM

    Thanks for the info..

  • Tommy Armstrong March 15, 2016, 9:14 PM

    It is time to add micro scale and GBC (great ball contraption) to your list

  • Lego_Nerd98 April 9, 2016, 9:19 AM

    Fascinating! I came here because I didn’t know what BURPs were….I didn’t realize there were this many unique Lego terms!

  • Mark Adkins April 12, 2017, 11:55 AM

    I came here to find out what MOC and MOD meant. I figured MOD was some sort of modification, but could not figure out MOC. Thanks for helping with one. Might you want to add the other?

    • admin April 12, 2017, 12:08 PM

      Mark, on LEGO forums mod is usually a shorthand for the “moderator” of the discussion, or it may also be a short for “modification”. Like a MOC would be a completely original creation, and a mod would be a modification of an official LEGO set. Mod also sometimes refers to “model”, but I don’t see this as often. However I have never seen mod capitalized as it is not an acronym like MOC, but a shorthand for a longer word.

      As using mod for moderator, modification and model is not specific to the LEGO fan community, I probably won’t add it to the dictionary, however I will leave our discussion here, so others may benefit from it as well. 🙂

  • roxy November 26, 2017, 11:19 PM

    anyone know what the round piece with one stud is called?

    • admin November 26, 2017, 11:35 PM

      Roxy, it depends. If it is a 1×1 round piece, then it would be a round plate. If it is a 2×2 round piece with one stud in the middle, it would be a round tile. 🙂

  • DANGER king random April 24, 2020, 11:14 AM

    Question what do you call it if someone modifies an official LEGO set or an officialLEGO combination model

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