| Term | Acronym | Meaning | Notes | |
| 2P Cross-Up Glitch | A glitch that allows characters controlled by player 2 to get behind downed opponents in the corner | can only be setup with moves that leave the opponent downed but their heads facing "out" of the corner, such as blanka's kick throw or Vice's arm whips | ||
| Baku Cancel | Joe's cancel after the 4th hit of TNT Punch | |||
| Block String | A series of positive on block or safe moves performed on a blocking opponent to pressure, lower their guard bar, and build meter | A block string that cannot be interrupted with a reversal is considered a "true" or "tight" blockstring. One that has gaps that can be reversed are known as "pseudo" or "not true" blockstrings. Psuedo blockstrings done on purpose to earn counter hits are basically what "Frame traps" are | ||
| Boxer (character) | BX | "The american boxer that looks suspiciously like Mike Tyson | USA: Balrog JPN: M.Bison" | |
| Chain | When normal moves cancel the active or recovery parts of the move into another normal move on hit or block | Only Maki, Morrigan, Kyosuke, and Yun have chain combos | ||
| Chain (Rapid Fire) | When light moves can cancel into other light moves at any point. | Differs from chain combos b/c a move can be chained into itself, and can be chained on hit, block, or whiff. | ||
| Chicken Guard | Air Blocking a move late and low to the ground | By doing this, some additional punishes are possible | ||
| Chip Damage | Damage done by special moves while an opponent is blocking. Not to be confused with Guard Damage | |||
| Claw (character) | CL | "The spainard who fights with a claw and mask. | USA: Vega JPN: Balrog" | |
| Counter Hit | CH | When a move strikes another move during the startup frames, awards bonus damage and hit stun | ||
| CvS2:EO | EO | Stands for "Easy Operation" both a mode in the Xbox and Gamecube versions of the game that allow for easy specials, but also the name for the version itself | ||
| Deadly Rave | DR | Geese's "Dial a Combo" super, also used to describe Rock and Hibiki's similar moves | ||
| Delayed Wakeup | DWU | See also "Tactical Recovery", its when you add 15 frames onto your characters getup animation. Messes with okizeme and setups. Availiable to C, P, S grooves | ||
| Dictator (character) | DI | "The Generalissmo of Shadowloo, and often boss of Street Fighter. | USA: M.Bison JPN: Vega" | |
| Dragon Punch | DP or SRK | Dragon Punch or Shoryuken, is Ryu and Ken's uppercut move | The acronym can refer to almost any similar move in the game. | |
| empty jump | jumping without performing an attack | by not performing an attack in the air, a character skips the landing recovery period, allowing them to go low or, most importantly, block | ||
| EX Groove | EX | "Extra" grooves. Unlockable in the console versions of the game, these grooves can be customized using selectable abilities availiable to all the different groves. Banned in tournament play | ||
| Fireball | FB | Fireball or Ryu and Ken's "Hadouken", performed with a QCF (236) motion | also used to refer to any characters projectiles, and is the shorthand name for the QCF motion. | |
| Footsies | ||||
| Frame | What all fighting game moves are measured in. Normally, there are 60 frames in a second in most if not all fighting games. | |||
| Frame advantage/disadvantage | ||||
| Fuzzy Guard | ||||
| Guard Cancel Attack | GC or AC | Aka "Alpha Counter" | ||
| Guard Cancel Roll or "Counter Roll" | GCR | |||
| Guard Crush | When the guard gauge reaches 0 from blocking too many moves in a short time, the character will reel back, and will be vulnerable for about 1 second. | |||
| Instant Air Reversal | IAR | move that's off the ground frame 1 | These moves allow the defender to get hit into an air reel if the attack does a meaty attack, possibly causing an advantageous situation. Also if they are special moves, the resulting roll cancel cannot be thrown out of startup | |
| Instant Overhead | IOH | Instant Overhead | move that hits high on the first frame or very quickly soon after. Mostly done by jumping attacks that hit taller crouching enemies | |
| Just Defense | JD | Just Defense | ||
| Kara Cancel | canceling the first few frames of a normal move into a special move | this can allow for extra range or increased meter gain. Commonly denoted by a "~" in notation | ||
| Knocked Down | KD | Knocked Down | ||
| Link | performing a move so closely after another move finishes hitting that they combo | |||
| Low Jump/Small Jump | the smaller jump performed by tapping up briefly | available only in P, S, N, K grooves. Has additional landing lag when a move is performed in air. Cannot perform specials, supers, parry, air block, or just defense while in a small jump. | ||
| Low Profile | a move going under the hit box of another move | |||
| Meaty | having an active hitbox of a move in an opponent as they are recovering from a knockdown or air reel | allows for greater hitstun or blockstun | ||
| Milkman | Nickname for M.Bison in his white color selection | |||
| Negative Edge | When special and super move inputs register on the RELEASE of a button | |||
| Okey-Doke | Called "boppa" in Japan, this is using invincible supers without confirming that they will be successful | Most common in K-Groove where the supers are "use it or lose it", when the super is safe from punishment, or when a custom combo allows for additional safe mixups | ||
| Oki/Okizeme | Literally in Japanese "get up" | Okizeme (起き攻め) is a term used in fighting games which refers to pressuring the opponent while they are getting up after being knocked down. Depending on the game, there are various possible options a player can make after being knocked down. | ||
| Option Selects | O/S | Inputting a command that will be read multiple ways by the game depending on the situation, preferably resulting in positive outcomes over several different opponent reactions | The simplest situation in CvS2 that is an option/select is the one button throws. With Iori, he can throw with forward and punch. If the opponent tries to avoid the throw by jumping, they are unthrowable, and pressing towards and heavy punch won't attempt the throw, he does his close range fierce, which is a pretty good anti air and is safe on block. | |
| Original Combo (JPN)/ Custom Combo (USA) | OC/CC | The term for A-groove activation combos | ||
| Paint The Fence | PTF | A nickname for Dictator's (M.Bison USA, Vega JPN) custom combo where he "paints" an opponent with repeated Psycho Vanish moves. | ||
| Poking | ||||
| Priority | A move having better chances to hit than others | Colloquialism, used before hitboxes and hurtboxes were really well understood. Now you could say moves with bigger hitboxes than hurtboxes have high "priority" | ||
| Raging Demon (US) or Shun-Goku-Satsu (JPN). | RD or SGS | Akuma's Level 3 Grab Super | Also used to describe any similar supers with rapid button inputs (Morrigan's Darkness Illusion) | |
| Reversal | performing a move (preferably an invincible one) directly out of a recovery state | |||
| Roll Cancel | RC | To cancel a roll (LP+LK) with a special move within the first 3 frames. Convers invincibility to the move | ||
| RollSuper | Literally a invincible super after a roll (LP+LK) | |||
| Rush That Shit Down | RTSD | Overly aggressive gameplay | ||
| Setplay | "Setup Playstyle" Doing a scripted sequence that results in an opponent having to guess which way to block | |||
| ShoSho | Nickname for Sakura's custom combo with repeated Sho-oh-kens. | |||
| Special Cancel (2 in 1) | canceling the active frames of a move into a special move | Only certain moves can be special cancelled. Only moves on hit or block can be special cancelled. Cancelling is commonly denoted by "x" or "xx." in notations | ||
| Spinning Pile Driver | SPD | Zangief's special throw performed with a 360+P motion | also used to refer to any 360 throwing special move | |
| Super Freeze | The amount of time "frozen" after a super flash occurs. Between 3 and 7 frames. | |||
| Tech Roll | See also "Safe Fall" it's a quick getup to being knocked down. Vulnerable at end. Availiable to A, N, K grooves. | |||
| Tick Throw | do a normal move (usually a light) to get the opponent blocking, then throw | |||
| Tiger Knee motion (TK) | TK | Down back to Up forward (12369) | ||
| Trip Guard | The ability to block low upon landing from a jump | if you do not perform a move in the air, you can block low immediately upon landing. This is called "keeping your trip guard". If you attacked, you can be hit low on the ground | ||
| Turtle | Overly defensive gameplay | |||
| Wakeup | The situation of recovering from being knocked down | |||
| Zoning | Keeping the opponent at a distance with long range attacks and projectiles | |||
| "Save That Shit for Nationals" | STSFN | keeping important tactics to yourself until you need it to win a big tournament | ||
| One Character Victory | OCV | In team based fighters, beating an opponents entire team with your first character | Obviously, every victory by a Ratio 4 is an OCV, but that's kinda cheating. | |
| Frame Trap | Allowing small gaps in your attack pattern so that an opponent *can* counterattack, but if they do they will be counter hit |
