Abbreiveation dictionary

In competitive battles, experienced players use lots of words and abbreviations that new players may not understand. This page will help you understand some of those words so that you can tell "OU" apart from "UU" and know what "WoW" and "BP" means.



STAB - Same Type Attack Bonus - If a Pokemon uses a move that's the same type as it is, that move will be 50% stronger. For example, if a Pikachu uses Thunderbolt, then Thunderbolt will be 50% stronger since both Pikachu and Thunderbolt are Electric type.
This is basically a very important and fundamental part of Pokemon.

Moveset - A set of 4 moves that a Pokemon will use in battle.

Movepool - All the moves that a Pokemon can legally obtain. This includes level-up, TMs, HMs, breeding, tutors, or other means (such as special moves from the New York Pokemon Center). Some Pokemon, like Magikarp or Wobbuffet, have small movepools meaning they can't learn many moves. Others, like Mew, have large movepools so they can learn a lot of different moves.



Tiers
Tiers break the list of Pokemon down into how well they can compete with other Pokemon. Based on this, they are placed in one of five tiers shown below.


Uber - Ubers are Pokemon that are considered too powerful to use in an OU battle, mainly because they have incredibly high stats, extremely large movepools, or abilities that make them tough to defeat.
Current ubers: Mewtwo, Mew, Ho-oh, Lugia,Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Deoxys(all forms), Palkia, Dialga, Giratina, Darkrai, Arceus, Wobbuffet

OU - Overused - This is what's known as the standard playing-field. All non-uber Pokemon are allowed here, but only the best are considered to be OU Pokemon.

BL - Borderline - This tier is for Pokemon that are too powerful for UU, but not quite strong enough to compete with the standards in OU.

UU - Underused - This tier is for Pokemon that have trouble competing with OU Pokemon usually because they have low stats or small movepools.


NU - Neverused - This tier is for Pokemon that are too weak to compete even with UU Pokemon.


*NFE - Not Fully Evolved - This isn't an actual tier, but it is used to describe using unevolved Pokemon in competitive battles



Common Pokemon/Move/Item Abbreviations


Bliss - Blissey
Cune - Suicune
Cross - Heracross
Gar - Gengar
Gross - Metagross
Kou - Raikou
Lati@s - refers to both Latios AND Latias
Lax - Snorlax
Mence - Salamence
Pert - Swampert
Skarm - Skarmory
Tar/Ttar - Tyranitar
Zam - Alakazam

AA - Aerial Ace
BP - Baton Pass
BD - Belly Drum
CM - Calm Mind
DD - Dragon Dance
DE - Double Edge
EQ - Earthquake
HP - Hidden Power (often followed by its type, like HP Grass or HP Fire)
SD - Swords Dance (also Self Destruct)
SR - Stealth Rock
Sub - Substitute
ST/STalk - Sleep Talk
Tbolt - Thunderbolt
TWave - Thunder-Wave
WoW - Will-o-wisp

CB - Choice Band
Lefties - Leftovers
LO - Life Orb

Item/Move + Pokemon combinations - When describing a specific Pokemon set, you usually just take the abbreviation of the item/move and attach it before the abbreviation of the Pokemon. For example, a Calm Mind Suicune would be CMCune and a Heracross holding Choice Band would be CBCross.

OHKO/OKO - One Hit Knock Out
2HKO/2KO - Two Hit Knock Out
Basically, take however many turns it takes to knock out a Pokemon and place it in front of KO, like 3KO or 4KO.

NVE - Not Very Effective
SE - Supereffective