Discord glossary

53 Discord terms in plain English, for members, moderators, and bot developers.

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Administrator: A permission that grants every other permission and ignores channel overrides.
Age-restricted (NSFW): A server or channel marked for adults only, which Discord hides from minors and most discovery.
Alt account: A second account owned by the same person, often used to evade bans.
Audit log: A record of administrative actions in a server: who changed what, and when.
AutoMod: Discord’s built-in filter that blocks spam, mention raids, and chosen words before they’re posted.

Ban: Removing a member and preventing them from rejoining with the same account.
Boost (DiscordBase): Points that decide a server’s position within its tier on DiscordBase, earned from votes and bumps or bought.
Bot: An automated Discord account run by an application, used for moderation, music, games, and more.
Bot token: The secret password a bot uses to log in. Anyone with it controls the bot.
Bump: Refreshing a server’s listing on a directory so it moves up.

Category: A folder that groups channels in the sidebar and can pass its permissions down to them.
Channel: A place inside a server for one kind of conversation: text, voice, forum, stage, or announcements.
Community server: A server with Discord’s Community setting enabled, unlocking onboarding, rules screening, announcements, and insights.

Developer Mode: A Discord setting that adds Copy ID to right-click menus.
Discord Partner: A program recognizing large, active, well-run communities, with perks like a vanity URL and badge.

Embed: A rich message card with a title, description, fields, color bar, and images, usually sent by bots or webhooks.
@everyone: The role every member has, which sets the baseline permissions, and a mention that pings the whole server.

Forum channel: A channel where every conversation is a titled post, good for questions, help, and suggestions.

Gateway: The live WebSocket connection bots use to receive events from Discord in real time.
Gateway intents: Flags a bot sets to choose which events Discord sends it.

@here: A mention that notifies only members who are currently online and can see the channel.

Markdown: The text formatting syntax Discord uses for bold, italics, spoilers, headers, lists, and code.
Mention (ping): Tagging a user, role, or channel with @ or # so they get notified or can click through.
Mention spam: Messages that ping many users or roles at once, often during a raid.

Nitro: Discord’s paid subscription with perks like custom emoji everywhere, bigger uploads, and server boosts.

OAuth2: The standard Discord uses to let apps act for users or join servers with specific scopes.
Onboarding: A Community feature that asks new members questions and gives them roles and channels based on their answers.

Permission: A single ability, like Send Messages or Ban Members, that roles and overrides can allow or deny.
Permission override: A channel-specific rule that allows or denies a permission for one role or member.

Raid: Many accounts joining at once to spam or disrupt a server.
Rate limit: The cap on how many requests an app can make to Discord in a period of time.
Role: A named set of permissions and a color that can be given to members.
Role hierarchy: The order of roles in Server Settings, which decides who can manage whom.
Rules Screening: A Community feature that makes new members accept your rules before they can talk.

Server (guild): A Discord community with its own channels, roles, and members. Developers and the API call it a guild.
Server Boost: A paid perk members give a server that unlocks levels with better audio, uploads, emoji slots, banners, and a vanity URL.
Server Discovery: Discord’s built-in directory of public servers that meet its size, age, activity, and safety requirements.
Shard: One of several gateway connections a large bot uses, each handling part of its servers.
Slash command: A command you run by typing / and picking from a menu, provided by bots and apps.
Snowflake (Discord ID): The unique numeric ID of every Discord user, server, channel, message, and role, with its creation time built in.
Spoiler: Text or media hidden behind a blur until someone clicks it, written as ||text||.
Stage channel: A voice channel for talks and events, with speakers and a listening audience.

Temporary membership: An invite option that removes members when they disconnect unless they’re given a role.
Thread: A temporary side conversation branched from a message or channel.
Timeout: Temporarily stopping a member from chatting, reacting, or joining voice, for 60 seconds up to 28 days.
Timestamp: A code like <t:1790812800:F> that shows a time in each reader’s own time zone.

Vanity URL: A custom permanent invite like discord.gg/yourname, unlocked at boost level 3.
Verification level: A safety setting that limits what new or unverified accounts can do: None, Low, Medium, High, or Highest.
Verified server: An official server for a business, brand, game, or public figure, verified by Discord.
Vote: A member’s endorsement of a server on a listing site, which usually helps it rank.

Webhook: A URL that lets outside services post messages into a channel without a bot.
Welcome screen: A Community feature that greets new members with a description and suggested channels.