Alliance: two or more players working together
Balkans or Balkan peninsula: Europe south of the Kupa-Sava-Danube river line; includes Bulgaria, Serbia, and mainland Greece; often used as an equivalent to the much broader term Southeast Europe, which often includes Rumania, Budapest (Hungary), and Vienna
Allan Brian Calhamer (1931-2013): the inventor of the classic game of Diplomacy
- Calhamer points: a scoring system where the n winner(s) receive 1/n point(s)
CD: civil disorder; a situation where nobody is in control of a Great Power; here on webdiplomacy.net a player who has not visited a game for two consecutive phases is automatically pushed into civil disorder, allowing somebody else to take over
Central Triple: sometimes abbreviated as CT; an alliance of the Central Powers, i.e. Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy
Draw: the game ends before anyone has achieved a solo-victory; there are multiple winners who all have an equal share of the victory
- DIAS: draws include all survivors; this is always the case on webdiplomacy.net; elsewhere winner(s) are sometimes declared when there are still non-winning survivors
Eastern Triple: occasionaly abbreviated as ET; an alliance of the Eastern Powers, i.e. Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Turkey; can be an effective counter to the Western Triple
Great Power: the seven major states of Europe, England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Turkey, each of them controlled by a different player
Gunboat: a no-press game with anonymous players; here on webdiplomacy.net it is often treated as an equivalent to no press; elsewhere it could sometimes mean any anonymous game, regardless of the type of press
Juggernaut: a Russo-Turkish alliance
Left: someone left a game before it was finished; this behaviour is frowned upon; players are expected to continue till the end
Lepanto: anti-Turkish set of moves performed by Italy in alliance with Austria-Hungary; it usually starts with Naples to Ionian Sea, Rome to Apulia (or Naples), continued by Ionian Sea convoys Apulia (or Naples) to Tunis or Greece; there are different possibilities as well
- Key Lepanto: a Lepanto where Italy opens with Venice through Trieste (Spring 1901) to Serbia (Autumn 1901); the idea is to get an Italian army in the Balkans, and hopefully allow two builds each to both Austria (Greece, Rumania), and Italy (Serbia, Tunis); this is more risky for Austria than Italy, and requires more trust than an ordinary Lepanto; a Key can often be effectively countered by Russia and Turkey
Live game: a game where the phase length is one hour or less; five-minute phases tend to be most frequent here on webdiplomacy.net
Minion, puppet, or vassal: a minor power which is helping a major power, in return for survival
Neutrals: the twelve neutral supply centres unoccupied at the beginning of the game (e.g. Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, etc.)
NMR: no moves resolved; a situation where a player has not saved any orders before the phase deadline expires
Opening: the orders of the first turn (Spring 1901); also have a look at: http://www.diplom.org/Online/Openings/
PPSC: points per supply centre; whenever someone achieves a solo-victory, all survivors are winners, all get a share of the victory, proportional to the number of centres they control at the end
Press: any written or spoken communication between players
- full press: all in-game messaging is allowed
- limited or partial press: public press, global chat only, no private messaging
- no press: no in-game messaging
- black press: a theoretical possibility where neither the sender knows who receives the press, nor the receiver who sends it
- grey or anonymous press: a type of communication where the receiver does not know who has sent it; unavailable at webdiplomacy.net as of yet
- white or normal press: both the sender and the receiver know who's sent and received press; always the default option everywhere
Private game: a game where only certain players are allowed to join; (almost) always password protected here on webdiplomacy.net
Public game: a game where (almost) anyone could join
Sealion: an anti-English alliance consisting of France, Germany, and Russia
Solo-victory: the objective of the game; a game is won when at least eighteen supply centres are controlled by a single player at the end of a year
Stab or backstab: betrayal, usually a surprise attack on an ally; the aggressor is called the stabber, the victim a stabbee; there is some flexibility to what is a stab, not everyone has the same definition; nevertheless, stabs are part of the game, like it or not
Stalemate line: a position which can be hold indefinitely
- effective stalemate line: a stalemate which holds, even though it could be broken in theory
- global stalemate line: a stalemate line which blocks everyone from achieving a solo-victory; games are almost always drawn if there is a global stalemate line
- local stalemate line: a stalemate line which denies access to a certain area; for instance, Piedmont support hold Venice prevents any armies from moving from Austria into Italy
- main stalemate line: sometimes abbreviated as MSL; it runs from St. Petersburg through Munich to Portugal; there are seventeen centres inside, to the North-West, and seventeen centres outside, to the South-East; to win a solo-victory you'll need centres at both sides of the main stalemate line
- moving stalemate line: a stalemate line which holds by ordering some units to move, usually bouncing
- static stalemate line: a stalemate line where it sufficies to simply support hold all units
RR: reliabilty rating; a player characteristic used to predict how likely someone is to miss orders; it is a combination of No-NMRs and No-CDs; someone who has not had any CDs or NMRs has a reliability rating of 100\%
- RRR: reliability rating requirement; a requirement which allows only players who have at least a certain reliability rating (e.g. 95\%) to join a specific game
Variant: a game of Diplomacy with a different map (e.g. Ancient Mediterranean) or different rules (e.g. Fleet Rome, Winter 1900, Build Anywhere, etc.)
Western Triple: often abbreviated as WT; an alliance of the Western Powers, i.e. England, France, and Germany; can be quite powerful in theory; unfortunately it often collapses because one of them is stabbed by another ally; Turkey tends to benefit more than anyone else
Wintergreen: an Italo-Russian alliance
WTA: winner takes all; a solo-victory is worth a full win, the other survivors gain nothing

"Object of the game:
As soon as one Great Power controls 18 supply centers, it's considered to have gained control of Europe. The player representing that Great Power is the winner. However, players can end the game by agreement before a winner is determined. In this case, all players who still have pieces on the game board share equally in a draw."