First-time visits to an online lobby or the initial launch of a multiplayer game may feel a bit like traveling to a new place. Gamers have their own unique language with plenty of acronyms, abbreviations, and abbreviations of technical terms. It may be difficult to make sense of the language while you coordinate with teammates on the fly during a gaming session, listen to an esports live stream, or go through the update for a patch.
This is a beginner’s guide to a glossary for gaming terminology that consists of 200 of the most common gaming terms, abbreviations, and slang phrases with their respective categories.
Core Mechanics & Gameplay Fundamentals
These are basic terms that describe basic actions, systems, and UI that you’ll see in virtually any video game genre.
- Ability: Specialized skill or magic specific to a character or class and beyond movement and attacks.
- AI (Artificial Intelligence): The computer code that determines the actions of NPCs (Non-Player Characters), enemies, and bots.
- Avatar: The player’s virtual image, model, or character in the game environment.
- Boost: A temporary or permanent increase in an attribute, statistic, or power level given to a character, typically via an item, spell, or patch.
- Build: A player’s choice of equipment, skills, talents, and attributes to maximize their character’s playstyle.
- Checkpoint: An automatic save spot in a level that a player will return to if their character dies, thus avoiding the loss of significant progress.
- Cooldown: A required delay after using a skill, weapon, or ability to be able to use it again.
- Combo: A series of carefully timed moves or attacks that form a complementary sequence and are very effective.
- Crafting: The ability to create new items, armor, or weapons using gathered raw materials and resources.
- Critical Hit: A powerful attack that may strike an opponent’s weaker area (such as the head) at random or strategically, with great bonus damage.
- Debuff: A negative status that decreases a character’s stats, slows them down or does damage over time.
- Drop Rate: The percentage or chance of an item or piece of loot to drop from a defeated enemy.
- Enemy Intent: A mechanic in a strategy or turn-based rogue-like game that reveals the thing an enemy will do on their next move.
- Equipment: Weapons, armor, accessories, and tools that a character is currently using.
- Fast Travel: A convenience option to allow players to instantly travel between major discovered landmarks or map points without lengthy long-distance travel.
- Friendly Fire: Gameplay mode that allows players to attack and damage other players who are their own teammates by accident or on purpose.
- HUD (Heads-Up Display): On-screen visual representation of important real-time information like health bars, mini maps, ammunition tracking, and status conditions.
- Idle: A state or gameplay technique in which progress is automatically made when the player is not at the controls, or a character is not moving during the game.
- Inventory: Menu located in the digital storage that provides a list of all the items, resources, weapons, and consumables a player has collected.
- Loot: Physical items, equipment, or money that drops from a defeated enemy or broken container.
- Joystick: Physical control lever mounted on a gamepad or stand-alone joystick that is used to control the movement of the character or camera in 360 degrees.
- Keybind: An in-game action that is associated with a key on the keyboard.
- Layout Mapping: The systematic assignment of layouts to a keyboard interface to make the playing experience comfortable for the player or ergonomic.
- Loadout: A collection of weapons, gear, and other bonuses that the player chooses before playing a multiplayer game or combat.
- Loot: Items, weapons, armor, or money gained by exploring the environment or defeating enemies.
- Minimap: A small, simplified layout that will hang on the corner of the screen to help with immediate navigation, objective tracking, and enemy detection.
- Objective: The mission or secondary objective that a player needs to accomplish to advance in a level/story.
- Open World: A large, continuous virtual map that allows players to move around, discover, and complete goals in any order.
- Potion: A traditional healing potion that can be consumed instantly or over time to heal health, mana, stamina, or temporarily apply a status boost.
- Power-Up: An object, token, or environmental element that will give a character temporary power-ups, invulnerability, or other game mechanics when picked up.
- Quick Save: A shortcut to quickly save a game without having to go into a separate settings menu.
- Resource Management: Strategic tracking and careful allocation of basic resources (such as, but not limited to, ammunition, health, crafting materials, etc.).
- Save Point: A physical point in the game world or interactable object where the current progress can be manually saved.
- Skill Tree: A branching visual progression system, giving players the ability to purchase additional character talents and abilities with the earned leveling points.
- Skin: An item which is purely cosmetic and therefore does not affect the visual appearance of a character, weapon, or vehicle without also affecting its mechanical performance or stats.
- Spawn: The first time an item, player, or enemy character enters a particular area in the game world.
- Stamina: This determines physical abilities such as running, dodging, or swinging hard; doing so will drain the bar, which will refill over time.
- Stat (Statistic): Numeric values that represent a character’s core characteristics, like Strength, Agility, Defense, or Intelligence.
- Stealth: A tactical playstyle in which the player stealthily moves through the environment, hides in cover, avoids the line of sight of enemies, and strikes them silently.
- Target Lock: A mechanic that places and focuses the camera on a designated enemy, allowing for easier aiming and tracking in ruckus periods.
- Teleport: Spells or items that can be used to rapidly move from one point on the map to another.
- Tutorial: A basic level or guide to help new players learn the fundamentals of the game, how it is played, and the rules.
- Unlockable: Content, visual, or additional features that can be unlocked completely free of any in-game purchase as part of the regular gameplay progression.
- Upgrade: Permanently enhance stats, durability, efficiency, or cosmetic of a weapon, armor, or skill.
- Zone: A geographic area, level, or biome in a larger game world with its own set of enemies, appearance, and difficulties.
- Zoom: To magnify the target view by zooming in on a weapon scope or camera adjustment to achieve greater precision at a distance.
- Accuracy: The correctness of a shot or a hit; the distance from the target point.
- Aim Assist: This is a minor software assist option available for controllers to assist a player’s reticle towards targets to compensate for the playing experience for mouse users.
- Armour: Defence clothing/equipment that will absorb or block incoming damage in advance before the character’s core health is reduced.
- Backtracking: Going back to areas of the map previously visited to unlock new areas with new unlocks, tools, or powers.
- Base Building: The process of collecting materials for the purpose of creating, upgrading, and reinforcing personal base, shelter, or defense settlement.
- Blind Run: Playing and finishing a game for the first time without any online strategy guides, walkthroughs, or video spoilers.
- Bounce Damage: Projectile causing damage that ricochets off an environmental surface or a launched target and hits a random second target.
- Bullet Spread: The tendency of bullets to displace from the center of the crosshair when firing a gun continuously, in a random physical manner.
- Capture Point: A designated and marked spot on a multiplayer map where teams can stand to take control and earn score points.
- Charge Attack: Powerful attack that takes a long time to build up if the Attack input button is held down.
- Cheat Code: A set of secret instructions to press buttons or type certain words or phrases that allow a player to have infinite resources, be invincible, or alter the game in a fun way.
- Combo Breaker: A defensive ability that can be used to stop an attacking player from continuing a series of combos mid-combo.
- Controller Drift: If a controller has an analog joystick, it is a problem of the analog stick having some physical wear or tear, causing the joystick to move when it is not being pushed or held.
- Cover System: An intentional gameplay mechanic that enables characters to lean against walls, barriers, or objects to evade gunfire from incoming enemies.
- Crafting Bench: An interactive menu or station that requires materials to be brought to create a more advanced gear, item, or equipment.
- Crowd Control (CC): Abilities that can slow an enemy down, stun them, freeze them, and blind them.
- Damage Reduction: A defensive attribute or modifier which reduces the ultimate damage amount received from an attack.
- Daily Quest: A task or mission that is reset every 24 hours to give players a common daily objective to complete for additional loot, progression, or currency.
- Dual Wield: The ability to hold and use two separate weapons (such as two pistols, or a sword in both hands) at once.
- Economy System: The in-game financial cycle, the way currency is generated, maintained, and utilized at in-game Merchant places.
- Emote: Cosmetic movement or physical feat made by a player in response to another player in an online lobby to convey an idea, celebrate, or express their feelings.
- Fetch Quest: A lightweight, story-lite quest that asks the player to go and get an item and bring it back to an NPC.
- Finisher: A highly stylized combat animation that you can use to kill an opponent who’s already weak or knocked out cold with style.
- Mist of War: A map covering that obscures areas of the map (that are not visible at that time) until the player physically enters the map.
- Free Roam: A gameplay mode or state in which players are not tied to a set story progression and can roam around a virtual world as they please.
- Headshot: A shot that is fired straight at a player’s head, which is usually accompanied by bonus damage (and sometimes even elimination).
- Hit Scan: A weapon mechanic in which bullets travel instantly over a straight path; it is a system in which the pull of the trigger is the only time that the game will measure the distance of the physical bullet path, without calculating the travel time.
- Hotkey: A button on a keyboard that is mapped to a command or a specific item to be quickly used without having to navigate through secondary menus.
- Instance: A copy of a dungeon or game area that is duplicated and set aside for exclusive use by one player or party; one that others are not allowed to mess with.
- Loot Pool: A pre-programmed list of loot that has a statistical probability of dropping in a map, chest, or boss fight.
- Match Point: The moment in a competitive game when an individual or a team is in a position to secure the victory with one more point or round.
- Microtransaction: A small real-money transaction in a game menu to buy skins, virtual currencies, or conveniences that have no other purpose than purely cosmetic.
- Mobility: The ability of a character to move quickly, smoothly, and dynamically around an environment, with mobility being a general metric or attribute of this ability.
- Mount: A creature or mechanical vehicle (such as a horse, dragon, or motorcycle) that a player can ride to use to travel quickly on the ground or in the air.
- Overpowered (OP): When a Character, Weapon or Strategy is too aggressive and powerful in relation to other characters, weapons and strategies, and therefore not competitive.
- Party Finder: A system or menu which lets players find and join other players with compatible content and/or groups.
- Procedural Generation: A way to make levels, dungeons, or maps that uses an algorithm to dynamically generate rather than being pre-made, so the layout is unique each time.
- Recoil: A firearm’s violent backward or upward kickback motion after firing; the player must pull the gun down to control.
- Revive: To restore a teammate to play who is down, hurt, or just lost to another team before they become completely exhausted or reset.
- Shield: A second line of defense that lies above the main character’s HP that absorbs attacks until its energy is broken.
- Status Effect: A temporary change in the state of the character, either positive or negative.
Combat Roles, Archetypes & Character Composition
In multiplayer, team-based, and/or role-playing games, characters are assigned to a specific structural role to even out group combat.
- Aggro: Extremely mad or upset. When it comes to gameplay, it means to draw or retain an opponent’s hostile interest toward yourself, instead of them targeting your teammates.
- Boss: An enemy character that is extremely powerful and unique and has large health bars and complicated attack patterns at the end of a level or story act.
- Character Class: This is a basic class that you choose when creating a character, which affects the starting skills, attributes, and the way you grow the character.
- Damage Per Second: An indicator of how much damage a character can do on a per-second basis, or a modifier applied to a character’s role that is intended for those who do more damage than anything else.
- Gank: An attack from several different players, taking an enemy off-guard, as they were exposed in a lane-like multiplayer game area.
- Healer: A role that is only used during fights to bring up health pools, remove negative debuffs, and keep teammates alive.
- Mage: A classic spell-casting character class that uses magic to inflict devastating ranged elemental attacks or to dominate the field.
- Minion: Tiny, manufactured, artificially intelligent bodies that move on pre-programmed routes as fodder, food stores, or even distractions.
- Tank: A character archetype that has high defence and takes a lot of damage but is meant to take in a lot of attacks and deflect aggro from other characters around them.
Slang related to Communication, Community & Esports
The social aspect of gaming has developed its own language to enable instantaneous communication within teams in competitive environments.
- AFK (Away From Keyboard): The status that alerts the other players when a player is temporarily away from their computer or console controller without leaving the game world.
- Camping: A popular form of competition in which a player positions himself or herself at one, often favorable, spot and waits for unsuspecting players to wander by.
- Clan: An online community or social network of players who play the same game together regularly using a common team name or tag.
- Good Game (GG): A phrase that is used by the opposing team when the game ends between players to show good sportsmanship and respect.
- Guild: A group of players in online games who coordinate their activities, join raids, and communicate with each other through chat channels, etc.
- Killstreak: Enabling one to kill all enemies consecutively in one match or life without dying.
- Lobby: A pre-match digital space where players collect, configure their gear, and wait until a game instance starts.
- Meta (Most Effective Tactic Available): The agreed-upon strategy, character, or weapon that is the most statistically successful in winning a game at the current time within the current version.
- Multiplayer: Any game mode or system that allows multiple unique human players to engage in gameplay at the same time within the same virtual space.
- Party: A small temporary group of friends and/or matched players that are put together to complete a set of levels, matches or quests.
- Queue: The process by which a player joins an automatic line waiting for the system to match a player to an available slot for an online multiplayer game.
- Raid: One of the most difficult and high-level endgame missions that force players to work together in teams of 4-40 to beat back dangerous puzzles and bosses.
- Spawn Camping: A bad habit in which players wait right outside of another team’s respawn zone to kill them as soon as they spawn.
- Team Deathmatch: A multiplayer shooter mode which is based solely on two teams fighting to breach a set point of elimination.
- Voice Chat: In-built software platforms that enable teammates to communicate through microphone voice during a match to implement quick strategies.
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Development, Technical Performance & Networking
If you want to play comfortably online, you must know all the technical terms that exist behind the scenes to ensure that a game runs smoothly on your particular setup.
- Alpha: This is a very early and internal test build of a game, still in the process of developing major features, assets, and engine tools, and often very unstable.
- Beta: An early release that is close to the public version, but hasn’t been finalized for release. Betas are released publicly or to select testers to test servers under heavy usage to benchmark them.
- Early Access: A business model that lets players buy and play a game while it is still under development, and receive updates/patches that keep the game being developed.
- Easter Egg: A secret, reference, joke or message intentionally hidden in a game by the creators for the dedicated player to discover.
- Emulator: Software that enables an up-to-date device (such as a PC) to execute games and programs created for another completely dissimilar console architecture.
- Game Engine: It is the core software that enables the development of a video game by providing various tools and components, including the physics engine, rendering engine, sound system, and script editor.
- Glitch: An unusual structural software bug, texture tear, or code bug that causes erratic or unexpected behavior in-game.
- Hitbox: A boundary that is invisible but defined by a shape, typically a geometric entity, that is mapped over a character’s model and determines whether or not an incoming projectile or melee swing registers as a hit.
- Lag: When an application or game slows down or stutters due to a lag between what the player types and what happens on the server, which is usually a result of a poor Internet connection.
- LAN (Local Area Network): This is where the computers or consoles are connected together in the same physical space with no Internet lag.
- Matchmaking: The automatic sorting, pairing, and placement of players with similar skill levels or location levels.
- Patch: An update to a game’s software that is required by the game developer to solve bugs, make improvements, tweak competitive balance, or add new content.
- Ping: A measurement of the amount of time it takes for a data packet to reach the game server and back from it. The lower the ping, the better the game will be played.
- Ping Spike: A temporary spike in ping times, often accompanied by freezes, rubber-banding, or server disconnects during an online session.
- Pixel: A little colored dot or piece of hardware that an electronic screen displays or uses to display one of the many colors in a layout.
- RNG (Random Number Generator): A math algorithm that is built into the game to create random numbers, such as determining what is dropped from a chest or whether an attack hits “critically”.
- The Server: A single central computer system that stores, processes and synchronizes the virtual world state for online multiplayer interaction.
- Streaming: Broadcasting live gameplay video and audio streams to a platform such as Twitch or YouTube where viewers can watch you play.
- Frame Rate (FPS): The exact speed that a console or computer draws in a series of still images (frames) each second to create fluid, continuous action.
Progression, Economics & Content Structure
Here are the terms to help you understand how games can keep you engaged for long periods, how character progression works, and how updates are structured.
- Achievement: A digital badge or profile that is earned when a challenging and specific goal is met inside a game.
- Add-on: Additional software that adds additional areas, features, or customization to an existing base game.
- Ammo (Ammunition): Resources needed for firing ranged weapons, bows, and energy weapons.
- Battle Pass: A tiered system of progression throughout the season of Battle Pass, which unlocks cosmetic items unique to the system through weekly unlocks based on XP.
- Currency: Money, either in digital form within a virtual world or gold or points that are earned and used within the game world to make purchases from a game store or to trade with vendors.
- Customization: The large list of options that enables the player to alter his/her character’s appearance, hair, clothes, weapons colour, and even the structure loadout.
- Downloadable Content (DLC): It is new game content that is released by developers after the game’s release and is available for download.
- Endgame: Activities, raids, and competitive challenges that are meant for veteran players who have finished the main story campaign, which come with a great difficulty level.
- The EXP / XP (Experience Points): A numeric progression unit gained from completing missions, defeating enemies, and exploring. When you gain enough XP, you will gain a Level Up.
- Farm: To systematically repeat certain tasks, loops, or fights for the sole purpose of building a massive and efficient collection of resources, items, and/or currency.
- Grind: To acquire higher-level items, achievements, or levels in the game by spending a lot of time doing repetitive tasks.
- Level Cap: The highest Level possible for a character in a particular version of the software or expansion set.
- Level Up: The point at which a character reaches an adequate amount of experience points to progress to the next numeric level, which involves a boost to base stats and unlocking of new skills.
- Loot Box: A virtual box containing an assortment of cosmetic or functional items that are awarded to players upon opening.
- New Game Plus (NG+): An unlockable mode that lets players go through the same story over on an existing game, but pick up all of the late-game items, skills, and upgrades.
- Prestige: A progression path in which a max-level player chooses to reset their numeric level back to 1, and receive special rewards, cosmetics, or badges instead.
- Season Pass: A one-time payment model that provides an immediate and permanent right to enjoy all of the future DLC expansions over the course of a year.
Theories of History & Culture: A Summary of the Texts
Video games are classified across different genres and sub-genres by their structure, mechanics, and objective.
- Arcade: A style of game that focuses on simple, easy-to-learn mechanics, rapid action, and high score chasing rather than realistic simulation.
- AoE (Area of Effect) Attack: Any offensive action or spell that releases its damage over a larger area (geo area) or circular radius (AoE) instead of one specific target.
- Escort Mission: A narrative mission scenario in which the players must follow and defend a slow-moving, weak AI escort from incoming enemy attacks.
- F2P (Free-to-Play): The business model in which a game is 100% free of download and free to play, with additional income sources such as microtransactions and cosmetic stores.
- FPS (First-Person Shooter): A genre with intense action scenes, seen from the main character’s perspective, which is mainly based on gunplay.
- MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online): A genre that can support thousands of players who play online and interact within a persistent and continuous world.
- MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena): Highly competitive team fighting game in which each team’s base core is destroyed by the other team by employing different hero characters in defined lane maps.
- Mod (Modification): Any modification or full expansion made by enthusiastic player communities through open-source software, to alter the appearance or functionality of a game.
- NPC (Non-Player Character): An avatar or character that exists in a virtual world but is not controlled by a real-world person, and thus can provide quests or other services, or act as a town or a merchant.
- Platformer: A classic genre that emphasizes the precision of jumping from one platform to another, navigating through floating platforms, and overcoming obstacles that stand straight, like a platformer.
- PvE (Player versus Environment): A game mode in which a player or a group of players fights their way through computer-controlled AI enemies and/or environmental obstacles.
- PvP (Player versus Player): Competitive game modes created specifically for human players to compete directly against other human players in combat.
- Quest: An adventure, task, or story mission that is assigned to a character and provides rewards, items, and experience points when completed.
- Rogue-like: An action game genre that includes randomly generated and procedural levels and a “permadeath” system, meaning that upon death, everything you earned in the current run is wiped away and you start over.
- Sandbox: A very creative type of game that gives the player lots of tools to build with, to manipulate the physics, and lets the player do whatever they want without forcing a set goal.
- Side Quest: Non-key quests or story missions that are not required to complete to move forward in the game, but provide additional story content and loot.
- Speedrun: An intentional gameplay mode in which players are attempting to finish the full game from beginning to end as quickly as possible by employing the expertise of their movement skills or glitches.
- Split Screen: A multiplayer mode that allows several local players to view their characters on the same screen, but splits the screen into distinct areas.
- Strategy Game: A genre of game in which the player has to plan the game on a high level, collect resources and deploy military units, either real-time or turn-based.
- Survival Game: These are challenging activities where a player is thrown into hostile environments without any money or safety and must learn to adapt to the conditions of life – food, water, shelter and health.
- Third Person View: Camera view used to stand behind or over the player’s character, giving a broader range of vision of the environment.
- Turn-Based: A combat layout that allows characters to move their moves, strategies, and attacks in turn and not in real-time.
- Signature Ability (SA): The most powerful, devastating ability that a character has, with a long cooldown period or a charge meter.
- Walkthrough: A step-by-step text or video walkthrough that explains how to solve all of the puzzles, beat all of the bosses, and beat a game.
- Wave Defence: A high-pressure game mode where players must defend themselves against hordes of continuously tougher enemies.
- Aggro Range: The invisible area or radius around an AI enemy character that will cause them to be hostile if a player enters it.
- Backstab: Offensive strike that strikes directly from behind an opponent, avoiding normal shield defence and providing huge critical damage multipliers.
- Burst Damage: Providing a lot of offensive damage in an extremely brief time period, in an explosive manner.
- Burst Fire: A firing mechanic that fires a set number of bullets (typically three) at once when it is pulled, maintaining accuracy.
- Choke Point: A map term used for a narrow corridor, doorway, or valley that restricts movement and can create dangerous choke points during combat.
- Clip / Magazine: This is the physical device that contains the ammunition supply for a firearm that is currently in use but may need to be manually reloaded.
- Collateral Damage: Damage caused accidentally or as a side effect to an adjacent object, civilian, or unintended target in a heavy explosive attack.
- Collision Detection: The game engine physics system that determines when the digital objects or character models physically collide, hit, or block each other.
- Console: A specific computer hardware system that is used to play video games on a television screen, whether it be a PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch.
- Critical Failure: A random or mechanics-based failure in which an action is executed completely without success, sometimes resulting in self-inflicted injury, or damaging a weapon.
- Crossplay Compatibility: It is a feature that enables users from completely different platforms (PC, mobile, and consoles) to connect to the same match lobbies.
- Damage Over Time (DoT): A status debuff (poison, burn, bleed, etc) that takes health over time in small increments across several seconds.
- Double Jump: An iconic platforming skill where a character can take a double leap without jumping down first.
- Drop Off: A mechanical effect that makes a weapon’s ammunition velocity, trajectory precision, and overall damage drop with distance from the shooter.
- E-Sports (Electronic Sports): Professional, organized video game competitions with skilled gamers and teams competing in front of large audiences for cash prizes.
- Environmental Hazard: Physical hazards created right into a map layout (e.g., radioactive pools, falling boulders, spikes, or lava pits) which injure user(s) who touch them.
- Glass Cannon: A character build that is designed to output absurdly serious damage but has very low health pools, making them as fragile a character as possible.
- Heal Over Time (HoT): A heal spell or item effect that restores a character’s health bar over a period of time with small, steady increments.
- Loot Goblin: A multiplayer teammate who is too greedy and collects any dropped loot, weapons, and currency before others can get it.
- Matchmaking Rating (MMR): A hidden number that is used by a competitive backend to mathematically assess an individual player’s actual skill level and match them into more balanced lobbies.
- Melee Weapon: The hand-held weapon that is used for close combat and doesn’t fire any projectiles, such as swords, axes, combat knives, and clubs.
- Noob / Newbie: A slang term often used in online communities for those who are new players, lack any experience or map knowledge, or are not mechanical.
- One-Shot: An attack that deals an extremely high amount of damage, a headshot, or an ability that removes an opponent from full health to zero health in one shot.
- PC Gaming: The use of a personal computer (PC) screen to launch, play, and configure video games in a personal computer (PC) gaming system rather than a dedicated console system.
- Projectile: An item of weaponry that is of physical nature, such as a rocket, grenade, or magic ball, that has its own weight, travel time, and arc in the air.
- Ranged Weapon: Any weapon with a bow, crossbow, throwing tool, or firearm used to shoot enemy targets while keeping a safe physical distance.
- Reload: The time it takes for a character to replace an empty clip with a new magazine to render a firearm usable again.
- Soft Cap: A leveling-up system in which further levels in an attribute provide decreasing benefit, but still don’t cap the attribute value.
Enhancing Technical and Tactical Integration
Understanding all the terms in this glossary is not simply access to gaming culture; it also provides for better communication. In multiplayer online games such as Valorant, Counter-Strike, or League of Legends, any clear term saves time and effort, as you simply tell your partner that an opponent is “holding the capture point sniper with an OP sniper”.
As gaming ecosystems change and evolve throughout 2026, it is vital to keep pace with all new development terminology, gaming mechanical changes, and language related to technology; this allows one to have more fun instead of wasting energy on confusion found in menus.
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