Call of Duty has been around for a very long time – more than two decades. Over the years, an end-to-end ecosystem has been built from the ground up, incorporating mobile games, an esports scene, battle royale games, and of course, dozens of multiplayer experiences. During this two-decade-or-so journey, countless Call of Duty terms have surfaced – COD slang that most players find themselves using whenever they play the game, but what does it all mean?

With this guide in hand, you’ll secure all the definitions you could ever need for some of the most common – or most bizarre – Call of Duty terms. If you’re playing with your friends and they’re much more competitive than you are, you may notice them using Call of Duty terms that you don’t understand. Read on to learn all that you need to know about COD terms and the very next time you play with them, you’ll know exactly what they’re talking about.

Image Credit: Activision Blizzard

There are many, many COD terms, but we’ve taken the time to define only the ones that you’re most likely to use in-game.

• Absolute – Used to describe an enemy that is ‘one shot away’ from being killed – or yourself, if you’re in a similar condition
• Ace – Taking out the enemy team without dying – which is usually accomplished in Search and Destroy
• AR – Assault Rifle, or used to describe the ‘AR role’ in Call of Duty esports
• Bait – Using yourself or some kind of decoy to literally ‘bait’ an enemy into acting or moving
• Beam – If you’re ‘beaming’, you’re using your weapon effectively enough to not miss a shot
• Bot – Derogatory: used to describe bad players (or actual bots)
• Camper – A player who refuses to move from the same spot, which will typically be in a doorway, corner, bush, and so on
• Chalked – If something is chalked, it’s deemed unwinnable or lost beyond recovery
• Collat – Short for ‘collateral’, this move involves killing two or more players with the same bullet
• Comms – Multi-use term used to either request communications or to silence teammates
• Cracked – Multi-use term used to either describe a mortally wounded enemy or a seriously skilled player
• Deadie – Dead Silence is a field upgrade or perk that temporarily grants a player silent movement
• Drop Shot – An age-old tactic that involves dropping to the ground while shooting
• Ego Chall – Making a play that might be considered overconfident or brash
• Flex – Used to describe a multi-talented player that can fit any role
• Flip Spawns –  If you flip the spawns, you’ve moved your spawn point to the opposite side of the map
• GA – In esports, a ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ is an unwritten rule that determines whether certain weapons, attachments or even positions on the map are used
• Headie – This means ‘head glitch’, and it describes a position in which only an enemy’s head is visible – even the best Call of Duty players abuse these positions
• Hill – Used to describe the rotating capture point in the game mode ‘Hardpoint’
• Jump Shot – A tactical manoeuvre that involves jumping while shooting
• Laser – Used to describe either an accurate weapon or accurate shooting
• Lost Full – If you ‘lose full composure’, you’ve gotten mad in a game
• Melt – If you’re melting enemies, you’re damaging them a lot very quickly
• Ninja – Commonly used to refer to a ‘ninja defuse’, which involves defusing a bomb in Search and Destroy without the enemy team noticing
• One Shot – Like ‘absolute’, if a player is ‘one shot’, then one more bullet will kill them
• Play Your Life – Used commonly in Search and Destroy, ‘play your life’ means to stay alive for as long as possible, avoiding combat
• Pre-Aim – Aim your weapon where you think the enemy is going to be ahead of time
• Reverse Sweep – The act of being one point away from losing them switching it around and securing the win
• Rotate – Moving to the next objective, most commonly used in Hardpoint and Search and Destroy
• Rush – Typically featured in Search and Destroy, a ‘rush’ is a fast attack
• Slayer – Commonly used in esports like the Call of Duty League, a Slayer is a player who can kill most efficiently
• Slide Cancel – A tactical way of movement that involves sliding to effectively boost overall speed and agility
• Spawn Trap – If you’ve got enemies in a spawn trap, they keep spawning in the same location and cannot push out
• Sweaty – If someone is sweaty, they’re trying extremely hard to win at everything they do
• Trade – If you die and your teammate kills the person that killed you, it’s a trade
• Trophy – A ‘trophy system’, which is a device that repels thrown weapons
• Wall Bang – Shooting through a solid surface to kill an enemy

That’s our definitive breakdown of the most commonly used Call of Duty terms. Now, go forth, play the game, and amaze your friends with your new-found knowledge.

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