Glossary
190 words a debater, coach, or judge will hear.
Every term used on this site and in a round, in one page. Search it, filter it by format, or link straight to a term. Judges: the first twenty or thirty are the ones that come up in a novice round.
Definitions follow the rules and usage of the National Speech & Debate Association as of September 13, 2026. Local tournaments vary; ask your coach.
190 terms
A
- Accessibility
- In tournament terms, the accommodations a tournament provides so every student can compete. Ask the host before entry.
- Ad hominem
- Attacking the person making an argument instead of the argument. Judges discount it and penalize speaker points.
- Advantage
- A benefit the affirmative claims its plan produces, built from uniqueness, a link, an internal link, and an impact.
- Advantage counterplan
- A counterplan that solves one affirmative advantage by other means while the negative answers the rest of the case.
- Affirmative
- The side that supports the resolution. Called aff in Lincoln-Douglas and Policy, pro in Public Forum.
- Agenda setting
- The vote at the start of a Congressional Debate session that decides the order in which legislation is debated.
- Agent counterplan
- A counterplan that does the plan through a different actor, such as the states instead of the federal government.
- Alternative
- The action a kritik asks the judge to endorse instead of the plan. A kritik without a clear alternative usually loses.
- Amendment
- A proposed change to a bill or resolution during a Congressional Debate session, adopted by vote of the chamber.
- Analytic
- An argument made from reasoning rather than from evidence. Good analytics beat weak cards.
- Argument
- A claim supported by a warrant and given weight by an impact. All three are required.
- Articulation
- How clearly a speaker forms sounds. Judges cannot evaluate what they cannot understand.
- Attention getter
- The opening of a speech designed to earn the audience's attention before the thesis.
- The first speech in favor of a piece of legislation, given by its author, followed by two minutes of questioning.
- Autonomy
- A value claiming that people should govern themselves, common in Lincoln-Douglas frameworks.
B
- Ballot
- The judge's written decision and feedback. The most valuable thing a student takes home from a tournament.
- Ballot sentence
- The sentence you want the judge to write as the reason for decision. Say it out loud in your final speech.
- Bid
- A qualifying result at a designated tournament that earns entry to a championship such as the Tournament of Champions or a state final.
- Bill
- Legislation in Congressional Debate that proposes a law, with sections for enforcement, funding, and implementation.
- Block
- In Policy, the 2NC and 1NR taken together, thirteen minutes of negative speaking against a five-minute 1AR. Also a prewritten set of answers to an expected argument.
- Blocking
- The planned physical staging of an interpretation performance: where you stand, when you move.
- Breaking
- Advancing from preliminary rounds to elimination rounds.
- Brief
- A prepared file of evidence and arguments on a topic, sold commercially or shared free.
- Burden of proof
- The obligation to prove a claim. The affirmative carries it for the resolution; whoever makes a claim carries it for that claim.
- Burden of rejoinder
- The obligation to respond to arguments made against you. Failing it produces dropped arguments.
- Bye
- A round where an entry advances without debating because of an odd bracket.
C
- Card
- A piece of evidence: a tag, a full citation, and the quoted text with the read portion marked.
- Case
- The prepared speech that opens a debater's side, containing framework, contentions, and evidence.
- Case list
- A public record of the cases teams have read at tournaments, posted on a disclosure wiki.
- Categorical imperative
- Kant's test for moral rules: act only on principles you could will as universal law.
- Chamber
- The room and the group of competitors in a Congressional Debate session, usually twelve to twenty students.
- Claim
- The assertion an argument makes. Without a warrant it is a statement, not an argument.
- Clash
- Direct engagement between opposing arguments. Judges reward it and punish two speeches that never meet.
- Coin flip
- The Public Forum procedure that decides which team picks side or speaking order before the round.
- Collapse
- Narrowing the final speeches to the one or two arguments you are winning most clearly, and kicking the rest.
- Conceded
- An argument the other side did not answer. Treated as true as the debater explained it.
- Condo
- Conditionality: the negative's ability to advocate a counterplan or kritik and then abandon it. Often contested with theory.
- Consequentialism
- The family of moral theories that judge actions by their outcomes. Utilitarianism is the best-known member.
- Constructive
- A speech that builds a case, as opposed to a rebuttal that answers one.
- Contention
- A major argument in a case, usually with a claim, evidence, a warrant, and an impact.
- Counter-interpretation
- The rule you say you followed, offered in response to a theory or topicality argument.
- Counterplan
- A negative alternative policy that solves the affirmative harm without the plan's downsides, and that the affirmative cannot simply adopt.
- Criterion
- The standard a Lincoln-Douglas debater offers for measuring whether the value is achieved. Also called the value criterion or standard.
- Cross-examination
- The three-minute questioning period after a constructive in Lincoln-Douglas and Policy. Called CX.
- Crossfire
- The Public Forum questioning period, shared by the two debaters who just spoke. Grand crossfire involves all four.
- Cut a card
- To select the portion of a source you will read, format it with its citation, and add it to your file.
- Cutting
- Selecting and trimming published material into a ten-minute performance without changing the author's words.
D
- Decision
- Which side the judge votes for, separate from speaker points.
- Definition
- A stated meaning for a contested term in the resolution, supported by a dictionary, statute, or expert usage.
- Deontology
- The family of moral theories that judge actions by duties and rules rather than outcomes.
- Difference principle
- Rawls's rule that inequalities are just only if they benefit the least advantaged.
- Disadvantage
- A negative argument that the plan causes a new harm. Called a DA, built from uniqueness, link, internal link, and impact.
- Disclosure
- Posting the cases you read so opponents can prepare. Standard at national circuit tournaments, uncommon in novice divisions.
- District tournament
- The NSDA qualifier that sends students to the National Tournament. The Charlotte area is in the Carolina West district.
- Docket
- The list of bills and resolutions a Congressional Debate tournament will consider.
- Double win
- A result where both sides are advanced, used rarely in some formats or bracket situations.
- Drop
- An argument left unanswered. The most common way rounds are lost.
- Drop the argument
- A remedy for theory: the judge ignores the disputed argument but does not decide the round on it.
- Drop the debater
- A remedy for theory: the judge votes against the team that broke the rule. Reserved for serious abuse.
E
- Elimination round
- A bracketed round after preliminaries where the loser is eliminated. Called elims, out-rounds, or by name (octafinals, quarterfinals).
- Empirics
- Historical examples used as evidence that something has or has not happened before.
- Enacting clause
- The sentence in a Congressional bill that states it is enacted by the legislature.
- Evidence
- Material from a source used to support a claim. In debate it must be quoted accurately and cited fully.
- Evidence ethics
- The rules that govern honest evidence use: no altered quotations, no misrepresented sources, no fabricated citations. Violations lose rounds and can disqualify.
- Existential risk
- A risk that could end humanity or permanently destroy its potential.
- Extemporaneous
- Speaking prepared in a short window rather than memorized. Also the name of the event with thirty minutes of preparation.
- Extend
- To carry an argument from one speech to the next by restating it and its impact. An argument not extended cannot win the round.
F
- Fiat
- The convention that the judge evaluates whether the plan should happen, not whether it would pass. It removes political feasibility from the debate unless a disadvantage makes it relevant.
- Filler
- Sounds and words that fill pauses: um, like, so. The click drill removes them.
- Final focus
- The two-minute closing speech in Public Forum. No new arguments; tell the judge how to vote.
- First affirmative constructive
- The 1AC: the affirmative's opening speech, six minutes in Lincoln-Douglas and eight in Policy.
- First negative constructive
- The 1NC: the negative's opening speech, seven minutes in Lincoln-Douglas and eight in Policy.
- Floating PIK
- A kritik alternative that quietly includes most of the plan. Usually answered with theory.
- Flow
- The system of notes that tracks every argument and response across speeches. Also the verb for taking them.
- Focal point
- Where a performer looks to represent a character, so the audience knows who is speaking.
- Forfeit
- A loss recorded when a competitor does not appear for a round.
- Framework
- The lens the judge should use to evaluate the round: which impacts matter and how to compare them.
- Front-line
- To answer the responses made against your own case, usually in the second rebuttal in Public Forum.
G
- Grand crossfire
- The Public Forum questioning period after the summaries, involving all four debaters, usually seated.
- Ground
- The arguments available to each side. Fairness arguments claim an interpretation leaves one side without ground.
H
- Harms
- The problems in the status quo that an affirmative plan addresses.
I
- Impact
- The consequence of an argument, the reason it matters. Without it, an argument cannot be weighed.
- Impact calculus
- Comparing impacts by probability, magnitude, timeframe, and reversibility. Also called weighing.
- Impromptu
- A speech event with a total of seven minutes for preparation and delivery on a drawn prompt.
- Inherency
- The claim that the problem exists now and the current system will not solve it.
- Inherent barrier
- The specific obstacle in the status quo that prevents the harm from being solved without the plan.
- Internal link
- The step in an argument that connects the link to the impact.
- Interpretation
- The rule a theory or topicality argument says the opponent should have followed.
- Interpretation events
- Dramatic, Humorous, Duo, and Program Oral Interpretation: performing published literature without props or costumes.
- Intrinsicness
- An affirmative answer to a disadvantage arguing that a rational policymaker could do the plan and avoid the harm.
- Introduction
- The short section spoken as yourself in an interpretation piece, giving the title, author, and situation.
J
- Judge adaptation
- Changing delivery and argument selection to fit the judge in the room.
- Judge paradigm
- A judge's published statement of how they evaluate rounds.
- Judge quota
- The number of judges a school must supply based on how many entries it registers. CUDL covers this for partner schools.
K
- Kick
- To stop going for an argument, usually to spend time on a stronger one.
- Kritik
- An argument that the assumptions behind a case cause harm and should be rejected. Pronounced critique, often written K.
L
- Lay judge
- A judge without competitive debate experience, often a parent or community volunteer. Most novice rounds have one.
- Line by line
- Answering arguments in the order they appear on the flow, one at a time.
- Link
- The step showing that the plan or position causes the effect an argument describes.
- Link turn
- A response arguing that the plan prevents rather than causes the harm a disadvantage describes.
M
- Magnitude
- How large an impact is: how many people, how severely.
- Moral imperative
- An action a rational agent has a decisive moral reason to take. Stronger than a good idea.
- Motion
- The topic in World Schools debate, phrased as This House would or This House believes that.
- Mutual preference judging
- A system at some tournaments where teams rank judges and the tab room assigns mutually preferred ones. Called MPJ.
N
- Negative
- The side that opposes the resolution. Called neg in Lincoln-Douglas and Policy, con in Public Forum.
- Net benefit
- The advantage a counterplan has over the plan, usually avoiding a disadvantage the plan triggers.
- Non-identity problem
- Parfit's puzzle that choices determining which future people exist cannot straightforwardly wrong those people.
- Non-unique
- A response arguing that the harm a disadvantage describes is already happening, so the plan does not cause it.
- Novice
- A competitor in their first year. Most tournaments run a novice division.
- Novice division
- A tournament division limited to first-year competitors, judged by the same rules at a gentler pace.
O
- Off-case
- Negative arguments that are not direct answers to the case: topicality, disadvantages, counterplans, kritiks.
- On-case
- Negative arguments that answer the affirmative case directly.
- Oratory
- Original Oratory: a ten-minute memorized speech the student writes, with no more than 150 quoted words.
- Overview
- A short explanation at the top of a position that frames how the judge should see it before the line by line.
P
- Pairing
- The assignment of who debates whom, in which room, with which judge. Posted before each round.
- Paradigm
- See judge paradigm.
- Parliamentarian
- The adult who scores the session and rules on procedure in Congressional Debate.
- Permutation
- An affirmative argument that it can do both the plan and the counterplan, which tests whether the counterplan competes. Called a perm.
- Plan text
- The exact wording of what the affirmative proposes. Every word can be contested.
- Point of information
- A brief question or statement offered to a speaker mid-speech in World Schools debate, which the speaker may accept or decline.
- Point of order
- A motion in Congressional Debate that the rules are being violated.
- Policy debate
- The two-person format with a year-long resolution, an affirmative plan, and the most evidence of any event. Also called CX or team debate.
- Politics disadvantage
- A disadvantage claiming the plan consumes political capital and derails another priority. Uniqueness goes stale weekly.
- Popping
- Switching instantly between characters in an interpretation piece using posture, voice, and focal point.
- Precedence
- The Congressional Debate rule that students who have spoken fewer times are recognized first.
- Prelims
- Preliminary rounds, where every entry debates regardless of record.
- Prep time
- Time each side may use between speeches. Four minutes in Lincoln-Douglas, three in Public Forum, five or eight in Policy.
- Presiding officer
- The student elected to run a Congressional Debate chamber, tracking precedence and recency and stating motions.
- Prima facie
- On its face. A Policy affirmative must present a complete case in the 1AC that meets the stock issues.
- Pro
- The Public Forum side that supports the resolution.
- Probability
- How likely an impact is to happen as described. Often the strongest weighing mechanism against a large but speculative impact.
- Program Oral Interpretation
- A speech event combining selections from at least two genres around a theme, performed with a manuscript. Called POI.
- Public Forum
- The two-person format with current-events topics, crossfire, and lay judging. Called PF.
Q
- Qualifications
- The author's credentials, part of a full citation and a reason to prefer one card over another.
- Quarters
- Quarterfinals, the elimination round of eight.
R
- Rationale speech
- The final Big Questions speech: why the judge should vote for you, in plain language.
- Reason for decision
- The judge's written explanation of who won the deciding issue and why. Called RFD.
- Rebuttal
- A speech that answers arguments rather than building new ones.
- Recency
- The Congressional Debate rule that among students with equal speech counts, the one who spoke longest ago is recognized first.
- Refutation
- Answering an opponent's argument directly, by name.
- Reply speech
- The four-minute closing speech in World Schools debate, delivered by the first or second speaker.
- Resolution
- The statement being debated, written by the league and released on a schedule.
- Reversibility
- Whether an impact can be undone. A permanent harm outweighs a recoverable one of similar size.
- Rollback
- An argument that the plan would be reversed after enactment, undermining solvency.
- Round robin
- An invitation-only tournament where every entry debates every other entry.
- Running order
- The sequence of speeches in a format.
S
- Sectionals
- A qualifying tournament in some state associations, equivalent to a district tournament.
- Seeding
- How teams are ranked after preliminary rounds to set the elimination bracket.
- Severance
- Dropping part of your own advocacy to avoid an argument. Usually considered abusive and answered with theory.
- Signpost
- Saying where you are on the flow before you respond, so the judge can follow.
- The theory that political obligations come from an agreement, real or hypothetical, among free people.
- Solvency
- The claim that the plan actually fixes the harm. The weakest part of most novice cases.
- Source citation
- Naming the publication and date aloud in an Extemporaneous speech. Six to eight across a speech is typical.
- Speaker award
- Recognition for the highest speaker points in a division, separate from the bracket result.
- Speaker points
- A score for speaking quality, separate from the win, used to break ties and seed brackets.
- Speech drop
- Uploading a speech document to share with opponents and the judge before or during a round.
- Speech time
- The limit for each speech in a format, set by the league and enforced by the judge.
- Spending disadvantage
- A disadvantage claiming the plan's cost causes economic or fiscal harm.
- Spreading
- Speaking very fast to fit more arguments into a speech. Common on the national Policy circuit, penalized in most novice and lay rounds.
- Standards
- The reasons a theory or topicality interpretation is better, usually fairness and education.
- State championship
- The Tarheel Forensic League's spring tournament in North Carolina, with JV divisions for first- and second-year students.
- Status quo
- The world as it is now, before the plan.
- Stock issues
- Topicality, inherency, harms, solvency, and advantages: what a Policy affirmative must prove.
- Straight turn
- Taking a disadvantage and arguing both that the link is reversed and that the impact is good, which prevents the negative from kicking it.
- Structural violence
- Harm built into institutions rather than caused by an identifiable actor, such as poverty or exclusion.
- Summary
- The three-minute Public Forum speech that narrows the round and extends what matters.
T
- Tab room
- The tournament staff who build pairings, assign judges, and record results.
- Tabroom
- The website most tournaments use for registration, pairings, results, and judge paradigms.
- Tag
- The one-sentence claim written above a card, stating what the evidence proves.
- Tag team
- Partners helping each other during questioning. Allowed in some formats and tournaments, not others. Ask first.
- The opening section of an interpretation piece performed before the introduction.
- Theory
- An argument that the way an opponent debated was unfair or uneducational, asking the judge to reject the argument or the debater.
- Time signals
- Hand signals from the judge or timekeeper showing how much speech time remains.
- Timeframe
- How soon an impact happens. A near-term harm often outweighs a distant one of similar size.
- Topicality
- A procedural argument that the affirmative plan is not an example of the resolution. Called T.
- Trichotomy
- The three kinds of resolution: fact, value, and policy. Lincoln-Douglas resolutions are usually value resolutions.
- Turn
- A response arguing that the opponent's argument supports your side. Impact turns say the impact is good; link turns say the direction is reversed.
U
- Uniqueness
- The claim that the harm is not happening now, or that the good thing is happening now, so the plan makes the difference.
- Utilitarianism
- The view that the right action produces the greatest total well-being.
V
- Value
- The ultimate good a Lincoln-Douglas debater says the round should be judged by, such as justice or morality.
- Veil of ignorance
- Rawls's thought experiment: choose principles of justice without knowing your place in society.
- Virtue ethics
- The view that the right action is what a person of practical wisdom would do; morality is about character.
- Voter
- The reason a theory or topicality argument should decide the round, usually fairness or education.
W
- Warrant
- The reasoning that connects evidence to a claim: why the evidence proves the point.
- Weighing
- Comparing impacts so the judge does not have to guess which matters more. See impact calculus.
- Wiki
- A disclosure site where teams post the cases they read, with citations.
- World Schools
- The three-on-three format with prepared and impromptu motions, points of information, and no evidence files.
#
- 1AR
- The first affirmative rebuttal. Four minutes in Lincoln-Douglas, five in Policy, and the hardest speech in debate.
- 2AR
- The final affirmative rebuttal. Three minutes in Lincoln-Douglas, five in Policy. No new arguments.
- 2NR
- The final negative rebuttal. Six minutes in Lincoln-Douglas, five in Policy. The speech that chooses what the round is about.
For judges
You do not need all of these. Read the judging guide, learn dropped, extended, and weighing, and take the online judge training. Forty minutes is enough to judge a novice round well.
For students
Use the flashcard decks: forty core terms plus a deck for each current topic. Coaches run the deck as a ten-minute warm-up, one card per student.
New guides by email
About twice a month during the season.
Now use the words.
Draw a prompt, set the timer, and give a two-minute speech. That is how the vocabulary sticks.