30 Must-Know Archery Terms, Phrases and Slang

66 archery terms explained, from nock, fletching and anchor to Robin Hood, dry fire and X-ring, plus the slang and sayings archery gave English.

What follows is archery terminology as it is actually spoken on the shooting line: the words related to archery that describe the gear, the words associated with archery that describe the shot itself, and the slang that only turns up once you have spent a few ends beside other archers. If you only need a quick answer, the archery glossary further down lists every term, plus a good number of archery words the list above does not cover.

Must-Know Archery Terms, Phrases and Slang:

1. Anchor Point
2. Arm Guard
3. Arrowhead
4. Bowstring
5. Bullseye
6. Clout
7. Compound Bow
8. Draw Weight
9. End
10. Fletching
11. Grip
12. Limb
13. Nock
14. Quiver
15. Recurve Bow
16. Release
17. Shaft
18. Sight
19. Stabilizer
20. Target
21. Vane
22. X-ring
23. Yoke
24. Overdraw
25. Point of Aim
26. Scoring Ring
27. Spine
28. Dry Fire
29. Finger Tab
30. Field Archery

Archery Glossary: Every Term A to Z

Term	What It Means
Anchor Point	The fixed spot on the face, usually the mouth corner or jaw, that the draw hand touches at full draw. It makes every shot repeatable.
Archer	Anyone who shoots a bow. Older words for the same person are bowman and, in competition circles, toxophilite.
Archer’s paradox	The way an arrow bends around the bow as it leaves the string and still flies straight at the target.
Arm Guard	A guard strapped to the forearm of the bow arm so the string cannot slap the skin on release.
Arrow	The projectile: shaft, point, nock and fletching. Crossbows shoot a shorter version called a bolt.
Arrowhead	The point at the front of the arrow. Target points are blunt and cheap, hunting points are broader and heavier.
Barebow	A recurve shot without sight, stabilizer or release aid. The archer aims off the point of the arrow or off a mark in the scenery.
Bolt	The short, heavy arrow shot from a crossbow. Also called a quarrel.
Bow	The frame that stores and releases the energy. The main families are longbow, recurve, compound and crossbow.
Bowman	An older word for an archer, especially a soldier armed with a bow.
Bowstring	The cord between the two limb tips. Drawing it loads the limbs, releasing it sends that energy into the arrow.
Brace height	The distance between the bowstring and the deepest point of the grip on a strung bow.
Broadhead	A hunting arrowhead with sharp cutting blades, as opposed to a target point.
Bullseye	The centre circle of the target, worth the most points. Hitting it repeatedly is the whole point of target archery.
Butt	The backing that the target face is pinned to, usually straw or dense foam. It stops the arrow without damaging it.
Clicker	A thin blade on a recurve riser that clicks off the arrow at full draw, telling the archer the draw length is reached.
Clout	A long distance format where archers shoot at a flag lying in the field rather than a target face. Score depends on how close the arrow falls to the flag.
Cock feather	The odd-colored fletching that is set to point away from the bow.
Compound Bow	A bow with cams and cables that cuts the holding weight at full draw, so the archer can aim longer without shaking.
Crossbow	A short bow mounted crosswise on a stock, drawn mechanically and held cocked until the trigger is pulled.
D-loop	A short loop of cord tied onto a compound bowstring for the release aid to clip onto.
Draw	Pulling the string back to the anchor point. The whole sequence from raising the bow to release is the draw cycle.
Draw Weight	The force in pounds needed to pull the string to full draw. More weight means a faster arrow and a harder hold.
Dry Fire	Releasing the string with no arrow on it. The energy goes into the bow instead of the arrow and can wreck it.
End	A set of arrows shot before anyone walks up to score, normally three or six.
Field Archery	Shooting a course of targets at unmarked or varied distances through woods and slopes, closer to hunting than to a flat range.
Finger Tab	A flat piece of leather or synthetic material over the draw fingers, so the string leaves cleanly and the fingers stay whole.
Fistmele	The traditional brace height measure: a fist with the thumb raised, the height an English longbow string should stand from the grip.
Fletching	The feathers or plastic vanes at the back of the arrow that steady it in flight.
Flu-flu	An arrow with large, spiral feathers that slow it down quickly, used for shooting at birds or targets in the air.
Grip	The part of the riser the bow hand rests on. A relaxed grip stops the hand from twisting the bow at release.
Grouping	How tightly a set of arrows lands together. Archers judge form by group size before they worry about where the group sits.
Kisser	A small button on the string that touches the lips at full draw as a second anchor reference.
Let-off	The share of the peak draw weight a compound bow takes off the archer’s fingers at full draw, often around 70 or 80 percent.
Limb	The flexing upper and lower arms of the bow. They store the energy the string delivers.
Longbow	A tall, simple bow with limbs that curve in one direction only, shot without sights in traditional classes.
Loose	The command to shoot, and an older word for the release itself.
Nock	The slot at the back of the arrow that clips onto the string. Nocking an arrow means fitting it there.
Nocking point	The marker on the bowstring that sets where the arrow is nocked, so every arrow leaves at the same height.
Overdraw	Pulling the string past what the bow is built for. It adds strain to the limbs and risks damage.
Peep Sight	A small ring set into the bowstring that the archer looks through to line the sight up with the target.
Plunger	A spring-loaded button on the side of the riser that cushions the arrow and helps tune its flight.
Point of Aim	Aiming off a mark in the surroundings rather than at the target, used when no sight is fitted.
Quiver	The container for arrows, worn on the back, on the hip, or bolted to the bow.
Recurve Bow	A bow whose limb tips curve away from the archer, which stores more energy than a straight limb of the same length. The Olympic bow is a recurve.
Release	Letting the string go. Also the mechanical trigger many compound archers use instead of fingers.
Release aid	A mechanical trigger device that holds and releases the string, used by compound archers.
Riser	The rigid middle section of the bow that carries the grip, the sight, the rest and the limbs.
Robin Hood	An arrow that lands in the back of an arrow already in the target and splits it. Expensive, and everybody photographs it.
Scoring Ring	One of the concentric circles on the face. The inner rings are worth more, the outermost the least.
Serving	The thread wrapped around the middle and the loops of the bowstring to protect it from wear.
Shaft	The body of the arrow, made from carbon, aluminium or wood.
Shooting line	The line archers stand astride or behind while shooting. Nobody goes forward of it until the line is called clear.
Sight	The aiming aid on the riser, from a single fixed pin to an adjustable target sight with a scope.
Spine	The stiffness of the shaft. Too soft or too stiff for the bow and the arrow leaves the string flexing off line.
Stabilizer	A rod, or set of rods, screwed into the riser to damp vibration and hold the bow steady through the shot.
Stringer	A cord with pockets for the limb tips, used to string a recurve bow safely.
Target	The face the archer shoots at, normally concentric rings on paper or foam.
Target Panic	A learned flinch that stops an archer from holding on the middle or from releasing cleanly. Common, and slow to unlearn.
Toxophilite	A formal word for an archer, from the Greek for bow and lover. It survives mostly in club names.
Triple spot	An indoor target face with three small vertical spots, one arrow per spot, so arrows do not damage each other.
Valley	The low point of a compound bow’s draw cycle, where the holding weight is lightest, just before the back wall.
Vane	A plastic fletching. Vanes shrug off rain better than feathers, feathers forgive a rough rest better than vanes.
Waiting line	The line behind the shooting line where archers wait for their turn to shoot.
X-ring	The inner ring inside the bullseye. It scores the same as a ten but breaks ties.
Yoke	The split cable end on a compound bow that attaches to both sides of a limb. Twisting it tunes how the bow leans and shoots.

What Is It Called When…? Archery Terms by Situation

Know what happened but not the word for it? Find the situation on the left and the archery term on the right.

When…	It Is Called
The second arrow splits the first one in the target	Robin Hood
The string is released with no arrow on it	Dry fire
An arrow is fitted onto the string	Nocking
The string is pulled back to shoot	Drawing
The string leaves the fingers	Release (loose)
A bow is strung but not drawn	Braced
A set of arrows is shot before scoring	End
Archers stand side by side to shoot	Shooting line
Arrows land close together	Grouping
An arrow lands in the smallest center ring	X
An arrow touches the line between two rings	Line cutter
The arrow bends around the bow as it leaves	Archer’s paradox
The holding weight drops at full draw on a compound	Let-off
A bow is shot without sight or stabilizers	Barebow
An archer cannot hold on the gold and lets go early	Target panic
The arrow is drawn back past the rest	Overdraw
The drawing hand stops at the same spot on the face	Anchor point
Someone loves and studies archery	Toxophilite

#1 Anchor Point

The fixed spot on the face where the drawing hand or the string comes to rest at full draw, such as the corner of the mouth, the chin or the side of the jaw. The anchor sets the rear end of the aim, so it has to be identical on every shot. Many target archers add a second reference by touching the string to the tip of the nose.

In a sentence: “Your anchor drifted on that end, that’s why the last three went high.”

#2 Arm Guard

A strap-on guard worn on the inside of the bow arm, between wrist and elbow. It protects the forearm from the string, which can slap it hard on release, and keeps a loose sleeve out of the string’s path. A string that keeps hitting the arm usually means the elbow of the bow arm is rotated into the string’s path.

In a sentence: “Put the arm guard on, you’ll thank me after the first slap.”

#3 Arrowhead

The tip of the arrow, also called the point or pile. Target archers use simple bullet-shaped target or field points, hunters use broadheads with cutting blades. Points are sold by weight in grains, and a heavier point makes the arrow behave as if its shaft were weaker.

In a sentence: “Swap to the 100-grain points and see if the group tightens.”

#4 Bowstring

The string that joins the two limb tips and drives the arrow. Modern strings are made of low-stretch synthetic fibers, with a wrapped section in the middle called the serving where the arrow is nocked. The gap between string and grip on a strung bow is the brace height, and it changes both the noise and the tune of the bow.

In a sentence: “That string has thousands of shots on it, time to make a new one.”

#5 Bullseye

The center of the target, worth the most points. On a standard World Archery face the inner gold ring scores 10, and a still smaller ring inside it, the X, is used to break ties. Archers in Britain often just call the center the gold.

In a sentence: “Two of those three are in the bullseye, go and score them.”

#6 Clout

A long-distance discipline in which archers shoot high arcs at a small flag stuck in the ground, at up to 180 yards for men. Arrows are scored by how far they land from the flag, measured with a marked rope pulled around it. The name comes from the piece of cloth that marked the target in medieval practice.

In a sentence: “Aim well above the flag, the clout drops a long way at that distance.”

#7 Compound Bow

A bow that uses cams and cables at the limb tips to bend its short, stiff limbs. The cams create let-off: at full draw the holding weight drops to a fraction of the peak weight, so the archer can aim longer without shaking. Compound archers shoot with a mechanical release aid, a peep sight in the string and a magnifying scope.

In a sentence: “With a compound bow you can hold at full draw almost as long as you like.”

#8 Draw Weight

The force, in pounds, needed to pull the string back to a given draw length. Recurve limbs are labeled at a standard 28 inch draw, so an archer with a longer draw pulls more than the label says. Beginners are usually started on light limbs, because a heavy bow ruins form long before it adds any accuracy.

In a sentence: “Drop the draw weight, you’re fighting the bow instead of shooting it.”

#9 End

A set of arrows shot before the archers walk forward to score and collect them. Outdoor target rounds use ends of six arrows, indoor rounds ends of three, and a whistle or a light tells the line when it may shoot and when it is safe to go forward. It is also the usual crossword answer for a set of arrows.

In a sentence: “Last end, six arrows, and she needs 55 to make the cut.”

#10 Fletching

The vanes or feathers on the back of the arrow that steer and stabilize it in flight. Most arrows carry three, and the odd-colored one, the cock feather or index vane, is turned so it does not strike the bow. Feathers forgive contact with the riser better, plastic vanes survive rain and rough handling.

In a sentence: “You’ve torn the fletching on that one, put it aside before the next round.”

#11 Grip

The part of the riser held by the bow hand, and also the way the hand holds it. Good archers do not squeeze: the bow pushes into the pad of the thumb, and a finger sling keeps it from dropping after the shot. A tight grip twists the bow and sends arrows left or right.

In a sentence: “Relax the grip and let the bow fall into the sling.”

#12 Limb

One of the two flexible arms above and below the riser that bend and store energy as the string is drawn. On a takedown recurve the limbs slot into the riser and can be swapped for stronger ones as the archer progresses. A cracked or twisted limb means the bow is put away until it is replaced.

In a sentence: “Order the next limbs four pounds heavier.”

#13 Nock

The plastic slot at the back of the arrow that clips onto the string. It is also a verb: to nock an arrow is to fit it onto the string. The nocking point is a small brass or thread marker on the string that puts every arrow at the same height.

In a sentence: “Nock your arrows and wait for the whistle.”

#14 Quiver

The holder for arrows that are not being shot. Target archers wear a hip quiver on a belt, traditional archers often a back quiver, and hunters use a bow quiver fixed to the bow itself. Most designs hold the arrows point down so the fletching stays undamaged.

In a sentence: “Count your arrows back into the quiver before you leave the target.”

#15 Recurve Bow

A bow whose limb tips curve away from the archer when it is strung. The curve stores more energy than a straight limb of the same length, so a shorter bow shoots a faster arrow. The recurve is the bow of the classic Olympic archery events, shot at a target 70 meters away.

In a sentence: “An Olympic recurve looks simple until you add the sight, clicker and stabilizers.”

#16 Release

The moment the string leaves the fingers, called the loose in older English. A clean release is passive: the fingers stop holding rather than being pulled off the string. Compound archers fire with a mechanical release aid clipped to a loop on the string.

In a sentence: “That release was a pluck, look how far your hand flew out.”

#17 Shaft

The main body of the arrow between point and nock. Shafts are made of aluminum, carbon, a mix of the two, or wood for traditional archery. Each model comes in different stiffnesses, and the right one depends on the archer’s draw weight and draw length.

In a sentence: “Carbon shafts are lighter, but these aluminum ones are fine while you’re learning.”

#18 Sight

The aiming device on the riser, with a pin or aperture that the archer holds on the gold. It is moved up and down for distance and sideways for wind. The rule is to move the sight toward the arrows: if the group is high, the sight goes up.

In a sentence: “Your group is high and left, so move the sight up and left.”

#19 Stabilizer

A rod with weights screwed into the front of the riser, often combined with two short side rods. The extra mass resists twisting at full draw and absorbs vibration after the shot, so the bow moves less while the arrow is leaving.

In a sentence: “Add a weight to the long rod and see if the pin settles.”

#20 Target

The scoring face and the boss it is pinned to. A standard World Archery face has ten rings in five colors: white, black, blue, red and gold from the outside in. The large 122 cm face is used outdoors at long distance, smaller faces and triple spots indoors.

In a sentence: “Check the face is pinned straight before the first end.”

#21 Vane

A plastic fletching, as opposed to a feather. Vanes are durable and waterproof, which is why they dominate compound and outdoor target archery. Very thin, curved spin vanes make the arrow rotate quickly for a stable flight.

In a sentence: “One vane is peeling off, don’t shoot that arrow.”

#22 X-ring

The small ring inside the 10 at the very center of the target. On a recurve face an X still scores 10, but the count of Xs breaks ties. Compound archers shoot at faces where only this inner ring counts as 10.

In a sentence: “Same score, but she shot nine Xs to his seven, so she goes through.”

#23 Yoke

The split end of a cable on a compound bow, attached to both sides of the cam’s axle. Twisting one leg of the yoke and untwisting the other leans the cam, which is how archers fix left or right tears when they paper tune.

In a sentence: “Give the left side of the yoke two twists and shoot through paper again.”

#24 Overdraw

Two meanings. Drawing an arrow so far that the point comes back inside the riser is overdrawing, and it is dangerous because the arrow can drop off the rest and shatter. An overdraw is also a shelf that moves the arrow rest behind the riser, once common on compound bows to allow shorter, lighter arrows.

In a sentence: “Never shoot arrows shorter than your draw, you’ll overdraw them into your hand.”

#25 Point of Aim

The spot an archer aims at when shooting without a sight, which is often not the center of the target. A barebow archer may put the arrow point on the bottom edge of the face at one distance and on the gold at another. Finding it for each distance is the basic skill of barebow and instinctive shooting.

In a sentence: “At 18 meters my point of aim is right on the blue.”

#26 Scoring Ring

One of the ten rings on the face, numbered 1 to 10 from the outside in. An arrow that touches the line between two rings scores the higher value, and the shaft decides, not the size of the hole. No arrow may be touched until the whole end has been scored.

In a sentence: “That one’s touching the line, it’s a nine.”

#27 Spine

The stiffness of an arrow shaft, measured by how far it bends under a fixed weight. Every arrow flexes as the string pushes it, which is called the archer’s paradox, and the spine has to suit the bow’s weight and the arrow’s length, or the arrows fly sideways and will not group.

In a sentence: “Those arrows are far too weak in spine for 40 pounds.”

#28 Dry Fire

Releasing the string without an arrow on it. The energy that should go into the arrow goes back into limbs, string and cams, which can crack a limb, snap the string or throw the cable off a compound cam. Manufacturers often exclude dry-fire damage from the warranty.

In a sentence: “Never let it go empty, one dry fire can wreck those limbs.”

#29 Finger Tab

A flat leather or synthetic pad worn on the drawing fingers by recurve and barebow archers. It protects the skin from the string and gives a smoother release than bare fingers. Most tabs have a spacer between the index and middle finger so the nock is not pinched.

In a sentence: “Get a smaller tab, half of that one hangs past your fingers.”

#30 Field Archery

A discipline shot on a course through woods and rough ground, with targets at varied distances, uphill and downhill. World Archery field rounds mix marked and unmarked distances, so archers have to judge the range themselves, and the faces are black with a yellow center.

In a sentence: “Field archery is the best practice there is for judging distance.”

Archery Slang Players and Fans Actually Use

Slang	What It Means
Robin Hood	An arrow that lands in the back of another arrow and splits it. Proof of a tight group and an expensive one.
Gold	The center of the target, from its color. “Shooting golds” means hitting the 9 and 10 consistently.
Flyer	An arrow that lands well away from the group although the shot felt normal, often blamed on a damaged arrow.
Line cutter	An arrow touching the line between two scoring rings. It gets the higher score.
Plucking	Pulling the string hand away from the face at release instead of letting the fingers relax.
Creeping	Letting the arrow slide forward a little before release, which costs power and height.
Punching the trigger	Slapping a release aid’s trigger the moment the pin hits the center, a habit that leads to target panic.
Bounce-out	An arrow that hits the target and falls back out. Rules allow it to be scored if the mark it left is clear.
Pass-through	An arrow that goes right through the target boss and ends up behind it.
Stump shooting	Wandering through woods and shooting at stumps and clumps of grass for practice, usually with blunt points.
Stacking	The sharp rise in draw weight at the end of the draw on some bows, felt as the bow suddenly getting much harder to pull.

Archery Expressions and Sayings in Everyday English

• Hit the bullseye: To get something exactly right. From the center of the archery target, the most valuable spot to hit.
• A second string to your bow: A backup plan. Medieval archers carried a spare bowstring in case the first one broke.
• Straight as an arrow: Perfectly straight, and of a person, completely honest. A good arrow is the image of a straight line.
• Point-blank: From so close that no aiming is needed. Usually traced to the point blank, the white center of an old target, close enough to shoot at without allowing for drop.
• Wide of the mark: Inaccurate or wrong. The mark was the target, and a wide arrow missed it to the side.
• The upshot: The final result of something. In old archery contests the upshot was the last shot of the match.
• Shoot your bolt: To use up all your effort or resources at once. A bolt is a crossbow arrow, and the old proverb says “a fool’s bolt is soon shot”.

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