Glossary: the vocabulary, in plain English

By Lucas Thomas, responsible editor · Published 21 September 2026 · How we work

World of Warships has a vocabulary of its own, and most guides assume you already have it. Here it is, alphabetically, without the assumption.

Terms are explained as they are used in the game, not as they are used at sea.
Term	What it means
Angling	Turning your ship so that shells strike its armour at a sharp angle instead of square on. It raises the effective thickness of the plate and makes ricochets far more likely.
AP — armour-piercing	A shell designed to pass through armour and detonate inside the hull. Enormous damage when it works, almost none when it ricochets or passes straight through.
Bloom	The period after firing your main guns during which your concealment is lifted and the enemy can see you, whatever the distance.
Bottom tier	Being the lowest-tier ship in a battle. Normal, not a malfunction of the queue.
Bow-in	Pointing the bow at the enemy so that only the narrow, heavily reinforced front is exposed.
Broadside	Showing the full side of your hull to an enemy. The worst thing you can do in front of a battleship.
Cap	A capture area. Holding one accumulates points, and points win battles regardless of damage done.
Citadel	The armoured box protecting a ship's machinery and magazines. A shell that detonates inside it does far more damage than an ordinary penetration. Most destroyers do not have one.
Concealment	The range at which the enemy can detect your ship. Lower is better, and it can be improved with a commander skill and a ship upgrade.
Consumable	A timed ability on cooldown — damage control, repair party, smoke, radar and the rest. Knowing when not to press one is most of the skill.
Credits	The ordinary in-game currency, earned in battle and spent on ships, upgrades and running costs.
Detonation	The instant destruction of a ship when a shell sets off its magazine. Rare, unpleasant, and reducible with a flag or a captain skill.
Doubloons	The premium currency, bought with real money. Used for premium ships, cosmetics and converting stored ship experience into free experience.
Flooding	Damage over time caused by a torpedo hit, stopped by Damage Control Party. The naval equivalent of fire.
Free XP	Experience that can be spent anywhere in the research tree rather than on one ship. Accumulates slowly on its own; doubloons convert stored ship experience into it much faster.
HE — high explosive	A shell that bursts on the outside of the armour. Modest damage whatever the plate thickness, and a chance to start a fire with every hit.
Island	Terrain that blocks line of sight, and therefore both incoming fire and spotting. Surveillance radar ignores it.
Overmatch	The rule by which a shell of large enough calibre passes straight through plating that is thin relative to it, regardless of the angle. The exact ratio is a game constant — check current patch notes.
Premium ship	A ship bought with money or awarded in an event, sitting outside the research tree. Balanced against researched ships of the same tier, but not obtainable by grinding.
Radar — surveillance radar	A consumable that reveals ships within a radius for a short time, regardless of line of sight or smoke. The reason destroyers fear certain cruisers.
Research tree	The branching chain of ships, by nation and class, unlocked in order with experience and bought with credits.
Smoke	A cloud laid by a destroyer or some cruisers that blocks line of sight. Firing from inside it still gives you away at close range.
Spotting	Detecting an enemy ship so that your whole team can see and fire on it. Often worth more to a team than damage.
Supership	A small group of ships ranked above tier X, marked with a star.
Tier	A ship's rank, from I to X, plus superships above. The queue normally mixes ships within about two tiers of each other.
Torpedo	A slow underwater weapon, invisible until spotted, that causes heavy damage and flooding. Carried by destroyers, many cruisers and submarines.

Sources: the game client and the publisher's patch notes, checked at the time of writing. Definitions describe mechanics qualitatively; we deliberately publish no figures that change between updates. Where this page differs from the publisher's own information, the publisher's information prevails.

See also the full guide, the ship classes page and the FAQ.