Special Operations Glossary

Home > Special Operations Glossary

The Special Forces community and the military services in general use a multitude of words, phrases, terms, and acronyms in its vocabulary, documentation, correspondence, and publications. This glossary is intended to aid those unfamiliar with specific special operations terminology as well as common military terms and definitions.

Select a letter or # to locate the term you are looking for:

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M

N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X| Y | Z | #

To search for the term, acronym or phrase click on the first letter above.

Definitions provided in this glossary are from all sorts of sources, publications, documents, and personal knowledge. The Department of Defense, Army and Special Operations community will change the wording and meaning of definitions over the course of time - so there are many definitions available. Many agencies will define a phrase or word differently; consider the term "terrorism" and the many available definitions for that word.

Other Special Operations and Military
Dictionaries and Glossaries Online

Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms. Joint Publication 1-02, 8 November 2010. Accessed on the website of the Defense Technical Information Center at Fort Belvoir, VA. www.dtic.mil/doctrine/new_pubs/jp1_02.pdf

Special Forces and Special Operations Glossary. By the author Michael Smith. A glossary of US and UK spec ops terminology. Click here to access the Adobe Acrobat PDF file at www.michaelsmithwriter.com

Glossary of SOF Operations. International SOF and Counterrorist Operations - Code Names by Special Operations.com at www.specialoperations.com/Operations/opslist.html

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms for Vietnam. Compiled by LTC Nelson J. Garcia (Ret.) located at www.thespecialforce.com/glossary.htm

Israeli Special Forces Glossary Guide. www.isayeret.com/guides/glossary.htm

Glossary of Military Terms & Slang from the Vietnam War. Compiled by the Sixties Project of Viet Nam Generation, Inc. To access the glossary click here.

Glossary from FM 34-36, Special Operations Forces Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Operations, GlobalSecurity.org.
www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/policy/army/fm/34-36/gloss.htm

Glossary, style guide and Web index about the U.S. military for writers and editors. By Maurreen Skowran and Thomas Ruyle.
www.militarystyle.us

Glossary: List of Terms and Acronyms. By Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS).
www.diils.org/glossary

Defence IQ. A glossary of keywords, acronyms and general terminology used in the defense industry and community. By Defence IQ, a division of IQPC.
www.defenceiq.com/glossary/

Military Slang. By WikipediA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_slang

AC-119 Gunship Glossary. Terms used by Air Force Gunship crews and others during Vietnam operations.
www.ac-119gunships.com/glossary/glossary.htm

Glossary for the "Afghanistan -The War Logs". Compiled by The Guardian.
www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/2010/jul/25/wikileaks-afghanistan-war-logs-glossary

Blackhawk Down Glossary. Glossary of terms used for the "Blackhawk Down" battle of Mogadishu, Somalia. Compiled by the Philadelphi Inquirer.
Philadelphia Online | Blackhawk Down

Vietnam Veteran's Terminology and Slang.
www.vietvet.org/glossary.htm

National Guard Glossary. By Texas Army National Guard.
www.txarng.com/HTML/guardglossary.html

Glossary of Terms: The Contra Story by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
www.cia.gov/library/contra-story/glossary.html

Glossary for HBO's Generation Kill.
www.hbo.com/generation-kill/inside/glossary/

Glossary of Acronyms and Terms, The Pentagon Papers on Mount Holyoke College website.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pentagon/glossary.htm

Psychological Warfare Glossary by psywar.org.
www.psywar.org/glossary.php

Glossary of Words Used during Vietnam War.
www.1stcavmedic.com/glossary.html

A CINCPAC glossary of commonly used abbreviations, acronyms, and short titles. By RiverVet.com.
www.rivervet.com/glossary.htm

Glossary of UN Peacekeeping Terms. The United Nations.
www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/sites/glossary/index.html

Glossary of Spy Terms. By The Master of Disguise.
www.themasterofdisguise.com/glossary.html

Glossary of Intelligence Terms. Central Intelligence Agency.
www.cia.gov/library/reports/glossary.html

Glossary of Intelligence Terms. UK Secret Intelligence Service MI6.
www.sis.gov.uk/glossary.html

Spy Words, Terms and Codes Glossary. By Intelligence Search.
www.intelligencesearch.com/spy-codes.html

Return to Top of Page

Home > Special Operations Glossary