Second Life Glossary

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This is the official comprehensive glossary of Second Life terms. This glossary is also available directly within the Viewer via the online help system.

A

abuse report
An official report of intentional or malicious violation of the Terms of Service that you can file. Choose Help > Report Abuse to display the Report Abuse window that enables you to submit an abuse report. See When and how to file an Abuse Report.

account
A basic, free Second Life account can access basic support and rent land on private estates. See also premium account.

Adult
See maturity rating.

Advanced menu
Contains advanced technical commands, officially unsupported. To display on Windows and Linux, press Ctrl+Alt+D; some systems require Ctrl+Alt+Shift ⇧+D. On Mac, press Ctrl+Opt ⌥+D. See Advanced Menu Guide.

Age Verification
An account status that indicates there is Resident-shown identification on file that verifies they're an adult. See What are the different types of Account Verification?.

agent
See avatar.

Agni
The public Second Life grid. See main grid.

alpha
In computer graphics, alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial transparency. Textured objects and avatars in Second Life can be rendered partially or completely transparent through the use of alpha masks.

alt
Short for "alternate account"; one person can have multiple Second Life accounts. See Alt Account FAQ.

animation
A set of instructions that causes an avatar to engage in a sequence of motions. You can use animations to make your avatar clap hands, dance, blow a kiss, and so on.

animation override
A scripted attachment that replaces standard animations (such as walk, jump, stand, run). Commonly abbreviated "AO."

asset
A data resource such as an image, sound, script, object, and so on; identified by UUID and type. An asset can be non-technically referred to as an item.

attachment
An object (for example: clothing, weapons, jewelry, or shoes) that can be attached to an avatar at a specific location, usually set by the object's creator (by default: right hand). See How to attach and detach objects from your avatar.

autoreturn
As a landowner, set auto-return to the number of minutes after which to return objects to their owners. Set to zero (0) to never return objects to their owners automatically. See About Land - Objects.

avatar
Representation of a Resident or bot in the Second Life virtual world.

avatar impostor
Performance-improving feature for rendering distant avatars. See Avatar Impostors.

B

baked
Freshly donned clothing will often look clear and sharply defined and then, a short time later, become fuzzy and clear again. Once this process occurs, the texture is said to be "baked."

ban
(1) Forbidding entry to a parcel, region, or estate. (2) A permanent termination of a Second Life account by Linden Lab, generally a consequence of violating the Terms of Service or Community Standards.

banlines
Lines of floating red letters spelling out "no entry" that appear on the boundaries of a land parcel from which you are banned.

banlist
List of Residents that the estate owner (or estate managers) has banned from the estate. To view or change (if you have rights to do so), choose World > Region/Estate, then select the Estate tab.

basic account
A standard, free Second Life account that can access basic customer support and rent land on private estates. See also premium account.

beacon
Colored locators that help you pinpoint certain objects. For instance, if you lost a physical ball that rolled off somewhere, or if you want to know which prims in your build contain scripts. Beacons will also work for avatars when appropriate, such as when an avatar plays a gesture with a sound.

block
To eliminate text chat from an object or text and voice chat from a Resident. To block someone, move your mouse over them inworld, click the inspector, then click the Gear Gear and choose Block.

body part
Inventory item types which contain customizable attributes of your avatar's appearance: shape, skin, hair, eyes. Unlike mesh clothing and attachments, you can't remove body parts — they must be swapped with other body parts of the same type.

bot
An avatar controlled by a software program, rather than by a human.

box
An object that contains contents that you need to unpack to use, such as clothing. See Opening boxes.

build
(v) To create/make something out of prims in Second Life. (n) Something built in Second Life. As in, "That zoo is a beautiful build!"

busy
A state in which your avatar does not hear nearby chat, other Residents' IMs receive the "busy mode" response, and you automatically refuse all inventory and teleport offers. Choose Me > My Status > Busy to set busy mode.

C

cache
A configurable area of your hard drive setup to load previously accessed data faster. Second Life has two caches: one for inworld content, such as object information, textures, and inventory item names, and another for webpages.

CS
Second Life Community Standards.

classified
Personal advertisement for a product, service, or other offering. Added as a pick in your profile.

clear cache
"Refreshing" the cache can help with various problems, such as allegedly missing inventory items.

click action
Makes an object easier to use with a single left-click. For example, sitting down or zooming in on an object. Click actions are set in Build Tools - General. Sometimes referred to in full as "left-click action." See Click action video tutorials.

coalesced object
Multiple objects that appear as one entry in your inventory, marked with the Inv item object multi.png icon. This can happen either via auto-return or when you select and take multiple objects together.

collision
When an object or avatar collides with something. Also, the LSL scripting calls related to collision events.

combat
Second Life has a built-in health system that is represented by , activated when Safe (no damage) is disabled. Scripted objects can be programmed to inflict damage on participants; when your health drops to 0%, you're teleported home. Unlike other virtual environments, death incurs no permanent penalties aside from a brief inconvenience. Non-consensual combat can be a violation of the Community Standards. Residents have also created their own combat systems when the built-in one was found lacking.

Community Standards
Second Life Community Standards, the basic rules that govern social interaction in SL.

contribution
An amount of land you voluntarily move from your personal land use tier into the allocation for a group to which you belong.

concierge account
An account that owns an estate, pays for an estate, or pays tier for more than half a region's worth of mainland parcels.

coordinate
Your position in 3D space represented in the form of a vector (x, y, z), visible in the Map window. These coordinates are the position in the sim ("sim-local", not "global").

copy
Object permission that controls whether you can make copies of an object. If allowed the object is said to have "copy permission," if not, it is no copy. Other permissions include: move, modify, and transfer. See How do I set permissions on an object?.

contents
An object's inventory, which can be transferred into a Resident's inventory or vice-versa, if permissions allow it. An object's contents enable interaction: for example, a plane contains scripts that model its physical behavior.

covenant
Agreement between an estate owner and Resident who purchases land in the estate. Specifies whether the land can be resold, zoning, code of conduct, and other restrictions. See Covenants.

crash logs
Information the Viewer can automatically send to Linden Lab when it crashes. You may also want to include crash logs when reporting a bug.

D

damage-enabled
See combat.

deed
To give a parcel of land or object to a group. A deeded object can also change parcel media information on a parcel with which it shares a group.

detach
To remove an item that has been attached to a specific part of your avatar’s body and return it to your inventory.

Destination Guide
Directory of some of the best inworld locations and Resident creations, curated by Linden Lab. The Destination Guide is available on the web and in the Second Life Viewer, by clicking the Destinations button. For more information, see Destination Guide FAQ.

display name
A name you choose that is visible to other Residents, both above your avatar and in chat logs. It is separate from your username and you can change it periodically. See Display names.

draw distance
How far you can see in the far distance. To change, choose Me > Preferences then select the Graphics tab to display the Preferences - Graphics window.

drop
To remove an attached item from your avatar and drop it on the ground, instead of returning it to your inventory.

E

estate
One or more regions with a single owner and a particular shared set of rules, such as banned users, sun position, and so on. Aside from the mainland, most estates are privately owned by Residents. See Estate FAQ and Land.

estate owner
The one Resident a privately-owned estate belongs to and is billed to. All estate owners are Concierge customers and have full powers over regions in their estate, including selling land, enforcing the covenant, resolving disputes, adding managers, and so on.

estate manager
Manager of a privately-owned estate who can assist the estate owner with administrative and other duties. See Estate Manager.

event
A group activity, led by a host, that starts and ends at specific times, listed on the Search/Events calendar.

F

face
One side of a prim.

facelight
An invisible attachment, sometimes scripted, that illuminates an avatar's face and body to enhance appearance. Commonly used in fashion photography.

favorites bar
Area near the top of the window, just below the location bar, where you can save often-used landmarks for ease of access. Right-click on the menu bar to show or hide the favorites bar.

flexible
Property of a prim that enables it to "flex" when it moves or is blown by the wind, such as flags and hair. To set, right-click on an object, choose Edit, select the Features tab; and select Flexible Path.

flexiprim
A flexible prim; also "flexi."

fly
One of the ways to move inworld. To fly, click Move, then Flying mode Flying mode or press f. Then click Fly Forward or Fly Backward icons; or press w, s, a, and d or , , , and . Move vertically up or down by clicking the Fly Up or Fly Down icons or press e or c. See also walk, run, and teleport.

flycam
Special camera view that allows a third-party device like a 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator to perform cinematic, freeform camera motions. Setup in Joystick Configuration.

full perm
Full permissions: You can freely copy, modify, and transfer objects with this permission.

Full Region
The region type that offers the highest performance, capable of supporting a maximum of 15,000 prims and 100 avatars.

G

General
See maturity rating.

gesture
An inventory item that triggers a combination of animations, sounds, and/or text chat. For example, your avatar saying "YAY!" in text chat while accompanied by a dance and happy music. Gestures are popularly shared as memes. See Gestures.

Governor Linden
Default owner of land on the mainland; abandoned land reverts to ownership by Governor Linden.

grid
A connected set of Second Life simulators, defining an individual virtual world. The main public Second Life grid is known as Agni; others exist for development and testing.

grid coordinates
The name of a region combined with three numbers between 0 and 255 for the X and Y (north-south & east-west) coordinates, and from 0 to 4,096 for the Z (up-down) coordinate. Higher altitudes are possible but uncommon.

griefing
An activity intended to make another Resident's life or experience in Second Life unpleasant. Choose Help > Report Abuse to report griefing.

group
An organization of two or more Residents that you can create or join. To see the groups you belong to, Communicate > Groups. For more information, see Groups Overview.

group title
Label designated for group members. By default, a group title appears over an avatar’s name when that group is active.

H

Havok 4
See physics.

HUD
Heads-up display, a 2D control panel for an object that only appears on the screen of the avatar wearing it. Some common uses of HUDs include avatar customization, vehicle dashboards, and game scoring systems.

home
Location to which you teleport when you click the Home icon, click Home in the World Map, window or when you "die." Choose World > Landmarks > Set Home to Here to set your home location. See Setting your Home location.

Homestead
A region type intended for lightweight uses such as low-density rentals, light commercial or quiet residential use. Homestead regions have lower usage limits than full regions. See About Homesteads.

I

inworld
In the Second Life virtual world.

infohub
A Linden Lab-owned information and social area.

IM
Instant Message. Private text conversation between two Residents. See Instant Message.

inspector
Dialog that appears when you hold your mouse pointer over objects or avatars inworld. Click to display a menu. See Inspector.

inventory
The collection of all the items that you own or have access to in Second Life; does not include items currently placed within the 3D world, but does include items attached to your avatar. Click My Inventory My Inventory or choose Me > My Inventory to display your inventory. See My Inventory and Managing_your_inventory.

invisiprim
A prim with a special transparent texture that "hides" most items behind it; a venerable workaround. See invisiprim.

island
One or more regions detached from the mainland and only accessible by teleportation.

Issue Tracker
The JIRA public issue tracker, a searchable database used to organize issues (bugs and feature requests) submitted by the Second Life community.

item
General term for all inventory asset types, like clothes, landmarks, and objects.

J

JIRA
See Issue Tracker.

K

kick
The forced log-off of a Resident from Second Life by a Linden.

Knowledge Base
Second Life Knowledge Base, the official site for documentation and other useful information on Second Life.

L

L$
See Linden dollar.

lag
Apparent slow response time when using the Second Life Viewer, with three basic sources: client lag due to processing power limitations of your computer running the Second Life Viewer, network lag due to communications latency and limitations, and server lag due to processing limitations of the Second Life simulator software. See Reducing lag.

land
An area of the Second Life virtual world. The smallest division of land is called a parcel; a region consists of one or more parcels. An estate consists of one or more regions. See also private estate, mainland.

landmark
Shortcut to a place in Second Life stored in your inventory. See How do I use Landmarks?

LDPW
Linden Department of Public Works, a program focused on improving the mainland. See LDPW.

library
Folder in your inventory containing stock content provided by Linden Lab. Works similarly to a "read-only shared drive" on a computer network: All Residents share the same content at all times, but can't change it. See Library.

lock
See Build Tools - Object.

limits
Second Life has many numerical limits about avatars, land, etc. See the comprehensive list.

Linden
An employee of Linden Lab, with the Second Life account last name "Linden."

Linden dollar
Abbreviated "L$", the unit of currency for all monetary transactions in Second Life. Use Linden dollars to pay for goods and services provided by other Residents. You can buy Linden dollars and exchange them for US dollars and other real-world currencies on the official Lindex and on other third-party exchanges.

Linden Home
A Linden Home is an easy "starter kit" for Premium account holders who want to have a virtual home in a themed community. Learn more.

Linden Lab
The company that makes and maintains Second Life. See lindenlab.com.

LindeX
Currency exchange service offered by Linden Lab. See LindeX™.

link
To connect multiple prims, so they act as as one unit, moving together and transferring to and from inventory together. See unlink. See also Link.

linkset
See link and object.

LSL
Linden Scripting Language. The programming language you can use to control the behavior of inworld objects. LSL has syntax similar to C. See the LSL Portal.

M

machinima
A combination of "machine" and "cinema" that refers to movies made in graphical 3D environments like Second Life. For example, a action-packed thriller starring avatars and featuring exotic builds. See machinima.

main grid
The primary Second Life grid to which users connect; other grids exist for testing and development.

mainland
Large land area created and designed by Linden Lab, owned by Governor Linden and with estate ID one. Residents with a premium account can buy mainland parcels and must pay a monthly land use fee when they own more than 512m2.

map
Choose World > World Map to display the World Map or World > Mini-Map to display the Mini-Map. See Map.

marketplace
Second Life Marketplace, the official website for buying and selling virtual items for use in Second Life.

mature
See maturity rating.

maturity rating
Regions, events, and other content are rated Parcel lght G.png General, Parcel lght M.png Moderate, or Parcel lght A.png Adult. For example, a region containing sexually explicit or intensely violent content is rated Parcel lght A.png Adult. "PG" and "Mature" are older terms being phased out. See Maturity ratings: an overview.

media
Rich content, such as a video or webpage, which can be displayed on a land parcel or on a prim's face.

mesh
A type of model created in an external application (such as Maya, 3DS Max, or Blender), exported to the COLLADA standard interchange format, and uploaded to Second Life. For more information, see Mesh.

mesh clothing
Clothing items which are not made of prims and can be found in the APPEARANCE EDITOR alongside body parts.

mini-map
Simplified small version of the world map. To display, choose World > Mini-map.

Moderate
See maturity rating.

morph
See Voice Morph.

Morph Pack
A packaged set of Voice Morphs, grouped by a common category. When you subscribe to a Morph Pack, you get access to all morphs in the pack for 30 days. Subscribing to the same pack again adds an additional 30 days to the expiration date.

MOTD
Message of the Day, that appears as you log into Second Life. See MOTD.

modify
Object permission that allows you to change properties, such as item name or scale, as well as delete the object. Other permissions include: copy, move, and transfer. See How do I set permissions on an object?.

Mono
Scripting engine used to run LSL scripts with increased performance.

move
Object permission that controls whether the object can be moved. Other permissions include copy, modify, and transfer. See How do I set permissions on an object?.

mouselook
Viewer mode in which you see from a first-person perspective. You still use the keyboard to move your avatar, but use the mouse to look around. To enter, click View, See as avatar See as avatar, then Mouselook View Mouselook View; to leave it, press Esc.

mute
See block.

N

Navigation Bar
Area near the top of the window just below the menu bar that displays your location inworld, buttons to teleport home, and your teleport history, along with other information about your current location.

non-physical
Avatars and other objects can pass through non-physical objects. Avatars may also become non-physical when seated on objects, which prevents them from being bumped or pushed.

notecard
Inventory item intended to convey some information; typically contains text, but may also contain embedded textures, snapshots, objects, or other notecards.

no-copy
Object permission that does not permit the current owner to make additional copies of the object. Compare to copy.

no-fly
Any land parcel that does not permit flying. You can fly through no-fly parcels, but as soon as you touch down and stop flying, you’ll be unable to fly again until you exit the no-fly parcel.

no-modify
Any object whose permissions do not permit the current owner to make changes to the object. These objects have (no modify) in their inventory name.

no-transfer
Any object whose permissions do not permit the current owner to resell or give away the object. These objects have (no transfer) in their inventory name.

NPIOF
No Payment Info on File

O

object
A collection of one or more linked prims (also referred to as a linkset). Not to be confused with item, since an object is a specific item type.

object bonus
A multiplier for the number of prims allowed on a parcel. May be between 1.0 (the default) and 10.0. For example, at 1.0 a 512m2 parcel is allowed 117 objects. Set at 2.0, a 512m2 parcel is allowed 234, or twice as many, and so on. The maximum number of prims per per region is 15,000, regardless of the object bonus. NOTE: Lowering the object bonus after builds have been established in a region may cause objects to be returned or deleted.

off world
When an object or avatar is sent out of the bounds of the grid. This usually results in it being returned to inventory, but on occasion, inventory loss may occur.

officer
A predefined group role that has more abilities than the Everyone role, but fewer abilities than the Owner role. Group members who are officers can change various group options.

Openspace
The "lightest" region type, limited to 750 prims and ten avatars, available for ownership by Residents who own at least one Full Region. See Information about Openspaces (Void Regions) and Openspaces FAQ.

P

packet loss
An error when a piece of data fails to make it from Second Life's servers to your computer. Significant packet loss results in perceivable network lag.

parcel
The smallest division of land in Second Life, at least 16m2, owned by a single Resident or group.

partner
An optional relationship listed in a Resident's profile. Partnership confers no special status; it's symbolic and can done be for business, romance, or just for fun. See Partnering.

Payment Information on File
A status shown in a Resident's profile indicating they have a valid billing relationship with Linden Lab. See What are the different types of Account Verification?

permission
Permissions include: copy, move, modify, and transfer. For more information, see How do I set permissions on an object?.

PG
See maturity rating.

physics
The Second Life virtual world is powered by the Havok 4 physics engine, which affects appropriate avatars and objects with calculated forces such as gravity and friction. See physics-enabled.

physics-enabled
When an object has the Physical flag set. See Build Tools - Object.

pick
Location in a Resident's profile that they have chosen to display; a profile can contain up to ten regular picks and unlimited classifieds.

premium account
Enables you to buy mainland, receive a monthly stipend, and to access premium support. See also account.

prim
Primitive, a 3D shape like a cube, sphere, or cone. More complex shapes are possible with sculpted prims. All Second Life objects are made of prims. Prim allocations are land-dependent; see creative ways to optimize prim usage.

private estate
See estate.

profile
Information about yourself that you share with other Residents, including an image, descriptive text, and picks. To view or edit your profile, choose the Profile tab in the sidebar.

push script
Script in an object that can exert physical force on avatars and other objects. For example, a gun capable of slamming blocks into a wall. When used in a consensual gaming environment, this can be desired, but push scripts are also be used for griefing. To prevent malicious use, push scripts can be disabled at the region and parcel levels. See llPushObject.

R

region
A named 256m x 256m (65,536 m²) area hosted on a sim. In common usage, the term "simulator" or "sim" may also refer to a region, but in fact a single server process can host multiple regions. See region type and maturity rating.

region type
There are three types of regions: Full, Homesteads, and Openspaces. See Private Region Types.

relog
A term for the action of selecting Me > Exit Second Life (Ctrl + Q), and then opening Second Life again. It's a first step to solving many problems, so if you don't know where else to start, try a relog.

Resident
A user of Second Life software and a participant in the Second Life virtual world. Always capitalize. See Resident.

rez
To create or to make an object appear inworld. To rez an object, drag it from your inventory or create a new one using the Build window.

rezday
The day a Resident's account is started. The Second Life equivalent of a "birthday."

rolling restart
Second Life server upgrades are done in waves, meaning a group of servers containing a set of regions is restarted, then another group, and so on. This is more resilient than shutting down all servers at once, because Linden Lab engineers can analyze if any problems occur along the way, while Residents can teleport to regions that are still up. Rolling restarts are announced in the Grid Status Reports.

run
One of the ways to move in Second Life. To run, click Move, then Running mode Running mode, or double-tap the W, S, A, and D keys. See also walk, fly, and teleport.

S

script
Executable objects (shown in inventory with the Inv item script.png icon) written in LSL that can affect how objects look, move, interact with avatars, and communicate. See LSL Portal.

scripted object
Object that has one or more scripts attached. Scripted objects can be made visible as a beacon through the View Menu.

sculptie
See sculpted primitive.

sculpted primitive
A prim whose shape is determined by an array of x, y, and z coordinates stored as RGB values in an image file; can create more complex, organic shapes than ordinary prims. Also called "sculpted prim."

Second Life
3D online virtual world created by Linden Lab, containing persistent content created by its Residents.

shout
Text chat (including by scripted objects) viewable within a 100m radius.

sim
Simulator, which can refer to a single region or the hardware or software simulating one or more regions.

skin
Texture image that replaces the default skin of your avatar, in inventory marked by the following icon: Inv item skin.png. Newly created skins appear in the Body Parts folder by default.

SLurl
Second Life URL, that identifies a location inworld. See Using SLurls.

snapshot
Picture taken inworld by clicking on Snapshot Snapshot.

stipend
Weekly allowance of Linden dollars paid to Residents with a premium account. See How do I get my stipend?

system folder
Special inventory folders that can't be moved inside of other folders or deleted. They are Animations, Body Parts, Calling Cards, Clothing, Current Look, Favorites, Gestures, Landmarks, Lost And Found, My Looks, Notecards, Objects, Photo Album, Scripts, Sounds, Textures, Trash. Related, see library.

T

Teen Second Life
Second Life grid for teens, ages 13-17, closed in January, 2011, when the main grid became open to users aged 16 and above.

telehub
Short for "teleport hub"; an optional landing point set by an estate owner or manager at which Residents arrive. See Telehub.

teleport
To instantly change your location inworld. One of the primary means of transportation in Second Life; see also walk, run, fly. See Teleporting and Landmarks Video Tutorial.

Terms of Service
The terms you agree to when you log into the Second Life virtual world. See Terms of Service.

terraform
To change the shape and elevation of land using the Land Tool. To terraform, right-click on the ground and choose Edit Terrain, or choose Build > Select Build Tool > Land Tool.

texture
An image that can be applied to the faces of a prim to give the appearance of a material. Textures appear in inventory and can also be put in a notecard.

tier
The maximum amount of land you can own. Tier isn't land itself, but is the potential to own land. There are different levels of tier as shown on Land Use Fees. For example, if you're you're at a tier level that allows you to hold 4,096 m2 of land, you can buy a 1024m2 and another 3072m2 parcel without exceeding your tier. But if you buy another parcel on top of that, your tier fees, and land allocation, increase. see Tier.

transfer
Object permission that allows the owner to transfer the object to another person. Other permissions include: copy, move, and modify. See How do I set permissions on an object?.

U

UUID
Universally Unique Identifier, a 128-bit (16 byte) value used to identify things in Second Life, including all types of objects, avatars, and groups. See UUID.

unlink
To disconnect a linked set of prims, so that they're separated into individual prims and no longer function as a unified group.

username
The unique identifier you use to log into Second Life. See Usernames.

V

vendor
Scripted object designed to sell objects to Residents.

Viewer
Program you run on your computer to use Second Life; sometimes referred to as the client. Capitalized when referring to the official Second Life Viewer from Linden Lab. Not capitalized when referring to third-party viewers.

voice chat
Feature of the Viewer that enables you to speak to and hear other Residents. Use a headset for the best experience. To enable or disable voice chat on a parcel, choose World > About Land, then click the SOUND tab. See Voice FAQ.

Voice Morph
A preset filter that changes the sound of your speaking voice to any listeners in voice chat. See Voice Morphing.

Voice Morphing
Feature of the Viewer that enables you to alter the sound of your speaking voice when using voice chat. To preview voice morphs and subscribe to morph packs choose Communicate > Voice Morphing.

W

walk
Default method of movement inworld. To walk, click Move, then click the Walk Forward or Walk Backward icons; or use the movement keys (W, S, A, and D or the arrow keys). See also run, fly, and teleport.

welcome area
Location inworld where new Residents arrive after leaving Orientation Island or Help Island. See Welcome Area Guidelines.

whisper
Voice chat (usually by a scripted object) audible within a ten-meter radius.

WindLight
Proprietary codename for Second Life's atmospheric rendering system that enhances the skies, lighting, and other graphical aspects. Found in the Advanced Sky Editor, "WindLight" is commonly used by Residents to refer to photographs and machinima that include such effects. See WindLight.

X

X-axis
East-West axis of the inworld coordinate system. When editing objects, represented by a red arrow.

Xstreet
Old Second Life web-based marketplace, now replaced by Second Life Marketplace.

Y

Y-axis
North-South axis of the inworld coordinate system. When editing objects, represented by a green arrow.

Z

Z-axis
Up-down (vertical) axis of the inworld coordinate system. When editing objects, represented by a blue arrow.