~The Huge SSBM Glossary of Terms~

Air Dodge- L or R in the air results in an air dodge. Until a character lands after an air dodge, he cannot do any attacks or jump, like after most recovery attacks. You can also influence the direction of an air dodge with the control stick.

Attack- The A button, B button, Z button, and C-stick all make your character do an attack. The B button is for special moves, and the rest control standard attacks (C-stick can only be used in versus modes, and Z button only in the air.) Samus, Link, and Young Link do not do attacks with the Z button, instead they shoot their respective grappling items when in the air. Neither Donkey Kong nor Peach have aerial down B's.

Damage- Each character in a fight has a counter of his own at the bottom of the screen that tallies his health in points, displayed as a percentage. At the lowest percentage (0%) attacks will not send your character very far, and effects like Jigglypuff's sing are easy to shake off. Grabs become harder to get out of at higher damages, and attacks become much more powerful.

Dodge- A quick tap of down on the control stick while shielding will make a character dodge (C-stick works also). Dodge times for each character are different.

Friendly Fire- Another way of saying Team Attack.

Grab/Throw- Every character can grab with Z or L/R + A/Z. Hit A or Z while holding an opponent to do a grab attack, and then tilt the control stick in a direction to hurl them in one of four directions.

Handicap- Handicap affects knockback ratios. Higher handicaps will augment a character's ability to send an opponent flying, while making them more resistant to being tossed off the edge themselves; a low handicap will do the opposite.

Item-catch- When an item passes over you, you can hit A on the ground or Z in the air to catch that item (you can even catch items that are thrown at you).

Jump- X, Y, or up on the control stick will make a character jump. Kirby and Jigglypuff have 6 jumps, but everyone else has 2.

Recovery attack- Any attack that gains horizontal or vertical distance, that can be used to recover after being sent away from the stage.

Roll- Hitting left or right on the control stick (or C-stick) while shielding.

Smash attack- "Smashing" the control stick while pressing the A button. The C-Stick, too, is used for smash attacks.

Smash charging- After initiating a smash attack, you can hold A to hold the attack, thus increasing it in power. It is automatically released after a set amount of time, if not manually released.

Taunt- ^ on the directional pad will yield a taunt. Some characters (Pichu, Captain Falcon) have 2. Fox and Falco can hit <, >, <, > on the d-pad to call their buddies on either of the StarFox stages.

Teching- When you are tumbling in the air after being hit, you can press L, R, or Z near the ground or a wall/ceiling, with or without a direction, to recover faster than usual. Holding left or right on a ground tech will result in a roll in the direction.

Tilt attack- Holding any one of the four control stick directions, and hitting A. Some <, > tilt attacks can be aimed to the diagonal.

Wall-jump- Hitting the opposite direction when your character is near a wall, and not tumbling. Works only with Mario, Samus, Young Link, Fox, Sheik, Falco, Pichu, and Captain Falcon.

?air- refers to aerial attacks in the four directions and neutral. Replace ? with n, u, a, b, or d to signify which.

Attack Cancel- From the air, many characters can cancel attacks or effects of attacks by doing an attack close to the ground. Some examples:
Peach's Float cancel- Start an aerial attack while floating, and land while still doing the attack. There will be no lag from the attack. Thanks to SuperDoodleMan for this term
Samus' Missile cancel- The missile (forward-B) will still make a sound, but no projectile will be fired.
Falco's Laser cancel- see above (Except use B attack)
Ness's Foot cancel- see above (Except use aerial down A)

Bat drop- Z dropping the bat, followed by an attack that prevents it from flying off the platform, most often a spike attack. Does a lot of damage in a short amount of time. Used to get high scores in Home Run Contest.

Bomb jump- with Samus, if you use a bomb in midair, drop, and use another bomb, you'll bounce into the explosion of the first bomb and bounce again. This tactic greatly helps Samus's recovery. Thanks to MaskedMarth for this term.

Camping- A method of delaying a kill, most often in an effort to stall out a match. Projectiles are usually used to help keep the opponent from landing attacks.

Chain-throw- Continually throwing another character in such a manner as to prevent them from landing.

Combo- A combo can be either natural or improvisational; a true combo is two or more hits that register a 'Combo' reading in training mode. In a looser term, a combo is any set of attacks that is difficult to escape from, and may do a lot of damage in a short amount of time.

Crouch-cancelling- Holding down on the control stick when hit by an enemy attack. Up to a certain damage percentage, this will prevent you from being sent flying, though you will slide back. Also, a crouch cancel counter (ccc) is crouch cancelling using a character's down-A attack.

C-Sticking- Used to describe the act of using the c-stick to do aerials, smash attacks, and other things in multiplayer mode.

Dash-cancelling- During a run, pressing down will stop the run.

Dash-Dancing- Quickly alternating left and right on the control stick, so the character only does the opening animation of the run.

Dash-Dashing- Jamming the control stick repeatedly in the same left or right direction, so the character only does the opening animation of the run. For some characters, this will result in a form of movement faster than conventional running. Some people refer to this as the "Foxtrot."

Dash-jump- Jumping out of a dash, often with a short jump. The character will usually move faster forward in the air than if it were a non-dash-jump. The three characters that don't move any faster either way are Jigglypuff, Bowser and Zelda. Thanks to MaskedMarth for this term.

Directional Influence- The trajectory of an-air character can be influenced by a control stick direction. The most helpful uses of this technique are escaping combos and juggles, and for recovery.

Double dash attack- Requires a super scope, ray gun, or fire flower, as these items do not have a running attack. Do a dash attack holding one of the items, and while you're doing the attack, hit Z. Your character will attack, then throw the item.

Double Jump cancel- To stop the upward motion of Mewtwo, Ness, Peach, or Yoshi's second jump with an aerial attack. This can be demonstrated by having Ness do two jumps in short succession, followed by a quick aerial attack. Ness should be VERY low to the ground if you do this quickly enough. Thanks to MaskedSheik for this term. Double Jump cancel is abbreviated "DJC."

Edge-guarding- Using attacks to prevent the enemy from recovering to the stage.

Edge-hogging- A character holding onto an edge will not permit another character to do the same. This is useful in preventing an enemy's recovery. The best way to edge-hog is to either wavedash or short-jump backwards onto the ledge.

Edge-hop- A jump quickly following a press of down from an edge-hang will let characters do a short edge-hop. Most, if not all characters can do attacks out of this.

Fast-falling- Pressing down while in the air will make your character fall faster than usual. You can fast-fall out of aerial attacks, air dodges, and failed ^B attacks. Young Link, however, is nearly unaffected by this.

Hyper/Power Shielding- Shielding at the exact instant an attack or item hits your character. Will result in a white flash and the attack not hitting. Projectiles will be reflected.

Ice Climbers' infinite grab- This technique differs from the infinite grab in that you can do it in a 1-on-1 match. Grab with the main character (default=Popo) and hold down on the control stick as you're doing the grab. Keep hitting the A button, so that Popo does his grab attack, and Nana does her down tilt. You can keep this up forever. This can be combined with other Ice Climber grab combos, and because of this fact, it is essentially an instant-KO grab combo.

L-cancel- When L, R, or Z is pressed before you hit the ground, you circumvent the normal recovery time after an aerial attack. Link's aerial down-A L-cancelled will result in his pulling the sword out of the ground faster.

Light Shield- Holding L or R lightly, to prevent shield-stab, or to guard against weak attacks. When used by holding the Z button, light shielding is called Z-shielding.

Juggle- Keeping the opponent up in the air, using ground attacks or air attacks that send the opponent on an upwards trajectory.

Jump-cancel- Jumping out of a dash; can be linked to a grab or an attack. Also used to describe jumping out of Falco/Fox's reflector to bypass the usual lag after the attack is stopped.

Jump-cancel (alternate meaning)- Jumping out of the shield. Yoshi cannot do this. You can then cancel your jump with an attack, such as an up-B or a smash attack.

Meteor Jump- Jumping out of a meteor smash. The key indicator between spikes and meteor smashes is that you cannot meteor jump out of a non-meteor-spike.

Mewtwo's Double Jump boost- With Mewtwo, if you perform an aerial attack at the end of his double jump, he'll get a small extra boost upwards. Thanks to MaskedMarth for this term.

Natural combo- Any combo that is built into the game, such as the variations of Marth and Roy's >B attacks, and also the A, A, A... combo that many characters have.

Ness's bat reflector- If you hit a projectile with the tip of Ness's bat or right behind Ness, it will be reflected. Thanks to MaskedMarth for this term.

No-ping hit- Hitting with the handle of a home-run bat, so that it does not make the distinctive "ping" sound. Sends the target a higher trajectory than than a tip-hit. Thanks to Smashnuke for this term.

Running smash- Dash-cancel, then hit a c-stick direction. You can also grab out of a DC, by hitting Z.

Running smash (alternate)- Only works for up/down smashes. While running, roll to either of these positions, while hitting A. Works best with characters that slide when they stop running.

Quick Float (Peach only)- Tap down on the control stick while moving upwards in a jump. You will stop at that height and begin floating. You can do this with your first or second jump. You can also hold down before jumping for the same effect at ground level. Thanks to SuperDoodleMan for this term

Sex Kick- This term refers to any neutral aerial A kick that does damage after the actual movement of the foot is over. The attack gets weaker and has less knockback the longer it is out. The only exception is Dr. Mario. His sex kick attack actually gets stronger, and has more knockback the longer it is out. Fox and Falco's aerial backwards A is also considered a sex kick.

Shffl'd- This is an acronym meaning "Short-hopped, Fast-falled, L-cancelled." It is basically the most effective way certain aerial attacks can be pulled off, and is a must in competitive play.

Shield dash- Wavedashing out of a shield. Can be followed by anything a regular wavedash can be followed by.

Shield grab- Hitting A or Z while L or R shielding.

Shield shifting- Using the control stick to angle the shield to prevent shield-stab, or provide extra protection in a given direction.

Shield-stab- Attacking a shielded opponent where the shield's leaving a part of the character vulnerable, allowing them to bypass the shield's defense. Thanks to NJE789 for this term

Shine- Another name for Fox's reflector. A shine-spike is the term for said reflector used as an edge-guarding tool.

Shine-cancel- Using Falco/Fox's reflector to stop motion when knocked away from the arena.

Short Hop Laser- With Fox or Falco, short jumping followed by a laser and a fastfall is considered a Short Hop Laser, or SHL. If the B button is pressed fast enough, Fox can do a Double Short Hop Laser, or DSHL.

Short jump- While running or standing, pressing the jump button more lightly than usual will result in a shorter first jump. In adjectival form, short jump becomes short hop or short-hopped.

Spike attack- Any attack that sends an enemy at an acute downward angle (less than 45 degrees away from straight down). Many, but not all spike attacks are considered meteor smashes.

Super-Wavedash- A wavedash done from a jump (best way to explain it is that it is done while falling, not while jumping (as a conventional wavedash is)). Discovered by MarthMasterMD

Swing-Jumping- A late double jump cancel, used to create more vertical distance for characters with the ability to DJC.

Tip-hit- Also called a "tipper." Hitting with the tip of the home-run bat. Sends target much farther horizontally than a non-tipper.

Tipper- In addition to the meaning mentioned above, "tipper" is used as another name for hitting with the optimal range of any of Marth's attacks, said range being any range where there is distinct damage and knockback (the tip). Thanks to MaskedMarth for additional information on this term

Tumble-recover- When a character is in the air from an attack, he/she/it might be spinning around. A tumble-recover is alternating left/right on the control stick while this spinning is going on. This allows stability without wasting a jump.

Turret Fighting- Tactic that is used by mainly projectile characters in which the player spams his/her weapon to its fullest, while staying in the same spot. Falco, Samus, Fox, and Shiek users are known for this annoying tactic, and can be very effective when in the hands of an expert. Thanks to xxxxThe_GoaTxxxx for this term.

Upward Pound- A tactic with Jigglypuff where you use Pound, and then quickly press up so Jigglypuff pounds in a more upward direction. This helps vertical recovery (Pound and then jump gains more vertical distance) and horizontal recovery (consecutive upward Pounds give Jigglypuff infinite horizontal recovery). You can also do it downwards. Thanks to MaskedMarth for this term.

Vertkill- Jumping and spiking at the same time, usually by a character already in the air. Some useful ones are Captain Falcon's, Ganondorf's, Marth's down aerial.

Wallbombing- Using the Peach Bomber attack (forward+B) as a smash attack makes Peach pop up a little bit, allowing her to use it repeatedly without losing height. If kept up for long enough, this can be used to stall out time matches. Discovered by RyokoYaksa.

Wall-climbing- After an Mario hits a wall with up-B, he can wall jump. This can be continued until the wall ends.

Wall-grapple- With Link, Young Link, or Samus, hit Z in the air and near a wall, facing it, to latch onto it. Hit A while hanging, or after the initial latching to climb the grappling device. Can only be used once per time in the air (you have to land before you can use it again), but you can use the character's ^B after using a wall-grapple.

Wall-hop- For characters that can wall jump, you wall jump and immediately double jump. You gain more vertical distance this way. Can be done on some ledges. Thanks to MaskedMarth for this term.

Wall of Pain- Jigglypuff strategy that is focused on its superb aerial ability, and in particular, its aerial back A.

Wavedance- Wavedashing back and forth.

Wavedash- Air-dodging diagonally toward the ground, as close to the ground as possible, will result in a movement that abuses the games physics by allowing a player to make themself slide across the ground. Most obvious with Luigi, Marth, Roy, Mewtwo, and Ice Climbers. You can turn around more quickly by wavedashing in the opposite direction of your run, then picking up on the momentum.

Waveshine- Fox's reflector followed by a wavedash, can be linked to a grab, smash, or looped until the edge of the stage is met. A prerequisite for Fox's infinite combo.

Wavesmash- A wavedash, then a c-stick direction.

Disjointed Hitbox- When a hitbox is not attached to the character, such as in Marth/Roy/Link/Young Link's sword attacks and Ness's bat smash. A sword and a leg (such as Captain Falcon's) are going to be affected differently by fire. The character whose knee comes in contact with the fire is going to get hit, but the character with the sword is not, since damage to the weapon (a disjointed hitbox) does not affect the character.

Extended Grappling Beam (Samus)- Hit Z. Keep pressing Z, and at the same time, alternate up and down on the d-pad a few times. The grappling beam should now go much farther, and if you hold L while using it, you can target the nearest player to you. To grab, press A when the tip of the beam is over an opponent.

Freezing glitch- Ice Climbers: Roll behind the enemy using the L or R shield. Half-way before the roll is over, start holding Z, and the second Climber MUST grab the enemy. Do a forward B in the direction you just rolled from and if it worked, the enemy should be frozen after Nana (default) throws him/her/it. Mewtwo: Choose Bowser as the opponent in training, and go to the Yoshi's Story stage. Set Bowser on the very left of the right platform, and have Mewtwo stand below him and a little to the right. Get out a red shell, and set the speed to a slower one, throw the shell forward, and keep reflecting it with Mewtwo's forward B. After about 5 reflections, have Bowser drop down right before the sixth. Bowser should now be stuck to Mewtwo.

Fox's infinite combo- Short hop drill kick L-cancelled into a waveshine (reflector (down-B), then wavedash out of it), followed by a short hop drill kick, L-cancelled into a waveshine, etc., etc.. Very hard to do, even on the slower speeds of training mode without considerable practice.

High jump glitch- If a character, moving upwards from a manual jump (and maybe a screw ball thrown at them) gets hit by either Mario's or Dr. Mario's cape attack, they will go almost twice as high as normal.

Hitbox- When a character does an attack, the hitbox is what determines how wide a range the attack covers. It's called a hitbox despite not being shaped like a box for most attacks. Also see: Disjointed hitbox.

Infinite grab- Have 3 characters. One should grab another, and the third should use an infinite natural combo, such as Fox's repeated A, or Mewtwo's B attack (close). The second character should not be able to escape the grab. This is easier on teams.

Lag (also called recovery time)- When a character executes an attack, there is a certain amount of time after the attack is over in which that the character cannot move. This is called lag time. Moves that are "laggy" carry an large amount of lag time. Some examples are Ganondorf's ground forward-B when it misses, and Link's aerial down-A not L-cancelled. Related term: L-cancel

Luigi Ladder- Two Luigi's can do their up-B attacks against each other indefinitely, but they must not hit with the fire part of it. This will keep them in the air, and moving upwards.

Jigglypuff invincibility frames exploit- In training, if the max amount of bob-ombs is set in 1/4 speed as fast as possible, then Jigglypuff does her down-B attack, all the bob-ombs will explode, but Jigglypuff won't be sent flying until after a few moments. Very cool to see.

Knockback- Refers to how far a character is sent after being hit by an attack.

Mr. Game&Watch/Corneria glitch- Mr. G&W can do his up-B through the neck of the Great Fox. Double jump, then do up-B when his head is pressing against the ceiling above the guns. May take a few tries to get down.

Peach Bomber stall- Using Peach's forward-B attack over and over again between the buildings of Fourside. This can go on for an unlimited amount of time, if you don't mess up. This is useful on timed stock matches, when you get ahead by a life and want to stall out the clock. Might not work too well against Peach, Link, or Young Link, because they all have projectiles that can be thrown straight down. Also Pikachu/Pichu might give her trouble with their respective B attacks. This tactic is the reason why Fourside is banned in tournaments. Also see: Wallbombing

Phantom Hit- When an attack hits, but it doesn't move the opponent, and does half of the damage. A sure-fire way to do this is to go to Ganondorf's Japanese HRC, do a full jump, and hit B. (Even though this is sorta common knowledge, credit to snex for the example)

Priority- What the chances are of an attack taking precedence over another attack if they collide with each other.

Roy Zone, The- Different from phantom hits in that the attack doesn't even do damage, though it hits. Named for the character it most affects, Roy.

Spamming- Continuously and persistently using an attack. Usually used in reference to projectile attacks.

Startup- How long an attack takes to start. Attacks with high startup time include Falcon Punch (C. Falcon's B) and Ganondorf's Warlock Punch (B) / Volcano Kick (tilt up-A). Attacks with low startup time include Fox/Falco's reflector (down-B), Mewtwo's aerial forward-A, and Mr. Game&Watch's up-B.

Stun- When a character is hit, there is a certain amount of time in which the player can do nothing. If a character is hit during stun, it's considered a combo.

Super Jump- Catching Link's or Young Link's boomerang while hanging from a hookshot (See wall-grapple) will result in a very high jump. Note that this supposedly works only on certain versions of the game (I think 1.0, and 1.1), but try it anyways if you aren't sure.

Sweet Spot- Any part of an attack that does more damage, or has a better effect than other parts of the same attack. Unconditional examples are: Marth (very tip of sword), Roy (large center portion of sword), the home run bat (the very tip), and Mr. G&W (the edge of his body). Conditional ones include: Captain Falcon's aerial forward A, Ness's aerial back A, Zelda's aerial back and forward A's, and the tip of Ness's smash forward A (bat).

Tiers- A ranking of how formidable each character is at the peak of the current metagame. An in-depth look at tiers

Tournament legal- Any stage, item, or ruleset that is acceptable in a tournament environment. General rulesets follow this example: 4 stock, with time doubling (or almost doubling) stock, items on low or off, with Maxim Tomato, Heart Container, Hammer, Super/Poison Mushrooms, and Party Ball off. Hyrule Temple, Yoshi's Island 64, and Brinstar Depths, Termina, and Corneria are always off (and can't be chosen, even under slob picks). Team attack is usually on, and no stage can be played twice in the same set. A set is the best two of three, where the loser can either change a character, or choose the next stage. Thanks to David Kirk for this information.

Turtle Glitch (Game and Watch only)- Break a breakable block with the turtle (back A aerial attack) right as you land on it and as the attack is ending. The turtle will stay in his hand until you use back air or neutral air (maybe other moves). If Game and Watch dies with the turtle in his hand, he will come back with it still attached, only now it will never go away for the rest of the match. Thanks to SuperDoodleMan for this term