The Chewbr Creator Glossary

1535 YouTube creator terms, defined in plain language.

From algorithm mechanics to monetisation, organised across 16 categories that follow the same five phases as the Chewbr checklist. Search, jump to a letter, or browse by category — every term has its own page you can share directly.

1,535terms16categories5phases

Search the glossary

1535 terms — browse by letter or category, or search

Browse by category

Planning, Scripting & Ideas Channel Strategy & Niche Algorithm, Search & Distribution Filming & Production Editing & Post-Production Audio, Music & Licensing Gear, Software & Workflow Packaging: Titles, Thumbnails & Hooks Policy, Copyright & Compliance Shorts & Vertical Video Live Streaming & Premieres Analytics, Retention & Metrics Monetisation & Revenue Audience, Community & Membership Brand Deals, Sponsorship & Business Other Platforms & Creator Culture

A

A-rollA roll, primary footageA-roll is the main footage carrying a video's story, usually the talking head. What makes it A-roll is the job it does in the edit.
Abbreviated subscriber countrounded subscriber count, public subscriber countThe rounded subscriber figure YouTube shows the public. Your exact number sits in Studio, which is why the public one looks stuck.
About sectionchannel description, about tabThe panel on a YouTube channel holding its description, links, contact email and stats such as join date and total views.
Abridged seriesabridged, abridging, fan abridged seriesA fan re-edit of an existing show, usually anime, cut down and re-dubbed with new comic dialogue over the original footage.
Absolute audience retentionabsolute retentionThe retention curve showing what share of a video's viewers are still watching at each moment of it.
Acoustic Treatmentroom treatment, acoustic panels, sound treatmentAbsorption placed in a room to stop sound bouncing off hard surfaces. It fixes how a room sounds and does nothing about noise coming in.
Action cameraGoPro, action camA small rugged wide-angle camera made for point-of-view and moving shots, in places a normal camera would not survive.
Ad Auctionauction, real-time biddingThe real-time bidding that decides which advertiser wins a given ad slot and what they end up paying for it.
Ad Blockeradblock, ad blockingSoftware that stops ads loading in the browser. The view still counts, it just arrives with no ad revenue attached.
Ad Breakbreak marker, ad slotA single point in a video where YouTube can serve advertising, whether before playback, during the video, or at the end.
Ad Impressionsimpressions served, ad impressionThe count of individual ads shown against a channel's videos, which runs higher than the number of videos watched.
Ad Inventoryinventory, available impressionsThe supply of ad slots available for advertisers to buy against content. When supply outruns demand, the rate creators earn falls.
Ad Loadad density, number of adsHow many ads a viewer meets across a video or a session, counting the one before it starts, any breaks inside, and whatever follows.
Ad Revenueadvertising revenue, ads moneyAd revenue is the money a creator keeps from ads served against their videos. Creators take roughly 55% of it and YouTube keeps 45% after fees.
Adaptive bitrate streamingABRDelivery that keeps several quality versions of the same stream ready and moves the viewer between them as their connection changes.
Add Yours stickerAdd YoursA Shorts sticker carrying a prompt, which viewers answer with their own Short, chaining every response back to the video that started it.
Adjacent Nicheniche adjacency, adjacent audience, neighbouring nicheA neighbouring topic whose audience overlaps enough with yours that you can expand into it without losing the viewers you already have.
Adjustment layereffects layerAn empty layer on the timeline whose effects apply to everything beneath it, so one change hits many clips.
Adobe After EffectsAfter Effects, AEAdobe's compositing and motion graphics application, used for animated titles, tracked graphics, keying and visual effects work.
Adobe PhotoshopPhotoshop, PSDAdobe's raster image editor, and the default thumbnail tool for creators who want real control over layers, masks and type.
Adobe Premiere ProPremiere, Premiere ProAdobe's subscription non-linear editor, widely used across broadcast, agency and creator work, and closely tied to After Effects.
AdpocalypseThe creator name for the waves of advertiser pullout, beginning in 2017, that brought mass demonetisation and much tighter ad rules.
AdSenseGoogle AdSense, AdSense account, AdSense for YouTubeThe Google product that holds a creator's YouTube earnings and pays them out; ad revenue requires a linked AdSense account.
AdSense PIN VerificationPIN verification, address verification, AdSense PINGoogle posts a six-digit code to your payment address, and you enter it in AdSense to prove you live there before any payout.
Advanced modeStudio advanced mode, advanced analyticsThe deeper YouTube Analytics view, opened from the top right, with sortable tables, extra dimensions and comparisons the summary screens leave out.
Advertiser-Friendly Content GuidelinesAFCG, advertiser friendly guidelines, ad-friendly guidelinesYouTube's rules on what advertisers will pay to sit beside, deciding whether a video carries full ads, limited ads or none.
Advertising Standards AuthorityASAThe UK advertising regulator, which applies the CAP Code to creator posts and publishes rulings when a brand deal is not clearly labelled.
Affiliate Disclosuredisclosure, commission disclosureThe statement telling viewers a link earns you commission. It has to sit where they will actually meet it, in the video as well as the description.
Affiliate Hubshopping affiliate hubThe area of YouTube Studio where approved creators browse brands and products, see commission rates, and pick items to tag in their videos.
Affiliate Linkreferral link, commission linkA tracked URL that credits you with a commission when someone clicks it and then buys.
Affiliate Marketingaffiliate income, affiliate revenueEarning a commission by sending buyers to someone else's product, tracked through a unique link or code.
Affiliate Networkaffiliate platform, affiliate programme networkA platform that hosts many brands' affiliate programmes in one place, handling the tracking links, the reporting and the payouts.
Age estimationage assurance, age inferenceYouTube inferring whether an account belongs to an adult from behaviour rather than the birthday typed in at signup.
Age restrictionage-gating, age gate, 18+A gate limiting a video to signed-in viewers aged 18 and over, applied either by the creator or by YouTube's reviewers.
AI citationLLM citation, AI source link, AI mentionBeing named or linked as a source inside an answer from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews or any similar system.
AI clipping toolOpus Clip, auto clipper, clip generatorSoftware that pulls short vertical clips out of a long video automatically, cutting, reframing and captioning each one.
AI crawlerGPTBot, Google-Extended, LLM crawler, AI botBots that fetch pages and video content, either to train AI models or to ground an AI product's answer in something it can cite.
AI influencervirtual influencer, AI personaA wholly synthetic persona run as a creator account, with a generated face, voice and posting history behind a brand or an operator.
AI ModeGoogle AI ModeGoogle's conversational search surface, where a Gemini-written answer with source links replaces the usual list of blue links.
AI OverviewsGoogle AI Overviews, AI snapshot, SGEGoogle's AI-written summary at the top of search results, assembled from web pages and shown with links to the sources it used.
AI slopslopMass-produced, low-effort AI content flooding feeds and search results. An insult first, and now also a target for platform moderation.
AI Voice Clonevoice cloning, synthetic voice, voice modelA model trained on recordings of a real voice, used to generate new speech in that voice from typed text.
AI-Generated MusicAI music, generative music, AI-composed musicTracks produced by generative models. Fast and cheap, sitting on ownership questions the law has not settled yet.
AIDA formulaAIDA, attention interest desire actionA copywriting sequence, attention then interest then desire then action, borrowed for hooks and sponsor reads.
Algorithm anxietyalgo anxietyThe stress of depending on a distribution system you cannot see or predict, and the posting behaviour that stress drives.
Algorithmic associationchannel associationThe informal term for which topics and channels YouTube's recommendation system links your channel to when it decides who to show you to.
AlgospeakunaliveCoded or misspelled wording used to slip past what creators believe automated moderation and demonetisation filters are looking for.
All capscaps, uppercase, shoutingWords set in full uppercase in a title or on a thumbnail, used to force emphasis. Effective in small doses, exhausting in large ones.
Allocated revenuerevenue allocationA creator's slice of the pooled Shorts ad money, worked out from their share of eligible views before the 45% split is applied.
Alpha channelalpha, transparency channelThe extra channel in an image or video file that stores transparency, alongside the red, green and blue that store colour.
Altered or synthetic content disclosureAI disclosure, AI label, altered content labelThe declaration a creator makes in YouTube Studio when realistic material was generated or meaningfully altered by AI, and the label viewers then see.
Amazon AssociatesAmazon affiliate programme, Amazon affiliatesAmazon's affiliate programme, the default way creators earn commission on gear linked from a description.
Amazon Influencer ProgramAmazon influencer storefront, Amazon storefrontAmazon's programme giving approved creators a storefront page and commissions on qualifying purchases, including from review videos shown on product listings.
Analytics data delayreporting lag, delayed data, data refreshThe gap between what Studio shows now and what the numbers settle at. Realtime figures are estimates and they move.
Analytics dimensiondimensionThe attribute a metric is broken down by. Date, device type, geography, traffic source and subscriber status are all dimensions.
Analytics exportCSV export, download report, export dataDownloading a Studio report as a CSV, TSV or Google Sheet so you can work on the numbers outside YouTube.
Analytics groupsgroups, content groupsPrivate bundles of your videos or playlists that YouTube Analytics reports on as a single line, so you can compare formats or series.
Analytics segmentsegment, add segmentA filter in Studio's advanced mode that narrows every chart on the page to one slice, such as subscribers only or a single traffic source.
Anamorphic lensanamorphic, squeeze lensA lens that squeezes a wide field of view onto the sensor and gets stretched back out in the edit, with oval bokeh and horizontal flares.
Anchor textlink textThe clickable words of a hyperlink, which tell both the reader and a search engine what sits on the other side.
Anglecontent angle, editorial angle, fresh angleThe specific way you approach a familiar subject so it feels new. One topic can carry dozens of different angles.
Animated captionsword-by-word captions, karaoke captions, pop-on captionsStyled subtitles that pop on word by word in time with the speech, the default look on short-form edits.
Animaticanimated storyboardA storyboard cut to time against scratch audio, so pacing can be judged before anything gets animated or shot.
Anime music videoAMVA fan edit cutting anime footage to a chosen song. One of YouTube's oldest formats and a standing copyright problem.
Answer Engine OptimisationAEO, Answer Engine OptimizationOptimising your material so AI assistants and search summaries quote it in the answer they write, instead of only listing it somewhere below.
Aperturef-stop, f-number, irisThe adjustable opening inside a lens, measured in f-stops. It sets how much light reaches the sensor and how shallow the focus is.
Apology videoNotes app apologyThe genre of on-camera creator apology after a controversy, with its own recognisable staging, wardrobe and vocabulary.
Apple PodcastsApple's podcast app and directory. Still the default catalogue you submit a feed to, even as listening spreads to Spotify and YouTube.
Application programming interfaceAPIA documented way for one piece of software to read data from another or make it act, with nobody clicking anything.
Appointment viewingappointment contentPublishing to a fixed, known slot so the audience learns when to turn up rather than waiting to be recommended.
Approval processbrand approval, sign-off, script approvalThe stages in a sponsorship where the brand reviews your script, cut or thumbnail before the video is allowed out.
Approved usersalways allow commentsA channel list of accounts whose comments skip your filters and publish immediately.
APS-C sensorAPS-C, crop sensorA sensor smaller than full frame, roughly 23 by 15mm, used in most mid-range bodies. Crops the field of view by about 1.5 times.
Arc shotorbit shot, circle shotA camera move travelling in a curve around the subject, holding the framing while the background sweeps past behind.
Ask Me AnythingAMA, Q&AAn open session where the audience asks whatever it likes and you answer. Reddit's format, borrowed everywhere since.
Ask StudioStudio AI assistantYouTube Studio's built-in assistant, answering plain-English questions about your own channel's analytics, comments and performance trends.
ASMR videoASMRContent built around trigger sounds, made for the tingling, relaxed response some viewers get from them.
Aspect ratioframe ratioThe proportion of a frame's width to its height, written as 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1.
Assembly cutassembly edit, first assembly, stringoutThe first edit pass, with every usable take laid out in story order before any trimming. It runs far too long on purpose.
Astroturfingfake grassrootsManufacturing fake grassroots support: paid or coordinated accounts posing as ordinary fans praising a product, a creator or a campaign.
Attention economyThe framing of human attention as the scarce resource platforms compete for, with everything else in the system arranged around capturing it.
Attributiontraffic attribution, source attributionDeciding which source gets the credit for a view, a subscriber or a sale, and the reason two dashboards rarely agree on the same number.
AudacityThe free, open-source audio editor most creators start on. Multitrack recording and editing on Windows, macOS and Linux, at no cost.
Audience capturecaptured by the audienceWhen a creator's output, and sometimes their identity, drift towards whatever the audience rewards until the audience is doing the steering.
Audience Ceilingniche ceiling, growth ceiling, audience capThe realistic upper limit on how many people could ever want a channel's subject, however well the channel executes.
Audience demographicsage and gender, demographics reportThe age and gender split of your audience in Studio, weighted by watch time rather than by number of people.
Audience entitlementfan entitlementWhen viewers start treating your output, your access and your private life as things they are owed rather than things you offer.
Audience overlapshared audience, other channels your audience watchesHow far two channels are watched by the same people. High overlap makes a collaboration land; low overlap explains why a niche pivot stalls.
Audience researchviewer research, audience insightFinding out what your existing viewers want next, from their comments, their questions and the Audience tab, before committing to an idea.
Audience retentionretentionThe Studio chart showing what share of viewers are still watching at each moment of a video.
Audience segmentationsegmentation, audience segmentsSplitting your viewers into groups such as new, returning, subscriber or member, and then treating each group differently.
Audience surveyviewer survey, community surveyAsking your viewers questions directly, through a form or a poll, to learn the things analytics cannot show you.
Audience tabStudio audience tabThe Studio Analytics tab covering who your viewers are, when they show up and what else they watch.
Audience-Market Fitcreator-market fit, content-market fit, audience fitThe match between what a creator keeps making and what a definable group of people actually want to watch.
Audio fingerprintingfingerprint, audio matchThe matching technology that recognises a recording inside an upload from its acoustic pattern rather than its filename or metadata.
Audio InterfaceUSB interface, preamp interface, sound cardThe box between an XLR microphone and your computer, converting the analogue signal to digital and supplying clean gain and phantom power.
Audio Mixermixing desk, soundboard, mixerThe desk or software that combines multiple audio sources and sets their levels before recording or broadcast.
Audio syncwaveform sync, sync clips, syncing footageLining up separately recorded sound with the camera's picture, usually by letting software match the two waveforms automatically.
Audio visualiseraudio visualizer, waveform visualiser, music visualiserThe animated graphic that moves with the sound, so music, podcast and voice-only videos have something to put on screen.
Authoritative sourcesauthoritative content, news authorityYouTube's preference for established publishers and expert sources when surfacing news, health and other subjects where accuracy matters.
Auto-dubbingAI dubbing, automatic dubbing, auto dubbingYouTube's own feature that generates a translated audio track for a video automatically, without the creator commissioning a dub.
Auto-generated thumbnailauto thumbnail, default thumbnail, auto stillOne of the three stills YouTube pulls from your video at upload and offers as the thumbnail when you have not supplied a custom image.
Auto-reframeauto-crop, subject tracking crop, speaker trackingSoftware that crops a horizontal edit down to vertical and tracks the subject so nobody's head wanders out of frame.
Autocompletesearch suggest, autosuggest, search predictionsThe suggestions YouTube offers under the search box as you type, and the cheapest phrasing research a creator has.
AutofocusAF, eye AF, face trackingThe camera focusing itself, with face and eye tracking doing most of the work for creators who shoot alone.
Automated dialogue replacementADR, pickup VO, re-recordRe-recording a line after the shoot and matching it to picture, used when the original production audio is unusable.
Automatic Ad Breaksauto ad breaks, automatic midrollsThe setting that lets YouTube choose where mid-roll ads fall in a video, instead of you marking the slots yourself.
Automatic captionsauto captions, auto-generated subtitlesSpeech-recognition subtitles YouTube generates after upload. A decent first draft, and never the version to leave live.
AutoModautomatic moderation, held for reviewAutomated moderation that holds risky chat messages back for a human decision instead of publishing them straight away.
Autoplayup next, autoplay nextThe player setting that starts another video the moment the current one ends, without the viewer choosing it.
AV1AV1, AOMedia Video 1An open, royalty-free video codec from the Alliance for Open Media, built to reach a given quality at a lower bitrate.
Average Percentage ViewedAPV, average view percentage, average percentage watchedThe share of a video's runtime the average viewer watched. Average view duration expressed as a percentage instead of a length of time.
Average Revenue Per UserARPU, revenue per memberTotal revenue over a period divided by the number of users in it. The result is the mean income each one produced.
Average time in playlistplaylist watch time per startA YouTube Analytics metric: the average number of minutes a viewer spends watching videos in a playlist after starting it.
Average View DurationAVD, average watch timeThe average time viewers spent watching a video, shown as minutes and seconds. Total watch time divided by views.
Average views per videoaverage video viewsA channel's mean views per upload, used as the baseline for judging whether one video over or underperformed.
Average watch time per viewerwatch time per viewerTotal watch time divided by unique viewers. It measures the person rather than the video, which is what separates it from average view duration.

B

B-rollbroll, B roll, supporting footageSupporting footage cut over or between your main shots, used to illustrate, compress time, or hide an edit.
Back Catalogueback catalog, content library, video library, legacy contentEverything a channel has already published, treated as a live asset that still earns views rather than as finished work.
Backdropbackground, backdrop standWhatever sits behind you in shot, whether a bare wall, a paper roll, a fabric cloth or a dressed corner of a room.
Background removalcutout, cut-out, knockoutCutting a subject away from its original background so it can be placed onto a new one, almost always for a thumbnail.
Backlightrim light, hair light, kickerA light placed behind the subject, aimed at their head and shoulders, that separates them from the background.
Backlinkinbound link, external linkA link on another website pointing at yours, treated by search engines as a signal that the page is worth showing.
Backup ingest serverbackup server URL, redundant ingestA second ingest address you feed alongside the primary one, so a live stream survives losing one connection.
Bait-and-switchswitch, misleading packagingPackaging that promises one thing and a video that delivers another; the specific failure people mean when they say clickbait.
Baked-In Adbaked in, embedded adA sponsor read edited permanently into the video file, so it cannot be swapped, dated or pulled once the video is published.
Bandingcolour banding, gradient bandingVisible steps in what should be a smooth gradient, most obvious in skies, backdrops and lighting falloff.
Barn doorsbarndoorsThe four hinged metal flaps on a light that let you cut the beam and stop it spilling where you do not want it.
Baseline Viewschannel average views, view floor, baselineThe normal view range a channel's uploads land in, used as the comparison line every new video gets measured against.
Bass Trapcorner trap, low-end absorptionA thick absorber, usually placed in the corners of a room, soaking up the low frequencies thin foam panels cannot touch.
Beastificationmrbeast thumbnail, beastifiedCopying MrBeast's packaging language: a huge shocked face, a big round number, saturated colour and a title built on scale.
Beat sheetbeat outline, save the cat beat sheetAn ordered list of the beats a piece has to hit, written before the script so the structure gets solved first.
Beauty gurubeauty influencer, beauty YouTuber, beauty creatorThe long-standing label for a creator whose channel runs on makeup, skincare and hair: tutorials, hauls and product reviews.
Before-After-BridgeBAB, before after bridgeA copy structure that names the situation now, paints the situation after, then presents the thing that gets you across.
Before-and-after thumbnailbefore after thumbnail, transformation thumbnailA thumbnail split into two states, the starting point and the result, so the change reads before anyone clicks.
Binge viewingbinge watching, binge sessionOne viewer watching several of a channel's videos back to back in a single sitting, usually after one of them landed well.
Bit depth8-bit, 10-bitHow many tonal steps a file stores per colour channel, which decides how far a grade can be pushed before banding appears.
Bitratestream bitrate, kbpsHow much data per second a stream or file carries, measured in kilobits per second. The main lever on picture quality.
BitsTwitch Bits, cheeringTwitch's paid cheering currency. Viewers buy Bits, spend them in chat with an animated Cheermote, and the streamer earns from each one.
Blanket Licenceblanket license, catalogue licenceOne agreement covering a whole catalogue of music, usually held by a platform or broadcaster and never by an individual creator.
Blend modeblending mode, screen, multiplyThe rule deciding how a layer's pixels combine with whatever sits underneath. Screen drops black, multiply drops white.
Blocked wordsbanned words, word filter, chat filterA creator's own list of terms that pulls matching comments into the review queue and stops matching messages in live chat.
Blockingblocking a scene, stagingPlanning where people and the camera move within a shot, decided before you record instead of discovered on the day.
Blown highlightsclipped highlights, blown outOverexposed areas with no detail left to recover: pure white, and nothing a grade will ever bring back.
Blue hourtwilightThe twilight window before sunrise and after sunset when the sky is deep blue and the light is soft, even and directionless.
BlueskyA decentralised text-based social platform built on the AT Protocol, used by many creators as an alternative to X.
Bokehbackground blurThe character of the out-of-focus areas in a frame: how the blur renders, rather than how much of it there is.
Bonded cellularconnection bonding, cellular bondingCombining several mobile connections into one uplink so a stream stays up when any single connection wobbles.
Boom Armmic arm, scissor arm, desk armAn articulated arm clamped to a desk that holds a microphone in position, so a stand and the desk stay out of shot.
Borderline contentlimited recommendationsVideo that stays on YouTube but gets pulled out of recommendations because it sits close to the line on Community Guidelines.
Bounce lightbouncing light, reflectorLight thrown onto the subject off a wall, ceiling or reflector instead of hitting them straight from the source.
Brain rotbrainrotLow-quality, hyper-stimulating content, and the mental state of consuming too much of it. Oxford's word of the year for 2024.
Brand AccountYouTube Brand Account, channel switchingA Google account type that owns a channel, letting several people manage it without anyone sharing a personal login.
Brand ambassadorambassadorship, ambassador programAn ongoing named association with one brand over a period, rather than a single sponsored video.
Brand dealsponsorship, brand partnership, sponsored deal, paid partnershipAny paid agreement between a creator and a brand: an integration, a dedicated video, a Short, a post, or a package of all four.
Brand guidelinesbrand style guide, brand bookThe sponsor's rules on how their logo, colours, product and name may be used. Usually arrives as a PDF attached to the brief.
Brand liftbrand lift study, brand awareness liftA survey-based measure of whether a campaign moved awareness, recall or intent, taken by polling people who saw the ads against people who did not.
Brand safetyThe advertiser's side of ad suitability: whether a brand can appear next to your video without embarrassment.
Brand style guidebrand kit, style guideThe fixed rules for your fonts, colours, logo and layout that keep thumbnails, graphics and channel art recognisable as yours.
Branded contentbrand-funded content, brand contentVideo made for or funded by a brand and published on the creator's own channel, under the creator's name.
Branding watermarksubscribe watermark, channel watermarkThe small image a channel pins into the corner of its player, working as a subscribe button while a video plays.
Brigadingdogpiling, comment brigadeA coordinated wave of hostile comments, dislikes or reports arriving from a group outside your normal audience.
Browse featuresbrowse, browse trafficThe YouTube Studio traffic source label covering views that arrived from browsing surfaces such as the home feed and the subscriptions feed.
Bufferingrebuffering, stallingPlayback stopping while the player waits for more of the stream to arrive, usually seen as a spinner part-way through.
Bumper Adbumper, six second adA six-second video ad that cannot be skipped, sold on an impressions basis and built to be watched all the way through.
Burnoutcreator burnoutThe exhaustion, cynicism and drop in effectiveness that follow sustained work pressure, classified by the WHO as an occupational phenomenon.
Business expensewrite-off, deductible expense, tax deductionA cost incurred to run the channel that can be set against income before tax, from camera gear to editing software.
But-therefore rulebut therefore, and then vs but therefore, South Park ruleA story test: join every beat to the next with but or therefore. Beats that join with and then are only a list.

C

C-standcentury standThe heavy studio stand with a gripping arm, used to hold lights, flags and anything that has to stay exactly where you put it.
Call sheetcallsheetA one-page brief telling everyone on a shoot where to be, when to be there and what to bring.
Call to actionCTAAn explicit ask to the viewer to do one thing: subscribe, comment, click a link, join a list, buy something.
Callbackcall-back, running gagReturning to an earlier line, image or moment later in a video so that it pays off a second time.
Camera cagecage, rig cageA metal frame bolted around a camera body, adding threaded mounting points for microphones, monitors, handles and other accessories.
Camera dollydolly, dolly trackA wheeled platform carrying the camera, and often the operator, for smooth moves over a longer distance than a slider covers.
Camera sliderslider, slider shotA short rail the camera rides along, producing a smooth, controlled sideways or forward move over a metre or so.
Campaign briefcreative brief, brand brief, deal briefThe brand's document for a campaign, setting out the goal, the messaging, exactly what you owe and when it is due.
Cancel culturegetting cancelledThe pattern of public support being withdrawn at speed and at scale after something a creator said or did comes to light.
Candidate generationretrieval stage, candidate poolThe first stage of YouTube's recommender, where a vast catalogue is narrowed to a shortlist of possible videos before anything gets ranked.
Cannibalisationdo Shorts hurt long-formThe worry that Shorts steal attention from your long-form work. It had a real cause, and YouTube changed the plumbing.
CanvaCanva ProA browser-based design tool built around templates, used by creators for thumbnails, banners, channel art and social graphics.
CAP CodeCAP, UK advertising codeThe UK rule book for non-broadcast advertising, written by the Committee of Advertising Practice and enforced by the ASA.
CapCutCapCut DesktopByteDance's free video editor, built mobile-first around captions, effects and templates for short-form.
CapCut templateediting templateA prebuilt CapCut edit, with its cuts, effects and timing already set, that other people load and drop their own clips into.
CaptionsCC, closed captions, caption trackTimed on-screen text of the speech and important sounds in a video, which the viewer switches on and off themselves.
Capture cardvideo capture deviceHardware that turns a camera or console HDMI output into a video source your streaming computer can see.
Card click ratecard CTR, card clicksThe share of card impressions that turned into a click, reported in Studio separately from the teaser figure people confuse it with.
Cardioidcardioid pattern, supercardioid, hypercardioidThe heart-shaped pickup pattern most spoken-word microphones use. Sensitive at the front, less so at the sides, nearly deaf at the rear.
CardsYouTube cards, info cards, i-cardsThe small pop-up prompts placed on a video's timeline, linking to another video, a playlist, a channel or an approved external site.
Carousel postcarousel, swipe postA swipeable post of several images or slides, native on Instagram and produced on LinkedIn by uploading a PDF.
Casual viewercasual audience, drive-by viewerSomeone who watches your videos now and then without following the channel or particularly caring who made them.
Catchlighteye lightThe small reflection of a light source visible in a subject's eyes, and the thing that makes them look alive on camera.
Category exclusivitycompetitor exclusivity, category lock-outA contract clause barring a creator from promoting any competitor of the sponsor for an agreed period after the deal runs.
Cease and desistC&DA letter demanding you stop using something or stop saying something. A threat of legal action rather than a court order.
Challenge videochallengeA format built on attempting something under a stated constraint, with the constraint and the stake announced up front.
Channel Auditcontent audit, channel review, channel health checkA structured review of a channel's positioning, packaging, library and numbers, run to decide what to change next.
Channel bannerchannel art, banner image, cover photoThe wide image across the top of a channel page, cropped differently on phone, desktop and television, so only a narrow strip is always visible.
Channel Conceptchannel premise, channel angle, channel ideaThe one-line premise that says what a channel makes and who it is for, tight enough to generate the next fifty ideas.
Channel dashboardStudio dashboard, dashboardThe home screen of YouTube Studio: a snapshot of the latest upload's performance plus summary cards for the channel as a whole.
Channel growth rategrowth rate, subscriber growth rateThe percentage change in a channel's subscribers, views or watch time across a chosen period, rather than the raw total.
Channel Hiatushiatus, going dark, taking a breakA pause in publishing that you announce and plan, rather than drifting into silence and hoping the audience waits.
Channel hijackingchannel hacked, account takeover, channel takeover scamA channel takeover, usually starting with a fake sponsorship email carrying malware that steals the session cookies keeping you signed in.
Channel iconprofile picture, channel avatar, PFPThe small circular image representing a channel everywhere on YouTube, including beside every comment its owner leaves.
Channel IDYouTube channel ID, UC IDThe permanent identifier for a channel, 24 characters beginning UC. Your handle can change hands; this string never does.
Channel keywordschannel tagsThe channel-level keyword field in YouTube Studio, hidden from viewers, where you describe what the whole channel is about.
Channel Layoutchannel customisation, Customization tab, channel homepage layoutThe arrangement of a channel's home tab, set in YouTube Studio: the trailer, the spotlight video and the shelves below.
Channel lorelore, running bitThe in-jokes, recurring bits and shared history that accumulate on a channel and reward people who have been watching a while.
Channel Membershipsmemberships, channel membership, join, Channel MembershipA paid monthly subscription to a single channel that unlocks perks: loyalty badges, custom emoji, and posts or videos only members can see.
Channel moderatormod, moderatorAn account you trust with comment and live chat moderation on your channel, and with nothing else at all.
Channel namechannel titleThe display name on your channel, separate from the handle. Changeable twice a fortnight, and a change costs you the verification badge.
Channel pages trafficchannel page traffic, channel pagesViews that started on your own channel: the home tab, the videos list, a playlist page or the about section.
Channel permissionschannel access, manager role, editor roleYouTube's system for giving editors, VAs and collaborators their own access to a channel, with defined roles and no shared password.
Channel Pivotpivot, content pivot, repositioningDeliberately moving a channel to a different topic, format or audience, and absorbing the dip while the old subscriber base sorts itself out.
Channel Plateauplateau, growth plateau, stalled growthA prolonged stretch where views and subscribers stop climbing despite steady output. Usually a supply and demand problem rather than a penalty.
Channel pointspoints, loyalty pointsTwitch's loyalty currency, earned by watching a particular channel and spent on rewards that streamer has set up.
Channel Positioningpositioning, market positioningWhere a channel sits in a viewer's mind against the alternatives: who it is for, what it covers, and why watch you.
Channel Rebrandrebrand, channel refresh, renaming a channelChanging a channel's name, artwork, handle or framing while keeping the same channel, its history and its subscribers.
Channel Resetchannel reboot, starting over, wiping the channelClearing out or hiding a back catalogue and restarting a channel's direction in place, without moving to a new channel.
Channel saleselling a channel, channel acquisition, channel flippingThe sale of an entire YouTube channel as an asset, audience and back catalogue included, usually to a buyer who wants the revenue.
Channel Sectionsfeatured sections, homepage sections, shelvesThe rows of playlists, videos or other channels you arrange on your channel homepage, set in Studio's customisation screen.
Channel StrategyYouTube strategy, channel planThe standing decision about who a channel is for, what it makes for them, and why anyone comes back after the first video.
Channel terminationterminated channel, channel ban, perma-ban, account terminationYouTube permanently removing a channel and its uploads, usually after three strikes or a single severe policy breach.
Channel Trailertrailer, channel trailer for people who haven't subscribedA short video shown on the channel homepage to people who have not subscribed, pitching what the channel is for.
Channel Whitelistingwhitelist, channel clearance, clear my channelRegistering your channel with a music library so its tracks stop triggering Content ID claims on the videos you use them in.
ChaptersYouTube chapters, timestamps, chapter markersCreator-set sections of a video, made with timestamps in the description and shown as named segments on the progress bar.
Chargebackdisputed payment, payment reversalA buyer's bank reversing a payment after the fact, taking back money you were already paid and usually charging a fee on top.
Charity streamcharity livestream, fundraising streamA live stream run to raise money for a cause, usually with a running donation total and milestone incentives on screen.
Chat botNightbot, mod bot, stream botAn automated account in live chat that moderates, answers commands and posts timed messages while the host concentrates on the stream.
Chat timeouttimeout, temporary muteA moderation action that blocks a chatter from posting for a set period, without removing them from the channel.
Child safety policychild safetyThe part of YouTube's Community Guidelines covering under-18s, banning material that endangers them and mature themes dressed up for young audiences.
Children's Online Privacy Protection ActCOPPAThe US law on data collected from under-13s, and the reason every YouTube creator has to label content as made for kids.
Chroma keygreen screen, keying, keyerRemoving a solid colour background, usually green or blue, so something else can be placed behind the subject.
Chroma subsampling4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4How much colour detail a video format keeps compared with brightness detail, written as 4:4:4, 4:2:2 or 4:2:0.
Chronically onlineterminally onlineA label for opinions or behaviour that only make sense deep inside internet subculture and land badly anywhere else.
Cine lenscinema lens, cine glass, T-stop lensA lens built for video: marked in T-stops, with geared manual focus and aperture rings and minimal focus breathing.
Cinema cameracine cameraA video-first camera body built around long recording times, log profiles, internal ND and proper audio, in place of stills performance.
Cinematic lookfilm look, cinematic videoThe bundle of choices that make footage read as film: frame rate, shutter, depth of field, lighting and grade.
CircleCircle.soHosted community software creators use to run a paid or brand-owned space away from Discord and Facebook.
Claim retractionclaim released, released claim, retracted claimA rights holder withdrawing a Content ID claim, which hands monetisation back to the creator and clears the claim from the video.
Clean HDMI outputclean HDMI, clean outputA camera's HDMI signal carrying only the picture, with no focus boxes, battery icons or menus overlaid on it.
Clear and conspicuousclear and conspicuous disclosureThe advertising-law standard a disclosure has to meet: hard to miss, easy to understand, and in the same medium as the claim it qualifies.
Click bombingclick bomb, invalid click activityA deliberate flood of fake clicks on somebody's ads, meant to trip Google's invalid activity systems and get their account punished.
Clickbaitclickbaity, clickbait titlePackaging that promises more than the video delivers, winning the click at the cost of the viewer's trust and attention.
Cliffhangercliff-hangerTension raised and left unresolved so a viewer carries it through a slow patch or into the next video. Only works if you pay it off.
Clipperclipping campaign, clip farming, clip accountSomeone who cuts a creator's long-form footage into vertical clips and posts them, often paid per thousand views.
Clippingclipping, digital clipping, redlining, peakingThe distortion you get when an audio signal pushes past the maximum level and the peaks of the waveform are squared off.
Clips Channelhighlights channel, podcast clips channel, cuts channelA companion channel publishing cut-downs of a creator's own long-form work, common for podcasts, interviews and long streams.
Close-upCU, close up shotA shot tight on the face, or on a detail, filling the frame so the viewer has nowhere else to look.
Cloud storageGoogle Drive, Dropbox, cloud backupHosted storage you sync or upload to, used for offsite backups and for handing large files to collaborators.
Clout chasingclout, clout chaserAttaching yourself to whoever has attention right now, instead of doing the work that would earn attention of your own.
Co-branded productcollab product, collaboration dropA product released jointly by a creator and an established brand, with the brand handling production and the two sharing revenue.
Co-streamingco-stream, Go Live Together, collab streamBroadcasting alongside a guest on your own channel, or carrying somebody else's live event with your own commentary over it.
Coachingone-to-one coaching, consultingPaid one-to-one or small-group guidance, sold by creators as an income line alongside courses, memberships and sponsorship.
COB lightchip-on-board light, COB LEDA single high-output LED point source, designed to be used with a softbox, dome or reflector rather than bare.
Codecencoder, compression formatThe scheme used to compress video or audio for storage and decompress it for playback; H.264 and AV1 are codecs.
Cognitive loadvisual clutterHow much mental work a thumbnail or title demands before it makes sense. Viewers glance rather than study, so the budget is tiny.
Cohortcohort analysis, viewer cohortA group defined by when it arrived, then tracked forward over time so you see behaviour that aggregate numbers hide.
Cold opencold openingStarting inside the action with no logo, no greeting and no preamble. The first frame is already part of the story.
Cold pitchoutbound pitch, pitch email, cold outreachAn approach the creator sends to a brand that has not heard of them, proposing one specific piece of work.
Cold startcold start problemThe problem of having too little data to place something well: a new upload, a new channel, or a viewer the system has never seen.
CollabShorts Collab, side-by-side remixThe Shorts remix option that records you beside another video in a split frame, either playing together or one after the other.
Collabcollaboration, creator collabTwo or more creators making something together, each hoping to reach the other's audience alongside their own.
Collab postInstagram collab, collaborator postA single post published to two or more accounts' feeds at once, with the views and engagement shared between them.
Collaborative filteringRecommendation method that predicts what you will like from the behaviour of people whose viewing patterns look like yours.
Colour castcolor cast, tint, white balance shiftAn unwanted tint across the whole image, usually orange, green or blue, from mixed or misjudged light sources.
Colour contrastcolor contrast, high contrast, tonal contrastThe tonal and colour separation that keeps a thumbnail's subject and text readable at the size a phone actually displays them.
Colour correctioncolor correction, CC, balancingGetting footage to a neutral, accurate baseline: exposure balanced, white balance right, shots matched to each other before any creative look.
Colour gelgel, color gel, CTO, CTBA coloured sheet clipped over a light to change the colour of its output, either to match another source or to add a deliberate tint.
Colour gradingcolor grading, grading, the gradeThe creative colour pass that gives a video a deliberate look, applied after the footage has been corrected and matched.
Colour psychologycolor psychologyChoosing thumbnail and branding colours for the feeling they carry, on top of the contrast job those colours already have to do.
Colour rendering indexCRI, TLCIA score out of 100 for how faithfully a light source shows colour against a daylight or incandescent reference.
Colour spacecolor space, gamutThe defined range of colours a file, camera or display can represent. Rec. 709 for most YouTube delivery, Rec. 2020 for HDR.
Colour temperatureKelvin, color temperatureHow warm or cool a light source looks, measured in Kelvin, with lower numbers oranger and higher numbers bluer.
Colour wheelscolor wheels, lift gamma gain, shadows midtones highlightsThe primary grading controls that let you shift colour and brightness separately in the shadows, the midtones and the highlights.
Comment miningmining the comments, comment researchReading your own comments and a rival's with a purpose, to pull out video ideas and the words the audience actually uses.
Comment moderationmoderating comments, mod queueThe ongoing job of approving, hiding, removing and filtering comments so the section under a video stays worth reading.
Comment ratecomments per viewComments divided by views, given as a percentage. A rough measure of how strongly a video pushed people to reply.
Comment sectioncommentsThe public discussion under a video, and the most visible part of a channel's community to anyone deciding whether to watch.
Comment sentimentsentiment analysis, audience sentimentThe overall tone of a video's comments, read as soft feedback on how the audience actually received it.
Commentary channelcommentary YouTuberA channel built on reacting to and analysing other people's videos, drama or events, with the creator's take as the product.
Commerce Product AddendumCPA module, commerce moduleThe older name for the YouTube Partner Program module covering fan funding: memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks and Shopping.
Commission Ratecommission, payout rateThe percentage of a sale, or the flat fee per action, that an affiliate earns on each referral they send.
Community Guidelinesguidelines, CGYouTube's rules on what may be posted at all, enforced with strikes against the channel rather than with lost revenue.
Community Guidelines strikeCG strike, guidelines strikeA penalty applied when content breaks YouTube's Community Guidelines, carrying restrictions and counting towards channel termination.
Community Guidelines warningwarning, first warningA one-off caution issued before strikes begin, which you can clear by completing a short policy training course.
Community managerCMThe person who runs moderation, replies and community programming for a channel so the creator is not living in the comments.
Community pollpoll, YouTube poll, image pollA multiple-choice post on your channel's posts tab. The cheapest audience research on YouTube and a way to stay visible between uploads.
Community postpost, channel postA text, image, poll or video post from a channel that can reach subscriber feeds and Home without a video attached to it.
Community tabPosts tab, community sectionThe channel surface where a creator posts text, images, polls and quizzes between uploads, now generally labelled the Posts tab.
Comparison modecompare to, video comparisonThe Compare to control in YouTube Analytics, which puts two videos, two date ranges or two groups on the same chart.
Comparison trapMeasuring your channel against bigger creators' public numbers and stalling, because you are weighing your process against their finished output.
Comparison videoversus video, vs videoA format that puts two or more options head to head and reaches a verdict, packaged around the versus in the title.
Competitor Researchcompetitive analysis, competitor analysis, channel researchStudying other channels in your subject for the ideas, packaging and formats that are working, and the demand sitting underneath.
Compilation Channelcompilation contentA channel built by assembling other people's clips into videos, rather than from footage it filmed itself.
Complementary colourscomplementary colors, opposite coloursHues sitting opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as orange and blue, paired to make part of a thumbnail stand out.
Completion ratefull watch rate, watched to the endThe share of people who started a video and stayed to the end. On YouTube you read it off the end of the retention graph.
Compositingcomp, layeringCombining separate image layers into a single frame that reads as one photograph, the craft behind green screen and clean-up work.
Compositionshot compositionHow the elements of a shot are arranged in the frame: where the subject sits, what surrounds it, and what the eye lands on first.
Compressioncompressor, dynamics compressionAutomatically holding down the loudest parts of audio so the whole track can sit at a higher, steadier level.
Compression artefactsartifacts, macroblocking, blockinessThe blocking, banding and smearing that appear when the bitrate is too low for the amount of motion in the shot.
Concurrent viewersCCV, live viewers, average concurrent viewersHow many people are watching a live stream at the same moment, usually quoted as an average or a peak across the broadcast.
Condenser Microphonecondenser mic, large-diaphragm condenserA sensitive powered microphone that captures fine detail, and captures the room it is sitting in along with it.
Confidence intervalmargin of error, error barsThe range a measured figure plausibly sits in, given how few observations produced it. Small samples make big-looking differences meaningless.
Container formatcontainer, wrapper, MP4, MOVThe file wrapper holding the video, audio and subtitle streams together. MP4 and MOV are containers; H.264 and ProRes are codecs.
Content Buffercontent bank, banked videos, video bufferFinished videos held back in reserve, so the publishing schedule survives illness, holidays and a week that falls apart.
Content Calendareditorial calendar, publishing calendar, content scheduleThe dated plan of what publishes when, holding ideas against real days instead of a loose list.
Content creatorcreator, YouTuberThe catch-all term for anyone who makes and publishes media for an audience online, usually as the business itself.
Content curationcuration, curated contentBuilding something from other people's material by choosing, ordering and framing it, where the value you add is the selection and the judgement.
Content Farmvideo content farmA channel or network pumping out high-volume, low-effort videos aimed at the recommendation system rather than at any actual audience.
Content Franchisefranchise, format franchise, signature seriesA named, recurring series that grows strong enough to carry its own audience expectation, distinct from the channel it lives on.
Content gapgap in coverage, unmet demandA topic your audience clearly wants covered where nothing good exists yet, or where the existing coverage is thin or out of date.
Content housecollab house, creator houseA house shared by several creators so they can film together constantly, cutting the cost per video and cross-feeding each other's audiences.
Content IDContentIDYouTube's automated matching system, which checks every upload against reference files supplied by participating rights holders.
Content ID appealappeal a claim, claim appealThe second stage after a claimant rejects your dispute, escalating a Content ID claim and raising the stakes to a possible strike.
Content ID assetassetThe rights record inside Content ID that ownership details, reference files and match policies all attach to.
Content ID claimautomatic claim, Content ID matchAn automated match found by YouTube's Content ID system. The video usually stays up while the rights holder takes the revenue or restricts it.
Content ID disputedispute a claim, claim disputeThe formal step for contesting a Content ID claim; the claimant then has 30 days to release it, uphold it or file a takedown.
Content ID match policymatch policy, claim policy, block policy, track policy, monetise policyThe instruction a rights holder attaches to matches of their work: block the video, track it quietly, or run ads and take the revenue.
Content ID reference filereference file, referenceThe master copy a rights holder gives YouTube so Content ID has something to match every upload against.
Content Licensingclip licensing, footage licensing, licensing revenueSelling someone the right to reuse your footage. News outlets, brands and clip agencies pay for a moment you already filmed.
Content mixformat mix, publishing mixThe planned balance of formats and topics across a run of videos, so a channel serves its regulars and reaches new viewers too.
Content Pillarscontent buckets, pillars, content themes, content categoriesThe small set of recurring topics a channel commits to, so viewers and the algorithm both learn what it covers.
Content pipelineproduction pipeline, content flowThe fixed run of stages an idea passes through, from a captured note through to a published video, each stage a place work can sit.
Content repurposingrepurposing, repurposed contentRebuilding one piece of work into other formats and platforms, made native to each place instead of posted flat everywhere.
Content-based filteringA recommender approach that matches items to a viewer using the attributes of the content itself, without needing to know what similar people watched.
Contest policiescontest rules, giveaway rulesYouTube's rules for running a giveaway on the platform, sitting on top of whatever the law where you live already demands.
Continuitycontinuity error, matchingKeeping the physical details of a scene consistent across takes and angles so the cuts do not jump.
Contra dealbarter deal, product-for-post, trade deal, gifted collaborationA collaboration paid in product or services instead of cash, common early on and usually worth less than it appears.
Conversion rateCVRThe share of people who took the action you wanted, out of everyone who had the chance to take it.
Cookie Windowcookie duration, attribution window, cookie lengthThe period after someone clicks your affiliate link during which a purchase still gets credited to you.
CopypastapastaA block of text copied and pasted repeatedly through chats and comment sections, usually as a joke or as a pile-on.
CopyrightThe automatic legal right in an original work from the moment it is fixed. Everything in YouTube's copyright system rests on it.
Copyright claimclaim, claimed videoAny assertion of rights over your video by a rights holder, most often an automated Content ID match. A claim is not the same thing as a strike.
Copyright infringementinfringementUsing somebody else's protected work without permission or a legal exception, which on YouTube usually surfaces as a claim or a strike.
Copyright Match Toolmatch toolA Studio tool that surfaces full reuploads of your videos on other channels and lets you decide what happens to each one.
Copyright SchoolYouTube Copyright SchoolYouTube's short course a channel has to complete before a copyright strike will expire, made up of a video and a handful of questions.
Copyright strikestrikeThe penalty from a completed legal takedown, heavier than a Content ID claim. Three inside a rolling 90-day window can end a channel.
Copyright termcopyright duration, life plus 70How long copyright lasts before a work reaches the public domain. Across the UK, US and EU the default is the author's life plus 70 years.
Copyright trollAn operator who files claims or lawsuits at scale mainly to collect settlements, rather than to protect a work being used.
Core audiencecore viewers, base audienceThe reliable group who watch most of what you publish and set the floor a new video starts from.
Correlation vs causationcorrelation is not causation, causationTwo things moving together at the same time, which on its own says nothing about one of them having caused the other.
Cost of goods soldCOGS, unit costWhat one unit actually costs you to make and deliver: the product, the printing, the packaging, the postage and the fees on the way.
Cost Per AcquisitionCPA, cost per actionWhat an advertiser pays for each completed action, such as a sale or a sign-up, rather than for each view or click.
Cost Per ClickCPCWhat an advertiser pays each time somebody clicks their ad, a buy-side price that never appears in YouTube Studio.
Cost Per MilleCPM, cost per thousand impressions, cost per 1000What an advertiser pays per 1,000 ad impressions. It sits above your earnings and still includes the platform's cut.
Cost Per ViewCPVWhat an advertiser pays each time someone watches enough of a video ad or interacts with it; the pricing model behind skippable YouTube ads.
Counter-notificationcounter notice, DMCA counter-noticeThe sworn legal reply an uploader files to dispute a copyright takedown and ask for the video to be put back.
Cover songcover versionA new performance of a song somebody else wrote, sitting on top of two separate layers of rights: the composition and your own recording of it.
Coverageshot coverage, covering a sceneAll the angles and takes a scene needs so the edit can actually cut it together rather than run one unbroken master.
Crash zoomsnap zoom, zoom punchA fast zoom in or out performed in camera, used as punctuation on a punchline, a reveal or a sudden reaction.
Crawlingcrawler, crawl, spiderAutomated fetching of web pages by search engine bots so their content can be read and considered for the index.
Creative blockwriter's block, creative rutThe stretch where nothing you think of seems worth making, and the ideas that do arrive get killed before they reach a page.
Creative briefcontent brief, video brief, research briefA short document that fixes the goal, audience, angle and must-hit points of a video before anyone starts making it.
Creative CommonsCC, CC BY, Creative Commons licenceA set of standard public licences that grant reuse rights in advance, under conditions such as attribution or non-commercial use.
Creator Awardsplay button, silver play button, gold play button, YouTube plaqueYouTube's physical trophies, the play buttons, sent to channels that pass its subscriber milestones and clear a policy check.
Creator beefbeef, feudA public, running conflict between creators, played out in videos and posts, which reliably pulls far more attention than their normal work.
Creator economyThe whole market around independent creators: the platforms, the tools, the brand money and the audiences paying directly.
Creator Fundcreator funds, platform fundA fixed pot of money a platform divides among eligible creators, where payouts shrink as more creators qualify for the same pot.
Creator InsiderCreator Insider channelYouTube's own channel where staff announce features, explain changes and run experiments past creators before the help pages catch up.
Creator middle classmiddle-class creatorCreators making a real living from an audience far short of stardom, usually by stacking several small income lines rather than one big one.
Creator MusicYouTube Creator Music, licensed music revenue shareYouTube's licensed music catalogue, where you either buy a licence for a track or take a revenue share deal instead.
Creator PoolShorts creator pool, Shorts revenue poolThe pot of Shorts ad money split between creators by share of Shorts views, after music licensing has been paid out of it first.
Creator-led brandcreator brand, founder brand, own-brand productA product company the creator owns and sells to the audience they built, taking the margin a sponsor would otherwise keep for itself.
Crop factorequivalent focal length, focal length multiplierThe multiplier that converts a lens's focal length into the equivalent field of view on a smaller sensor.
Cross-cuttingparallel editing, intercuttingCutting back and forth between two threads running in parallel, so both stay open in the viewer's head.
Cross-postingcrosspostingPublishing one video on more than one platform, most often a vertical cut sent to Shorts, Reels and TikTok together.
Cross-promotioncross promo, channel swapTwo creators pointing their audiences at each other through mentions, posts, end screens or a swap, without making a video together.
CrowdfundingKickstarter, backers, campaign fundingRaising money from an audience up front to fund a specific project, usually with reward tiers attached to each pledge.
Crushed blackscrushed shadows, clipped blacksShadow detail flattened to pure black and gone for good. The shadow-side twin of blown highlights, and sometimes a deliberate look.
Curiosity gapinformation gap, curiosityThe unanswered question a title and thumbnail plant in a viewer's head, which watching the video is supposed to settle.
Currency Conversionexchange rate, FX, forex feeThe rate and the fees applied when your earnings are calculated in one currency and your bank holds another.
CurvesRGB curves, luma curve, curve adjustmentA grading control plotting input brightness against output on a graph, so you can reshape contrast or a single colour channel by hand.
Custom emojimember emoji, channel emojiChannel-specific emoji that paying members unlock and use in that channel's live chat and comments. One of the standard membership perks.
Custom thumbnailuploaded thumbnailAn image you upload yourself instead of letting YouTube pull a frame from the video. Standard practice on every serious channel.
CutShorts Cut, sample a clipThe Shorts remix option that samples one to five seconds of another video, picture and sound together, into a Short you are making.
Cutawaycutaway shotA shot of something other than the main action, cut in to cover an edit, illustrate a point or give the eye a rest.
Cutting on actioncut on action, action matchMaking the cut partway through a movement so the action carries across the join and the viewer stops noticing the edit.

D

Dark postunpublished postAn ad that runs in people's feeds without ever appearing on the advertiser's own page. The usual form of whitelisted creator ads.
Dark socialprivate sharingSharing that happens in private, through messages and email, arriving with no referrer so analytics files it as direct or unknown.
DaVinci ResolveResolveBlackmagic Design's editor, colour grader and audio suite in one application, with a free version most channels never outgrow.
Day in the lifeDITLA format that follows one full day, waking to bed, common in vlogging and short-form and thoroughly formulaic by now.
Day ratedaily rate, shoot day rateA flat fee for a full day of the creator's time, used for shoots, events and appearances rather than for a finished video.
De-Esserde-essing, sibilance controlA compressor that reacts only to a narrow band of high frequencies, used to pull down harsh S and T sounds in a voice.
Dead airsilence on streamUnfilled silence on a live stream or premiere, where nothing is happening and the audience starts drifting away.
Dead stockunsold inventory, inventory riskUnsold units left after a merch drop or product launch comes in under forecast, tying up cash and storage space.
DecibeldB, dBFSThe logarithmic unit every level, gain and compression setting is expressed in, always describing a ratio rather than an absolute amount.
Dedicated videodedicated sponsorship, fully sponsored videoA sponsored video built entirely around one brand's product, rather than a sponsor read dropped inside a video about something else.
Deepfakesynthetic media, face swapSynthetic video or audio that convincingly puts a real person's face or voice into something they never did or said.
Defamationlibel, slanderA false statement of fact that damages someone's reputation. Libel when published or recorded, slander when merely spoken.
Deinfluencingde-influencingTelling an audience what to skip, framed as a corrective to constant recommendation, which broke out as a trend on TikTok in 2023.
Deliverablesdeliverable, assets dueThe exact list of what a creator owes a brand for the fee: the videos, the posts, the mentions, the usage rights and the deadlines.
Demonetisationdemonetization, demonetised, getting demonetisedLosing ad revenue on a video or a whole channel, either through the limited-ads yellow icon or removal from the Partner Program.
DeplatformingdeplatformedLosing the whole account rather than one upload, and with it the audience, the archive and the income attached to them.
Depth of fieldDOF, shallow depth of field, blurry backgroundHow much of the shot is in focus front to back, from a blurred background to a frame sharp throughout.
Dereverbreverb removal, de-reverb, echo removalProcessing that reduces room echo already recorded into a track by separating the direct voice from its reflections.
Derivative workderivativeA new work built on top of an existing copyrighted one: a remix, translation, edit, adaptation or reaction cut.
Descripttext-based editingAn editor that transcribes your footage and cuts the video when you delete words from the text.
Device typedevice report, devicesThe Studio split showing whether views came from mobile, TV, desktop, tablet or console, which changes how packaging reads.
Diffusion filterBlack Pro-Mist, mist filterA screw-on filter that blooms highlights and takes the clinical edge off digital footage. Black Pro-Mist is the common one.
Digital audio workstationDAW, Logic Pro, AuditionA multitrack application for recording, cleaning and mixing audio. Reaper, Logic, Audition, Pro Tools and Ableton are the common ones.
Digital Millennium Copyright ActDMCAThe 1998 US law behind YouTube's takedown machinery: rights holders send notices, uploaders can counter-notify, hosts stay protected if they act promptly.
Digital Productdigital download, info productSomething a creator sells that is downloaded or accessed online: a preset pack, a template, a sample library, an ebook or a course.
Digital Services ActDSAEU law setting how platforms must handle notices, explain removals and offer appeals, applying across the union since 2024.
Direct or unknowndirect traffic, unknown trafficThe traffic-source bucket YouTube uses when it cannot see a referrer: typed URLs, bookmarks, signed-out viewers and apps it cannot identify.
Disabled commentscomments turned off, comments offComments switched off on a single video or a whole channel, either by the creator's choice or automatically because the content is Made for Kids.
Discord serverserver, guildA creator's own chat community on Discord, divided into channels, frequently with a members-only area gated behind a paid tier.
Discount codepromo code, coupon code, creator code, referral codeA code unique to you that saves the viewer money and tells the brand which sales came from your audience.
Dislikesdislike countThe button still works and the press still registers. The public count has been hidden since November 2021; creators see theirs in Studio.
Display Adsidebar ad, banner adStatic or banner advertising shown beside the player on desktop, outside the video stream, so playback carries on around it.
Dissolvecross dissolve, crossfadeA transition where one shot fades out as the next fades in across the same frames, so the two briefly overlap.
DMCA takedown noticetakedown notice, takedown request, DMCA takedownA formal legal request under US copyright law asking a platform to remove material the sender says infringes their rights.
Documentary-style videomini-documentary, video documentaryA long-form video built like a documentary: original research or reporting, interviews or archive, and a narrative rather than a lecture.
Dolly zoomvertigo effect, zollyMove the camera towards the subject while zooming out, or the reverse, so the subject holds its size and the background rushes.
Domain authorityDA, site authorityA third-party score from 1 to 100 estimating how likely a website is to rank in search. Google does not use it.
Don't recommend channelblock channel recommendationsA viewer control that pulls a whole channel out of that person's recommendations. Their preference, and invisible to you.
Doomscrollingdoom scrollingCarrying on scrolling a feed long after it stopped being enjoyable. The viewer behaviour vertical formats are built around.
Double-enderdouble ender recording, local recordingA remote recording where each person captures their own audio locally and the tracks are combined afterwards, so call quality never touches the finished sound.
DoxxingdoxingPublishing somebody's private identifying details, such as a home address or workplace, to expose them to harassment.
Drama channeltea channelA channel whose format is covering conflicts, callouts and scandals among other creators, sometimes as reporting, often as entertainment.
Draw My LifeA YouTube format where the creator narrates their life story over sped-up whiteboard drawings. Popular from around 2013 and still searched.
Dream ScreenAI background for ShortsYouTube's generative AI tool inside the Shorts camera, producing AI backgrounds and standalone clips from a text prompt.
Dream TrackAI soundtrack for ShortsYouTube's AI music tool for Shorts. Describe the sound you want and it generates a short original soundtrack for the clip.
DroneFPV drone, aerial footageA flying camera, used for establishing shots, aerials and moves that no tripod or gimbal can make.
Drone shotaerial shot, drone footageFootage filmed from a flying drone: the establishing sweep, the reveal, the top-down, the follow shot no crane could reach.
Drop shadowshadowA shadow placed behind text or a cut-out subject so it separates from the background instead of blending into it.
Dropped framesframe drops, skipped framesFrames your encoder throws away when the connection or the machine cannot keep up, which viewers see as stutter.
Dropshippingdrop shippingSelling products a third-party supplier ships straight to the buyer, so you never hold stock or handle the parcel.
DSLR cameraDSLR, digital SLRA digital stills camera with a mirror and prism, widely used for video before mirrorless took over, and still perfectly capable.
Dual native ISOdual base ISO, second base ISOA sensor design with two base sensitivity points, each with its own clean read-out, so there is a second low-noise setting for dark scenes.
Dual PC streaming setuptwo PC setup, dual computer streamTwo machines for one stream: one plays the game, the other encodes and broadcasts, so neither has to do both jobs at once.
Dual-System Sounddouble system sound, external audio, off-camera audioRecording audio to a device separate from the camera, then marrying the two back together in the edit.
Duckingauto-ducking, music ducking, sidechain duckingAutomatically dipping the music whenever the voice comes in, then letting it rise again in the gaps.
DuetTikTok DuetTikTok's side-by-side response format, where your recording plays next to someone else's video. The nearest thing to a Shorts Collab.
Dummy batteryAC coupler, mains adapterA battery-shaped adapter that feeds a camera from the mains, so a long shoot never stops for a swap.
Dutch anglecanted angle, dutch tiltA shot with the camera rolled so the horizon sits at a tilt, used to signal unease, disorientation or energy.
Dwell timeHow long a searcher stays on a page after clicking a result, before heading back to the search listings.
Dynamic Ad InsertionDAI, dynamically inserted adsStitching adverts into a podcast or audio file at the moment it is downloaded, so the ads can be swapped or targeted later.
Dynamic brand insertionvirtual product placement, AI product placementAdding a product or a piece of signage into finished footage after filming, digitally, so a brand appears in a video that never featured it.
Dynamic Microphonedynamic mic, moving-coil microphoneA microphone that converts sound with a moving coil. Sturdy, needs no phantom power, and hungry for clean gain from the preamp.
Dynamic rangestops of dynamic range, latitudeHow much detail a sensor holds between the darkest shadow and the brightest highlight in one exposure, counted in stops of light.

E

Earned media valueEMVA brand's estimate of what creator coverage would have cost to buy as advertising. A reporting figure nobody actually pays.
Earnings Per ClickEPCAffiliate commission divided by clicks sent. It tells you what one click through to a merchant is genuinely worth to you.
Easingease in ease out, keyframe easing, bezier easingShaping how an animated value speeds up and slows down between keyframes, instead of changing at one constant rate.
Edit decision listEDLA plain text list of every clip, source and timecode in a cut, used to carry an edit between different systems.
Edit into a Shortcreate a Short from a video, remix your own long-formYouTube's built-in tool for clipping a vertical Short straight out of one of your own long-form uploads.
Editorial use onlyeditorial licenceA stock licence restriction allowing news, commentary and education while barring commercial use. A monetised video can count as commercial.
EDSA exceptionEDSA, educational documentary scientific artisticYouTube's allowance for material that would otherwise break its rules, when educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context justifies it.
EdutainmentThe label most large explainer channels use for themselves: teaching delivered with the pacing, stakes and structure of entertainment.
Eight-minute rule8 minute rule, mid-roll thresholdShorthand for YouTube's mid-roll threshold: videos longer than eight minutes are eligible for multiple mid-roll ad placements.
Email listmailing list, subscriber listThe addresses a creator can contact directly, with no platform deciding who sees the message.
Email sequencewelcome sequence, drip campaign, automationA set of emails sent automatically in order after someone subscribes, doing the introduction work you would otherwise repeat by hand.
Embargorelease embargo, review embargoThe date and time before which you may not publish anything about a product, agreed in advance and enforced by losing future access.
Embedded playerembed, embedded views, off-site playerYour video playing inside someone else's website or app through YouTube's iframe code, away from the watch page.
Employer Identification NumberEIN, federal tax IDA US federal tax ID for a business. American brands and networks ask for one, usually on a W-9, before they can pay an entity.
Encoderstreaming encoder, broadcast encoderThe software or hardware that compresses your camera and microphone feeds into a stream the platform will accept.
End screenend screens, end card, endcardThe clickable panel YouTube lays over the final stretch of a video, holding links to another video, a playlist or subscribe.
End screen click rateend screen CTR, end screen element click rateThe share of times an end screen element was shown that somebody clicked it, reported in YouTube Studio.
Engaged viewsengaged viewThe stricter Shorts metric requiring real watch time, kept under a new name after YouTube redefined the plain view count in 2025.
Engagement farmingengagement baitPrompts and tricks written purely to harvest comments, likes or shares, with no real interest in the conversation they set off.
Engagement podcomment pod, like podA group that agrees to like, comment on and share each other's posts on cue, to make a post look popular to the algorithm.
Engagement rateengagement %Interactions divided by views or impressions. Every platform defines both halves differently, so the figure only compares against itself.
Engagement signalsengagement as a signal, interaction signalsLikes, comments, shares and similar viewer actions that recommendation systems read as evidence a video landed well.
EnshittificationCory Doctorow's term for how platforms decay: good to users, then good to business customers, then good only to themselves.
Episodic Contentepisodic series, serialised contentVideos built as an ordered run, where each entry belongs to a series and part two exists because part one did.
EqualisationEQ, equalization, parametric EQTurning specific frequency bands up or down. The tool for tone problems that cannot be solved by moving the microphone.
Equity dealequity partnership, shares for contentA brand pays the creator in ownership, shares or options, either instead of a fee or alongside one.
Errors and omissions insuranceE&O insurance, media liability insuranceCover against legal claims arising from what you publish, such as defamation, copyright infringement or misuse of someone's likeness.
Esportscompetitive gamingOrganised competitive gaming: leagues, tournaments and professional teams, with an audience that follows matches the way sport fans do.
Establishing shotestablisherA wide shot at the start of a scene that tells the viewer where they are before any close-ups arrive.
Estimated metricsestimated data, estimated viewsFigures Studio shows before the data settles. Views, watch time and revenue all move after publication as invalid traffic gets filtered out.
Estimated Revenueestimated earningsThe earnings figure YouTube Analytics reports for a channel or video, covering ads, Premium, memberships and fan funding.
Evergreen Contentevergreen video, evergreenVideos that keep earning views for years because nothing in them is tied to a date, a trend or a news cycle.
Exclusivityexclusivity clauseA contract clause stopping you working with a sponsor's named competitors for an agreed period after publishing.
Explore pageInstagram ExploreInstagram's discovery grid of recommended posts and Reels from accounts a user does not already follow.
Explore tabExploreYouTube's browse destination for category surfaces and charts, close to the same view for everyone in a country rather than tailored to your history.
Exportrender, render out, output, encodeTurning a finished timeline into a single video file, with the codec, container and bitrate settings that decide how it survives upload.
Export presetexport settings, output preset, render settingsA saved bundle of export settings, so every upload leaves the editor with the same codec, resolution and bitrate every time.
Exposureexposing, correct exposureHow much light reaches the sensor, set by aperture, shutter and ISO together. Everything else in the image follows from getting it right.
Exposure stopstop, one stop, stopping downOne doubling or halving of the light reaching the sensor, the unit that shutter speed, aperture and ISO are all measured in.
Exposure triangleaperture shutter ISOThe three-way trade-off between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Change one to fix brightness and you change something else about the image.
External links policylinks policyYouTube's rules on where you may send viewers from a description, card, end screen or pinned comment, enforced with strikes.
External trafficexternal sources, off-platform trafficThe Analytics traffic source covering views that arrive from links and embedded players on websites and apps outside YouTube.
Extreme close-upECUA shot tight enough that one detail fills the frame: an eye, a switch, the tip of a soldering iron.
Eyelineeye line, eyeline matchWhere a subject is looking relative to the lens or to another person, and whether that direction matches what the edit implies.

F

Face blurblur faces, custom blurringStudio's privacy tool for hiding a face in an already-published video, tracked through the shot without re-uploading anything.
Face cropcropped face, close crop, tight cropCropping tight on a face in a thumbnail so the expression still reads when the image is the size of a postage stamp.
Face revealface reveal videoA creator showing their face for the first time after building an audience without it. A real milestone format for faceless and VTuber channels.
FacebookFB, Facebook ReelsMeta's original social network. Still enormous, and still a real distribution surface for creators through Reels, Pages and Groups.
Facebook GroupFB groupAn off-platform community space that still works for older audiences and hobby niches, though the reach sits in Facebook's hands.
Facecamface cam, cam overlayThe inset camera showing the creator, laid over gameplay or a screen capture. Standard furniture in gaming and tutorial video.
Faceless Channelanonymous channel, no-face channelA channel produced without the creator appearing on camera, built from stock, screen capture, animation or voiceover.
Fact-checkingfact check, verification passVerifying every claim in a script before it is recorded, while changing a line still costs you nothing.
Fade to blackfade out, fade in, fade from blackA transition dissolving the picture to a solid colour, usually black, to close a section or end the video.
Fair dealingfair dealing exceptionThe UK, Canadian and Australian equivalent of fair use, limited to a fixed list of permitted purposes with conditions attached to each.
Fair useSection 107The US defence permitting limited unlicensed use of copyrighted work. Weighed on four factors by a court, and never guaranteed in advance.
Fair use disclaimerno copyright infringement intended, copyright disclaimerThe no-copyright-infringement-intended boilerplate creators paste into descriptions. Writing it changes nothing about whether a use is lawful.
Fair use factorsfour factors, four-factor testThe four questions US courts weigh when deciding whether an unlicensed use is fair: purpose, nature of the work, amount taken, and market effect.
Fake engagement policyfake engagement, artificial engagementYouTube's rule against artificially inflating views, likes, comments or subscribers, whether bought from a service or traded between channels.
Fake subscribersbought subscribers, sub bots, purchased subsBought or bot subscriptions. They breach YouTube's fake engagement policy, get stripped out anyway, and leave your figures meaningless.
False colourfalse colorA monitoring overlay that repaints the image in colours by brightness level, so exposure can be judged at a glance.
False copyright claimfraudulent claim, abusive claim, bogus claimA claim or takedown filed by somebody with no rights to the material, sometimes an honest error and sometimes extortion.
Fan artfanartArtwork viewers make of a creator, their characters or their running jokes, often shared back and featured on channel surfaces.
Fan editedit, editsA short montage of clips cut to music by a fan of a show, film or person. An entire culture on Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
Fan Fundingviewer funding, direct support, audience fundingMoney paid to a creator directly by their audience through memberships, tips and gifts, instead of by advertisers buying attention.
Fan mailPO box, viewer mailPhysical post sent in by viewers, usually to a PO box, and often turned into a recurring on-camera segment.
Fan namecommunity name, audience nicknameThe collective nickname a creator gives their audience, so a view count becomes something an individual can say they belong to.
Fan theorytheoriesAudience speculation about what a creator is doing, planning or hiding. On narrative channels it drives a great deal of comment volume.
Fandomfanbase, the fansThe self-organising culture that forms around a creator or property: its in-jokes, its names for things, and the work it makes itself.
Feature eligibilityintermediate features, advanced featuresThe Studio page showing which tier of channel features you have unlocked: standard, intermediate and advanced.
Featured Channelsfeatured channels section, recommended channelsA section on your channel homepage that points viewers at other channels, added through the Layout tab in YouTube Studio.
Featured snippetposition zero, answer boxThe extracted answer Google shows above the standard results, lifted from a page that already ranks for the query.
Featured Video for Returning Subscribersfeatured video, spotlight video, returning subscriber videoThe video that plays on your channel homepage for people who already subscribe, set separately from the trailer everyone else sees.
Federal Trade CommissionFTCThe US regulator whose endorsement rules require creators to disclose paid or otherwise material relationships with brands.
Field monitorexternal monitor, camera monitorAn external screen mounted on or near the camera, used to judge focus, framing and exposure properly.
Field Recorderportable recorder, handheld recorder, external recorderA standalone audio recorder used away from the desk, capturing to its own card instead of into a camera or a computer.
File naming conventionnaming scheme, file namingAn agreed pattern for naming clips, projects and exports so anything can be found months later without opening it.
Fill lightfillThe softer second light that lifts the shadow side of a face and decides how harsh the key light is allowed to look.
Fill Ratead fill rateThe share of available ad slots an advertiser actually bought. A low figure explains a month where strong traffic paid unexpectedly badly.
Filler word removalum removal, remove filler wordsCutting the ums, ahs and false starts out of a recording, either by hand in the timeline or with a tool that finds them from the transcript.
Filler wordsums and ahs, verbal tics, crutch wordsThe ums, ahs and stock phrases that fill a gap while you decide what to say next, padding a take and slowing delivery.
Film graingrain overlay, add grainA layer of noise laid over a digital picture in post to imitate photochemical film, soften clinical sharpness or disguise banding in flat areas.
Filter bubbleThe narrowing of what a viewer gets shown when personalisation keeps feeding them more of what they already watched.
Final Cut ProFinal Cut, FCP, FCPXApple's Mac-only video editor, bought outright as a one-off purchase, built around a magnetic timeline in place of conventional tracks.
Finalised Revenuefinalized revenue, final earnings, month-end finalisationThe confirmed earnings figure for a month after invalid traffic and other adjustments come out, shown in AdSense rather than Analytics.
Fine cutpolish pass, final passThe pass after the rough cut, where timing, graphics, sound and detail get resolved and the edit stops changing shape.
First 24 hoursday one numbers, first-day performance, launch windowThe opening day of an upload's life, and the noisiest, most over-read numbers a creator will ever look at.
First 30 secondsfirst thirty seconds, opening 30 secondsThe opening stretch of a long-form video, where the promise made by the title and thumbnail has to start being paid off.
First frameopening frameThe opening frame of a Short, which does the job a thumbnail does elsewhere, because the swipe feed starts playback immediately.
Flaggingreporting, report a video, flagViewer-side reporting. The flag control sends a video, comment or channel into review against the Community Guidelines.
Flash-forwardflash forward, teaser cutCutting a strong moment from later in the video into the opening seconds, so the viewer can see what they are staying for.
Flat feefixed fee, flat rateA single agreed price for a sponsored piece, paid in full regardless of how many views or sales it goes on to produce.
Flat retentionretention plateau, flat curveA retention curve that runs level after the opening drop, meaning viewers who got past the first few seconds mostly stayed put.
Flopflopped video, underperformerA video landing well below what the channel normally does, measured against its own recent baseline rather than anyone else's numbers.
Focal lengthlens length, mmThe lens measurement in millimetres that decides how wide a view you capture and how the face in front of it is shaped.
Focal pointpoint of interest, hero elementThe one element in a shot or thumbnail the eye should land on first, before the viewer reads a word or works anything out.
Focus breathingbreathingThe slight shift in field of view as a lens racks focus. The framing looks like it zoomed.
Focus peakingpeakingA camera or monitor overlay that outlines the in-focus edges in a bright colour so you can pull focus by eye.
Foleyfoley effects, performed sound effectsEveryday sounds performed live to picture and recorded in a studio, replacing or reinforcing what the camera microphone caught.
Follow focusfollow-focusThe geared wheel on a camera rig that lets you turn the lens focus ring smoothly and repeatably by hand.
For You PageFYP, For You feedTikTok's main recommendation feed, assembled per viewer by interest rather than by who they follow. The reference point for the Shorts feed.
Foreshadowingplanting, seedingPlanting a detail early so a later moment pays off, and so viewers stay watching for something they know is coming.
Form 1099-NEC1099, 1099-NECThe US form a payer files to report non-employee compensation, with a copy sent to the contractor and the IRS.
Form W-8BENW-8BEN, W8BEN, tax form W-8BENThe US tax form a non-US individual creator files with Google to claim treaty rates on the American share of their YouTube earnings.
Format-Driven Channelformat-led channel, format-first channelA channel whose pull comes from a repeatable format the audience returns for, rather than from the person presenting it.
Frame ratefps, frames per second, framerateHow many individual frames a camera captures each second, written as fps, and the main lever on how motion looks.
Framing devicewrapper, frame narrativeA structure that wraps a whole video and gives loose material a shape the viewer can follow and anticipate.
Freebootingstolen reupload, content theftReuploading someone else's video natively to your own account or another platform, passing it off as your post.
Freelance editorhired editor, video editor for hireA hired human who edits your videos, paid per video, per hour or on a monthly retainer.
Freeze framehold frame, frame holdA single frame held on screen as a still, used to label something, land a joke or stop time for a beat.
FreshnessrecencyHow much weight a recent upload gets on topics where new information matters. The property belongs to the query rather than to your channel.
Front-loadingfront-load, front-loaded keywordPutting the words that carry the most weight at the start, so a title or hook lands before it gets truncated or skipped.
FTC Endorsement GuidesEndorsement Guides, FTC disclosure, FTC disclosure rulesThe US guidance setting out how creators must disclose paid or material relationships with the brands they talk about.
Fulfilmentfulfillment, order fulfilment, 3PLEverything between an order and a parcel arriving: storage, picking, packing, shipping and handling whatever comes back.
Full-frame sensorfull frame, 35mm sensorA camera sensor roughly the size of a 35mm film frame, which buys shallower depth of field and cleaner low-light footage.
Full-time creatorfull-time YouTuberSomebody whose creator income has replaced other work, though that income is nearly always a mix rather than ad revenue alone.

G

Gaininput gain, mic gainHow much a preamp amplifies a microphone signal on the way in, set before recording and separate from playback volume.
Gain Stagingsetting levels, level stagingSetting a sensible level at every point in the chain so the signal stays clear of the noise floor and never hits the ceiling.
General Data Protection RegulationGDPREU and UK data law covering any personal data a creator holds, an email list very much included.
Generative Engine OptimisationGEO, Generative Engine OptimizationMaking your work the thing an AI assistant cites when it answers a question, instead of something it never sees.
Geo-restrictioncountry restriction, region block, geo-blockingBlocking a video in specific countries, either by the creator's own choice or because a rights holder's policy applies only in some territories.
Geography reporttop geographies, viewer countries, geographyThe Studio breakdown of which countries your views and watch time came from, over whatever date range you pick.
Get Ready With MeGRWMA format where the creator talks to camera while doing their hair, makeup or getting dressed, with the routine as the backdrop.
Ghostwritingghostwriter, hired scriptwriterPaying a writer to script videos that publish under the creator's name. Ordinary practice on scripted channels, rarely advertised.
Gifted Membershipsgift memberships, gifting membershipsMemberships one viewer buys on behalf of others watching, handed out during a stream and paid for entirely by the giver.
Gimbalmotorised gimbal, handheld stabiliserA motorised handheld stabiliser that keeps a camera level while you move, using powered motors on three axes.
Giveawaycontest, prize drawA prize draw run to drive comments, subscriptions or shares. Bound by YouTube's contest policies and by the promotions law where entrants live.
Global shutterA sensor reading the entire frame at one instant, so fast movement stays straight and a flash never bands across the picture.
Golden hourmagic hourThe stretch after sunrise and before sunset when the sun sits low, the light turns warm and soft, and shadows run long.
Good standingchannel in good standingA channel with no active Community Guidelines strikes. Most monetisation and feature access is conditional on it.
Google AnalyticsGA4Google's website analytics product, now GA4, where external YouTube traffic and UTM-tagged description links actually get measured.
Google DiscoverDiscover feedGoogle's personalised feed in the Google app and mobile Chrome, showing content matched to a person's interests with no search typed at all.
Google Payments Profilepayments profile, payments centreThe Google-wide record holding your payee name, address, tax details and bank account; YouTube earnings pay out through it.
Google Search ConsoleGSC, Search ConsoleGoogle's free tool reporting how a site you own performs in search: queries, clicks, impressions and indexing problems.
Google TrendsTrendsGoogle's free tool for comparing relative search interest over time, with a YouTube search filter that makes it useful for video.
Grading nodenode, node graph, serial nodeOne step in a node-based colour grade: an image goes in, a single change is applied, and it passes to the next node.
Green roombackstage, waiting room for guestsThe private holding space where a guest waits, gets their sound and picture checked, and is briefed before being brought on air.
Greenlightgreen-light, greenlit, approve an ideaThe moment an idea is formally approved to leave the backlog and go into production.
Grey cardgray card, 18% grey cardA neutral card of known reflectance held in shot to give the camera a reference for white balance and exposure.
Gross Merchandise ValueGMV, gross salesThe total value of goods sold through your links or store before any fees, refunds or costs come out.
Guaranteed viewsview guarantee, guaranteed impressionsA clause where the creator promises a minimum view count within a set window, with a remedy owed if the video falls short.

H

H.264AVC, x264, MPEG-4 Part 10The codec YouTube recommends for uploads, and the one nearly every camera and editor produces. Universally compatible, and no longer the most efficient.
H.265HEVC, x265HEVC, the codec that followed H.264, holding similar quality at roughly half the bitrate and now standard for 4K and HDR.
Handheld shothandheld, shooting handheldA shot taken with the camera held in the hands, so the frame carries the movement of the person holding it.
Harassment and cyberbullying policyharassment policyYouTube's rules on content that targets a person, covering threats, sustained abuse and publishing private details.
Hard cutcut, straight cutThe plain cut with nothing between two clips. The default edit, and the one to reach for before any transition.
Hard lightharsh lightLight from a source that is small relative to the subject, which produces sharp-edged shadows and strong contrast between lit and unlit.
Hardware encoderdedicated encoder, GPU encodingA dedicated chip or standalone box that compresses a live video feed and keeps that work off the computer's main processor.
Hardware encodingNVENC, GPU encoding, Quick SyncExporting or streaming through a dedicated chip on the graphics card, far faster than asking the processor to do the same work.
Harmful or dangerous content policydangerous challenges policy, dangerous actsThe Community Guideline banning stunts, challenges and instructions likely to get someone hurt, including hoaxes and content promoting self-harm.
Hashtag challengechallenge trend, dance challengeA repeatable prompt that spreads through one shared hashtag and sound, inviting anybody to film their own version of the same idea.
Hashtag pagehashtag landing pageThe page at youtube.com/hashtag/term that collects every video carrying that exact tag, reachable by clicking any hashtag on YouTube.
HashtagshashtagHash-prefixed keywords in a title or description that turn into clickable links to a page of other content carrying the same tag.
Hate commenthate comments, negative commentsAn abusive comment aimed at the creator rather than the work. A moderation and wellbeing problem, and useless as feedback.
Hate speech policyhate speechYouTube's rule against material that promotes violence or hatred towards people based on protected attributes, enforced by removal and strikes.
Hate-watchinghate watchWatching something you dislike so you can criticise it, which still registers as watch time and pollutes the feedback you get.
Haulhaul videoA format where the creator unpacks and reacts to a batch of recent purchases, one item at a time.
HDR videoHDR, high dynamic range, HDR uploadFootage carrying a wider brightness and colour range than standard video, so bright highlights hold detail instead of clipping to flat white.
Headroomhead room, space above the headThe space between the top of the subject's head and the top of the frame. Too much of it is the commonest amateur framing error.
Headroomaudio headroom, safety marginThe spare level between the loudest part of your audio and the point where it clips, kept as insurance against peaks.
Hearted commentcreator heart, heart a commentA creator's heart on a comment, which stamps the channel avatar on it and sends the commenter a notification.
Held for reviewcomments held for review, review queueThe Studio queue where comments wait for a creator's approval before they appear publicly.
Hero shotmoney shotThe single best-looking shot of the subject, the one the piece is built around and the thumbnail usually comes from.
Hero, Hub, HelpHHH, hero hub help, 3H strategy, 70/20/10 ruleA content-planning model that sorts a channel's output into three types: big swings, recurring series, and search-led answers.
Hero's journeythe hero's journey, monomythThe quest structure where somebody leaves the familiar, meets a trial and returns changed. Fits challenge and transformation videos.
Hidden subscriber counthide subscriber countA channel setting that stops your subscriber number showing publicly. Studio still reports the real figure and thresholds still count it.
Hidden userhide user from channel, block a user, ban, perma-banAn account whose comments and live chat are invisible to everyone else on your channel, while looking perfectly normal to them.
High frame rateHFR, 120fps, high speedShooting well above the frame rate you deliver at, usually so the footage can be slowed down smoothly in the edit.
High-angle shothigh angleA shot taken from above the subject's eye line, looking down, which reads as smaller, softer or more exposed.
High-CPM Nichehigh CPM niche, high RPM niche, high-paying niche, money nicheA subject where advertiser demand pushes ad rates above average, so the same view count earns more.
High-Pass Filterlow cut, HPF, rumble filterA filter that removes everything below a set frequency and lets the highs pass. The standard first move on a voice track.
Histogramexposure histogramA graph of how many pixels sit at each brightness level, used to judge exposure more reliably than the screen.
HLSHTTP Live StreamingHTTP Live Streaming, Apple's segment-based protocol, used to deliver streams to viewers and accepted by YouTube as an advanced ingest option.
Hold rateretention rate (paid social)The share of people who got past the opening seconds of an ad and were still watching at a later checkpoint.
Home feedhomepage, YouTube home, home pageThe personalised grid YouTube loads when a viewer opens the app or the site, mixing recommendations, subscriptions and Shorts shelves.
Home studiofilming space, studio setupA room set up permanently for filming, so lights, camera and sound stay where they were and setup time drops to nothing.
Hookopening hookThe opening seconds of a video, whose one job is keeping someone who has already started watching. Judged on retention, and on Shorts by engaged views.
Hook rate3-second retention, scroll-stop rateThe share of people who keep watching past the opening seconds of a short video instead of swiping straight past.
Host-Read Adhost read, creator-read adA sponsor message the creator delivers themselves, in their own words and voice, inside the video instead of as a produced advert.
Hover previewvideo preview, animated preview, inline previewThe short muted clip that replaces the thumbnail when a viewer hovers on desktop or pauses while scrolling the feed.
HSL qualifierqualifier, colour key, isolate a colourA grading tool that isolates one range of hue, saturation and luminance so you can change a single colour and leave the rest alone.
Hustle culturegrindset, rise and grindThe norm treating constant output as the price of being taken seriously, with rest as something you are supposed to earn back later.
Hybrid dealbase plus bonus, flat fee plus commissionA brand deal paying a guaranteed base fee plus performance money on top, usually commission or a per-signup bonus.
Hypehype, hype button, hype leaderboardA button letting viewers boost a recent video from a smaller channel onto a ranked leaderboard, weighted so the smallest channels gain most.
Hype Trainhype train eventTwitch's escalating community event, triggered when viewers spend on subs, gifts or Bits in a short burst.
Hyperlapsemoving time-lapseA time-lapse where the camera physically travels between frames, producing a rushing tracking shot over a long distance.

I

Idea bankidea backlog, idea list, idea vault, idea dump listThe running store of captured video ideas a creator picks from, so choosing what to make next stops being a blank-page problem.
Idea ceilingceiling, topic ceiling, low ceiling ideaThe largest audience a video idea can realistically reach however well it is made, set by the topic rather than the execution.
Idea validationvalidating a video idea, concept testing, testing an ideaChecking that an idea has an audience waiting for it before you spend a week of production time finding out.
Ideationidea generation, content ideationThe deliberate stage of generating video ideas in quantity, held apart from the stage where you decide which one to make.
Image stabilisationIBIS, OIS, image stabilizationCorrection of camera shake, done by the camera body, by the lens, or in software after the footage is shot.
Impersonation commentscam comment, fake creator reply, giveaway scamA scam reply posted under a clone of the creator's name and avatar, telling viewers they have won something and to message an off-platform account.
Impersonation policyimpersonationYouTube's rule against passing yourself off as another channel, person or brand in a way that could mislead viewers.
Imposter syndromeimpostor syndromeThe persistent sense that your results are undeserved and somebody is about to work out you do not know what you are doing.
Impressionsthumbnail impressions, video impressionsHow many times your thumbnail was put in front of somebody on YouTube. Distribution, counted before anyone decides to click.
Impressions click-through rateCTR, click-through rate, impressions CTR, thumbnail CTRThe percentage of times YouTube showed your thumbnail and somebody clicked it, reported per video and per channel in Studio.
Impressions funnelimpressions and how they led to watch time, reach funnelThe Studio chart tracing thumbnail impressions through clicks into views and watch time, so you can see which stage loses people.
In and out pointsin point, out point, mark in mark outThe start and end frames marked on a clip or a timeline, defining exactly which section gets used, played or exported.
In-Feed Video Addiscovery ad, video discovery ad, in-feed adA paid thumbnail placed in YouTube search, the home feed or watch-next. Nothing plays until the viewer chooses to click it.
Inactive subscribersghost subscribers, dead subs, dormant subscribersPeople who once subscribed and no longer watch. They still count toward your subscriber number, so it drifts away from your real audience.
Inappropriate languageprofanity policy, swearing policyThe advertiser-friendly rule on swearing. Strong language in the opening seconds used to limit ads by itself, and no longer does.
Inauthentic content policymass-produced content, repetitious contentYouTube's monetisation rule against mass-produced and templated uploads, renamed from repetitious content in July 2025.
Inbound dealinbound enquiry, inbound offerA sponsorship where the brand approaches you first, which usually means a budget exists and the pitching is already done.
Inciting incidentthe triggerThe event that breaks the ordinary state of things and starts the story. Everything after it is consequence.
Indemnification clauseindemnity clause, hold harmlessThe contract term deciding who pays if a third party sues over the sponsored content.
Independent contractorfreelancer, self-employed contractor, 1099 contractorThe self-employed status most creators work under, both when taking brand deals and when hiring editors and thumbnail designers.
Indexingindexed, search indexA search system storing and organising content so it can be retrieved and ranked when somebody searches for it.
Infinite scrollendless feedThe feed design where the next item is always one swipe away, with no page break to stop on.
InfluencerA creator whose commercial value to brands rests on persuading an audience, rather than on the volume of content produced.
Influencer fraudfake followers, engagement fraud, bought viewsInflated audience or engagement sold to a sponsor as real. Bought followers, bought views, engagement pods, bot comments.
Influencer marketingcreator marketing, influencer campaignThe brand-side trade of buying creator-made advertising and access to creator audiences, planned, contracted and measured as a media channel.
Influencer marketing agencycampaign agency, brand-side agencyAn agency hired by a brand to run creator campaigns end to end. They sit on the buyer's side of the table.
Influencer marketing platformcreator marketplace, brand marketplace, campaign platformSoftware brands use to find creators, send briefs, sign contracts and pay, with your channel often listed on it whether you signed up or not.
Information panelinfo panel, context panelA box of context YouTube attaches to a watch page based on the video's subject or on who published it.
Ingest URLstream URL, RTMP URL, server URLThe server address your encoder sends the feed to, used together with the stream key to get a live broadcast into YouTube.
Insert shotinsertA tight shot of a detail inside the scene, such as hands on a keyboard or a label, cut in to show it clearly.
Insertion orderIOThe media-buying paperwork an agency issues to book a placement, setting out what runs, when, for how much, and on what terms.
Inspiration tabInspiration, ideas for youA surface in YouTube Studio that suggests video ideas, along with hooks, outlines and titles, based on your own channel and audience.
InstagramIGMeta's photo and video app, the usual second home for video creators and the first place a brand checks.
Instagram gridthe grid, grid post, IG grid, grid aestheticThe permanent tiled feed on an Instagram profile, and the posts made for it rather than for Stories or Reels.
Instagram StoryStories, IG StoryA short vertical post that disappears after 24 hours, used for behind-the-scenes clips, polls and telling followers a video is live.
Intellectual propertyIPThe umbrella term for rights you own or license in creative and commercial work: copyright, trademarks and related rights.
Internal linkinginternal linksLinks from one page of your own site to another. They spread authority around and tell search engines which pages matter.
Intro retentionfirst 30 seconds, 30-second retention, hook retentionHow much of the audience is still watching through the opening seconds, read off the left-hand edge of the retention graph.
Invalid trafficfake views, artificial views, spam viewsPlays YouTube judges to be automated, incentivised or otherwise inauthentic, which it strips out of your public view count and your revenue.
Inverse square lawlight falloffLight falls off with the square of the distance. Move a lamp twice as far away and a quarter of it reaches you.
Invisible cutseamless cut, hidden cut, stitchA cut hidden inside motion or darkness, so two separate takes read to the viewer as one continuous shot.
Invoicebilling, sales invoiceThe document that asks a client to pay, carrying the reference numbers their accounts system needs to release the money.
IRL streamIRL streaming, in real life streamA live broadcast made out in the world from a portable rig, rather than from a fixed desk setup.
ISOISO, native ISO, ISO speedThe camera setting that brightens an image electronically, and the one that starts adding visible noise once you push it too far.

J

J-cutaudio lead, split editAn edit where audio from the next shot begins before the picture cuts to it, easing the viewer through the change.
JewelsYouTube Jewels, Shorts gifting, live giftsYouTube's gifting currency for vertical live streams. Viewers buy Jewels, spend them on animated gifts, and the streamer earns from those gifts.
Jump cutjumpcut, jump cuttingAn edit that removes time from the middle of one continuous shot, so the subject snaps to a new position.
Just Chattingchatting categoryThe Twitch category for streams with no game on screen, where the broadcast is the streamer talking to chat.

K

Ken Burns effectpan and zoom, photo motionA slow pan and zoom across a still photograph so it moves on screen instead of sitting there as a static card.
Kerningletter spacing, trackingThe spacing between individual letter pairs. Tracking adjusts a whole word or line, and the two names get used interchangeably.
Key lightkeyThe main light shaping the subject. It sets the exposure, the direction of the shadows and most of the mood in a shot.
Key momentsGoogle key moments, chapters in searchChapter links Google shows inside a video result, letting someone jump straight to the segment that answers their query.
Key moments for audience retentionkey moments, top momentsThe labels YouTube Studio adds to a retention graph for the intro, the top moments, and the spikes and dips worth investigating.
Keyframekey, keyframingA marker storing a property's value at a moment in time, so the software can animate between one marker and the next.
Keyframe intervalGOP, GOP length, keyframe frequencyHow often an encoder sends a complete frame during a stream, set in seconds or in frames, and often labelled GOP length.
Keyword cannibalisationkeyword cannibalization, content cannibalisationTwo or more of your own videos chasing the same search query, splitting the clicks so neither of them settles into the top result.
Keyword difficultycompetition score, ranking difficultyA tool's estimate of how hard it would be to rank for a search term, usually scored out of 100 against whatever already ranks.
Keyword researchtopic research, search researchWorking out which phrases an audience actually types into search, and how much competition already sits against each one.
Keyword stuffingtag stuffing, metadata stuffingCramming repeated or irrelevant keywords into a title, description or tags. YouTube treats it as misleading metadata and viewers read it as spam.
KickKick.comA live streaming platform positioned against Twitch, best known for paying streamers a far larger share of subscription revenue.
Kill feecancellation feeThe payment owed when a brand cancels after work has already started, sized as a share of the full fee.
Kinetic typographyanimated text, text animationAnimated text used as the main visual, timed to speech or music rather than laid over other footage.
Kit lensbundled lensThe basic zoom bundled with a camera body, usually something like 18-55mm with a maximum aperture that shifts as you zoom.
Knowledge panelknowledge graph panelThe information box Google shows beside or above search results for a person, company or thing it recognises as a distinct entity.
Ko-fiKofiA tipping and membership platform built round small one-off payments, with shops, commissions and members-only posts layered on.

L

L-cutaudio trail, split editAn edit where the audio from the current shot keeps running after the picture has already cut to the next one.
Lagging indicatorlagging metricA number that confirms something already happened. Subscriber count is the classic one: it moves long after the work that earned it.
Landing pagesqueeze pageA single page built round one action, which is where a description link, a bio link or a lead magnet should send people.
Last 28 daysrolling 28 days, 28-day windowYouTube Studio's default reporting window, covering the four most recent complete weeks of channel data.
Late feelate payment fee, interest on late paymentA contract clause charging a sponsor for paying after the agreed date, usually interest running from the day the invoice fell due.
Lavalier Microphonelav mic, lapel mic, clip-on micA small microphone clipped to clothing near the chest, which keeps the audio close and consistent while staying nearly invisible on camera.
Lead magnetfreebie, opt-inSomething useful given away free in exchange for an email address. The trade that turns an anonymous viewer into a contact you own.
Lead roomnose room, looking roomThe gap left in front of a subject's face or direction of travel, so a shot does not feel like they are about to walk into the frame edge.
Leading indicatorleading metricAn early metric that moves before the outcome you care about, so you can act while the result is still forming.
Leading lineslines that lead the eyeLines inside the frame, real or implied, that pull a viewer's eye towards the subject.
LED panelpanel lightA flat array of LEDs in a rectangular fixture, the standard soft light for creator sets and small studios.
LegibilityreadabilityWhether the words and the subject in a thumbnail can be taken in at a glance, at the size and distance viewers really see them.
Lens compressiontelephoto compression, background compressionThe flattening of apparent distance you get on a longer lens, which pulls the background closer and is kinder to a face.
Lens flareflareStreaks, rings or a milky haze across the frame caused by a bright light source bouncing around inside the lens.
Let's PlayplaythroughA commentated playthrough of a game, where the appeal comes from the person's running reaction to what happens.
Letterboxingpillarboxing, black bars, blurred barsThe bars or blurred fill left over when footage of one shape is dropped into a frame of another, most often a horizontal clip inside a vertical Short.
Level MeterVU meter, loudness meter, LUFS meter, audio meterThe readout showing how loud a signal is while you record or mix, in peak decibels, averaged level, or LUFS loudness.
Liability insurancepublic liability insurance, general liabilityCover against claims for injury or property damage caused by your work, and often a condition of filming on someone else's site.
Licence termusage term, licence length, term of useHow long a brand may keep using content you made for them, after which their rights lapse and any further use needs renegotiating.
Lifetime datalifetime, all time, since publishedThe full record of a video or channel since it was published, as opposed to a rolling window such as the last 28 days.
Lifetime ValueLTV, customer lifetime value, CLVThe total a single member, subscriber or customer brings in across the whole relationship, counting every renewal and repeat purchase.
Light diffusiondiffuser, diffusion panelAnything placed between a light and the subject to spread it out, trading a hard-edged shadow for a soft one.
Light flickerbanding, flicker-freePulsing brightness or rolling bands in footage, caused by a light whose pulse rate is out of step with your shutter.
Light modifiermodifier, light shaping toolAnything fitted to a light to change its quality: softbox, umbrella, diffusion, grid, snoot, bounce or flag.
Lighting flagflag, cutterAn opaque panel used to block light: off a wall, out of the lens, or off part of the subject.
Lighting ratiokey to fill ratioThe brightness relationship between key light and fill, written as a ratio, describing how deep the shadows on a face are.
Like ratelikes per view, like-to-view ratioLikes divided by views, used as a rough read on how well a video landed with the people who watched it.
Likeness detectionAI likeness detection, synthetic likenessYouTube tooling that scans uploads for AI-altered or generated versions of an enrolled creator's face, with a removal route attached.
Limited Adslimited or no ads, yellow icon, LONAThe yellow icon state. YouTube judges a video only partly suitable for advertisers, so a narrower pool of ads runs against it.
Limited companyLtd, private limited companyA UK company registered at Companies House, legally separate from the people who own it, so business debts stop at the company.
Limited liability companyLLCA US business structure that separates an owner's personal assets from the company's debts and legal exposure.
Limiterbrickwall limiter, peak limiterA hard ceiling on level. Anything that would push past the threshold you set gets held at it instead.
Link in biobio link, LinktreeThe single clickable link a profile allows, usually pointing at a hub page listing everywhere else you want people to go.
LinkedInMicrosoft's professional network, now used by creators as a distribution surface for business audiences instead of only as a place to park a CV.
Lip SyncA/V sync, audio-video sync, sync drift, out of syncAudio lining up with the mouth movement on screen, and the drift you get when it slowly stops lining up.
Lip sync videolip syncingMiming to an existing audio clip. The format short-form video was built on, and still one of the quickest routes into a trend.
Listiclelist video, numbered list formatA format built as a numbered list of items, where the count itself is part of the promise made in the title.
Live ad breakmid-roll ad break, insert ad breakA mid-roll ad the creator fires by hand during a live stream, taken at a lull rather than wherever YouTube would have placed it.
Live captionsautomatic live captions, real-time captionsSubtitles generated automatically from the audio while a broadcast is still running, with the accuracy trade-off that implies.
Live chatstream chatThe real-time message feed running beside a live stream or Premiere, where the audience talks while you broadcast.
Live chat replaychat replayThe recorded chat that plays back in sync with an archived stream, so later viewers see the conversation unfold.
Live Control Roomlive dashboard, YouTube live control roomThe Studio screen where you set up, monitor and run a broadcast: stream key, health readout, chat, live analytics and the controls, all in one place.
Live datego-live date, air date, publish date requirementThe date a sponsored video has to be public by, written into the contract and tied to the brand's own campaign timing.
Live DVRDVR, rewind liveThe live stream setting that lets viewers pause, scrub back and catch up while the broadcast is still running.
Live pollchat poll, stream pollA vote run in live chat during a broadcast, which gives the audience something to press and the host something to react to.
Live Q&AQ and A, question modeA YouTube live chat feature that collects viewer questions into their own list and pins the one you are answering.
Live redirectend of stream redirect, stream redirectA YouTube setting that pushes your live viewers straight into another channel's stream or Premiere the moment your broadcast ends.
Live shoppingshoppable live stream, live commerceA live stream with products tagged so viewers can buy them from a shopping panel while the broadcast is still running.
Live streamlivestream, live streaming, going liveA broadcast sent out in real time as it happens, rather than recorded, edited and uploaded as a finished file.
Live streaming eligibilityenable live streaming, live accessThe account conditions YouTube requires before live works at all, which differ between a desktop encoder and streaming from your phone.
Livestream sponsorshipsponsored stream, stream sponsorA sponsor paying for reads, overlays or whole segments inside a live broadcast, priced on concurrents rather than on views.
Living room viewingTV screens, connected TV, CTV, TV appWatching YouTube on a television set, through a smart TV, console or streaming stick, instead of on a phone or a desktop.
llms.txtLLM txt fileA proposed file at a site's root pointing AI systems at its key pages. Widely written about, thinly honoured.
Loan-out companyloanout, personal service companyA company that contracts out the creator's services, so deals are signed with the entity instead of the person.
Localisationlocalization, translated titles, language localisationPublishing a video's title, description and subtitles in other languages so viewers browsing in those languages can find it.
Location scoutinglocation scout, recce, scouting a locationVisiting a filming location in advance to check light, sound, access and permission before you commit a shoot day to it.
Locked-off shotlocked off, static shotA completely static shot on a fixed camera, with no pan, no tilt and no handheld movement whatsoever.
Log profilelog footage, S-Log, C-Log, log gammaA flat, low-contrast capture profile that keeps highlight and shadow detail for grading. It looks wrong out of camera because it is meant to.
Loglinelog line, one-line pitchThe whole idea compressed into one sentence, used to test whether it holds up before you spend a week making it.
Long-form videolongform, long formA regular YouTube upload rather than a Short, watched on the watch page with the full set of channel features.
Long-tail keywordlong tail queryA longer, more specific search phrase with lower volume and weaker competition than the broad term it sits underneath.
Loudness Normalisationloudness normalization, volume normalisation, -14 LUFSYouTube playing everything back at a common loudness. Louder videos get turned down, so viewers stop adjusting the volume between them.
Loudness Units Full ScaleLUFS, integrated loudness, LKFSThe unit for measuring how loud a video actually sounds over its full length, and what streaming platforms normalise against.
Low-angle shotlow angleCamera placed below the subject's eye level and pointing up, which makes the subject read as larger or more dominant.
Lower thirdname strap, chyron, name tagThe name or label graphic that appears in the bottom portion of the frame, usually introducing whoever is speaking.
Loyalty Badgemember badge, loyalty badgesThe small icon beside a channel member's name in comments and live chat, which upgrades as their membership passes set lengths of time.
Lurkerlurking, silent viewerA viewer who watches an entire stream without ever typing in chat, and who counts as a viewer exactly the same.
LUTlook-up table, LUT, cube file, creative LUTA file that maps one set of colour values to another, used either to convert log footage to a normal picture or to apply a look.
Lyric videolyrics video, lyric visualiser, lyric visualizerA music upload whose visuals are the song's words on screen, cheap to make and often posted before the official video.

M

Macro shotmacro, extreme detail shotExtreme close-up filming that renders small detail at or near life size, a b-roll staple for tech, craft and food channels.
Made for kidsMFK, kids content, child-directedThe COPPA-driven setting that marks a video as child-directed, which strips comments, notifications, personalised ads and most engagement features.
Made on YouTubeMade on YouTube eventYouTube's annual announcement event, where new creator features are unveiled and most of Studio's new vocabulary first appears.
Mains Humground loop, 50Hz hum, 60Hz hum, electrical buzzThe steady low buzz that leaks into audio from mains power, poor earthing or nearby equipment, at 50Hz in the UK and 60Hz in the US.
Make-goodmakegood, remedy post, re-runExtra content supplied free when a campaign misses a guaranteed number, agreed in advance as the remedy instead of a refund.
Management commissionmanager cut, management feeThe percentage of a deal's value a manager or management company keeps for finding, negotiating and running it.
Manual ad breaksplace ads manually, manual mid-rollsMid-roll slots you position yourself on the video's timeline in Studio, instead of leaving the placement to YouTube.
Manual claimmanual claimingA copyright claim a rights holder files by hand against a specific video, rather than one Content ID's automated matching raised.
Manual focusMF, focusing manuallySetting focus by hand on the lens or screen instead of leaving the camera to decide.
Markertimeline marker, clip marker, chapter markerA flag dropped on a timeline or clip at a specific timecode, used to note a fix, a beat, or a chapter point.
Maskmasking, matte shapeA shape limiting where a layer or effect appears, so a blur, a colour change or a second angle only shows inside it.
Master filefinal export, mezzanine fileThe highest-quality finished export, kept as the source that every later version is cut, compressed or reframed from.
Master rightsmaster recording rights, sound recording rights, mastersThe copyright in one specific recording of a song, normally owned by the label, and separate from the rights in the song as written.
Master shotmasterOne continuous wide take covering a whole scene end to end, kept as the backbone an edit can always cut back to.
Masteringmaster the audio, final loudness passThe final loudness and tonal pass over a finished mix, done once everything else is settled.
Mastermindmastermind group, paid mastermind, peer groupA paid peer group that meets on a fixed schedule so members can work on each other's businesses, sold as the tier above coaching.
Match cutmatched cut, graphic matchA cut between two shots sharing a shape, a movement or an action, so the join reads as deliberate.
Matte boxmatteboxThe boxy hood on the front of a cinema lens. It holds square filters and blocks stray light from striking the glass.
Mechanical licencemechanical license, cover song licencePermission to reproduce someone else's composition as a recording. It covers audio, which is why a cover video needs more.
Media binbin, media pool, project binThe folder structure inside an editing project that holds imported clips, audio, graphics and every other asset.
Media cachecache files, peak files, conformed audioThe temporary files an editor writes to keep playback smooth: waveform peaks, conformed audio and clip index files.
Media ingestoffload, card offload, footage offloadCopying footage off the cards into the project's folder structure, verified and backed up, before any editing begins.
Media kitpress kit, creator media kit, EPKThe short document you send a prospective sponsor: who watches you, how many, how they behave, and what a placement costs.
Media offlinemissing media, relink media, offline clipsThe error an editor shows when a project can no longer find the source files its clips point at.
Medianmiddle valueThe middle value of a set once you put it in order, far less distorted by one runaway result than the average.
Medium shotmid shot, MSFraming that takes in the subject from roughly the waist up: close enough to read a face, wide enough to show hands and gesture.
Meet and greetmeetup, fan meetupAn in-person event where a creator meets viewers face to face, usually attached to a convention or a tour date.
Melody matchmelody claimA Content ID match on the underlying composition rather than the recording, which is how cover versions get claimed.
Members-Only Contentmembers only videos, members only posts, paywalled uploadsVideos, posts or live streams visible only to viewers paying for channel membership, and often gated to particular membership tiers.
Members-only live chatmembers-only chat, sub-only chatA live chat setting that lets only channel members type, used to keep a busy stream readable while everyone else still watches.
Members-only live streammembers only stream, members streamA broadcast set so only paying channel members can watch, used for closer contact with the people who already pay.
Membership Churnmember churn, churn rate, cancellation rateThe share of paying members who cancel in a given period. It decides whether memberships compound or stall.
Membership Perksperks, member benefits, custom emojiWhat paying channel members receive: a loyalty badge, custom emoji, members-only videos and posts, plus whatever the creator adds.
Membership Tiermembership level, tiersA priced level of channel membership, each with its own monthly cost and its own bundle of perks for the people on it.
MemeA joke, image or format that spreads by being copied and altered, with each version still recognisable as the same thing.
Memory cardSD card, microSD, CFexpressRemovable camera storage whose speed rating decides which recording modes work, with capacity mattering far less than assumed.
Merch dropdrop, limited drop, capsule dropA product release limited by time or quantity, announced in advance, so demand piles into one window instead of trickling.
Merchandisemerch, branded productsPhysical branded goods sold to an audience, running from print on demand basics up to a designed product line.
Metadatavideo metadataThe text attached to a video, mainly title, description, tags, category and language, read by viewers and by YouTube's systems.
Micro Four ThirdsMFT, M43, Micro 4/3A mirrorless camera standard with a sensor around a quarter the area of full frame and a 2x crop factor, built for compact rigs.
Micro-influencermicro creatorThe small-audience creator tier brands buy for engagement and cost efficiency, usually somewhere in the low tens of thousands of followers.
Microphone bleedmic bleed, spillOne person's voice landing on another person's microphone. The reason multi-mic podcast recordings never edit as cleanly as they should.
Microphone Placementmic placement, mic technique, mic distanceWhere the microphone sits relative to the mouth. The cheapest and largest improvement available to almost any creator's audio.
Mid-Roll Admidroll, mid roll, mid-video adAn ad break that plays partway through a video, available on longer uploads once a channel earns a share of ad revenue.
Mind mapmind mapping, idea mapA branching diagram used to open an idea out into its sub-topics before you commit to an outline or a script.
Minimum order quantityMOQThe smallest run a manufacturer will produce. Usually the reason a merch idea stops at the quote stage.
Mirrorless cameramirrorless, mirrorless bodyA camera body with no reflex mirror, showing a live electronic preview of the exposure, and the default choice for creator video.
Misinformation policymedical misinformation policy, elections misinformation policyYouTube's rules on false claims that can cause real-world harm, split across general, medical and elections misinformation.
Misleading metadatamisleading thumbnails, metadata spamA title, thumbnail, description or tag set promising something the video does not deliver. YouTube's spam policy names the serious version.
Mix-minusmix minus feedA feed sent to a remote guest carrying everything except their own voice, which is what stops the echo.
Mixingmixdown, audio mix, balancing levelsBalancing voice, music and effects against each other so the result sits at a consistent, comfortable level.
Mobile live streamingstream from phone, mobile liveGoing live straight from the YouTube app, with the phone handling the camera, the encoding and the connection.
Model releasetalent release, appearance releaseA signed permission from anyone identifiable on camera, covering your right to use their image in the finished video and its promotion.
Moirémoire pattern, aliasing on fabricThe rippling, shimmering pattern that appears when fine repeating detail in a shot clashes with the camera sensor's grid.
Monetisationmonetization, monetise, monetizeTurning an audience into income, whether through ads, memberships, sponsorship, products or anything else somebody will pay for.
Monetisation ThresholdYPP threshold, 1000 subscribers 4000 watch hours, eligibility thresholdThe subscriber and watch-hour or Shorts-view bar a channel clears to join the YouTube Partner Program. There are two tiers and they unlock different things.
Monetization Tabearn tab, studio monetizationThe section of YouTube Studio, labelled Earn, where you track Partner Program eligibility and switch individual monetisation features on.
Monetized Playbacksmonetised playbacks, estimated monetized playbacksThe count of plays where at least one ad was served. It always sits below a video's total view count.
Monitor calibrationdisplay calibration, colour calibrationSetting a display to a known standard so that what you see while grading or designing matches what everyone else will see.
Monitor Headphonesclosed-back headphones, studio headphones, monitoring cansFlat-response headphones used to hear problems while recording and mixing, chosen for accuracy over pleasant sound.
Monomono, single channel, mono downmixOne channel of audio, played identically in both ears. The correct format for a single voice, and the fix for a one-sided recording.
Montagemontage sequenceA run of short shots cut together to compress a process or a stretch of time into a few seconds.
Monthly Recurring RevenueMRR, recurring monthly income, ARRThe predictable income a creator business bills again every month from memberships, subscriptions and any other repeating payment.
Moodboardmood board, inspiration board, look bookA collage of reference images, frames and colours that fixes the intended look of a video before anyone picks up a camera.
Morality clausemorals clause, conduct clauseA contract term letting a brand exit a deal, and sometimes reclaim fees already paid, if the creator's conduct damages their reputation.
Most replayedheat map, engagement graph, replay graphThe graph above the progress bar showing which parts of a video get rewatched most, visible to any viewer on eligible videos.
Motion blurblur per frameThe smearing of movement inside a single frame, set by how long the shutter stays open. Too little of it makes footage look juddery.
Motion graphicsmograph, motion design, animated graphicsAnimated text, shapes and graphic elements built into an edit, covering lower thirds, counters, kinetic type and explainer animation.
Motion graphics templateMOGRT, editable template, preset graphicA packaged graphic with editable text and controls that drops onto a timeline, so you change the words without opening After Effects.
Motion trackingtracker, planar tracking, corner pinAnalysing movement within a shot so a graphic, blur or effect stays attached to something as it moves.
Motivated lightingmotivated lightLighting arranged so it appears to come from a source visible or implied in the scene, such as a window, lamp or screen.
Mouth clicksmouth noise, clicks and breathsThe small saliva and lip noises picked up between words on close-miked voiceover, and a named cleanup step in most edits.
Moving averagerolling average, smoothed averageAn average taken over a sliding window of recent days, used to show the trend underneath noisy daily numbers.
MukbangAn eating broadcast: the host eats, usually a lot, while talking to viewers. The format came out of Korean live streaming.
Multi-Channel NetworkMCN, YouTube networkA company that signs many channels and offers services such as sales, rights management and audience development for a share of revenue.
Multi-language audioMLA, auto-dubbing, dubbed audio trackAlternate-language audio tracks attached to one video, so a single upload can serve viewers who speak different languages.
Multi-video dealpackage deal, multi-post deal, bundled deliverablesOne contract covering several videos for the same brand, usually priced at a discount against what each would cost on its own.
Multicammulti-camera, multicam liveRunning two or more cameras into one production and cutting between the angles, either live or in the edit.
Multicam editingmulticam, multi-camera edit, multicam sequenceSyncing several camera angles into one clip so you can switch between them in real time as the footage plays.
Multicam setupmulti-camera setup, two-camera setup, B-camFilming with more than one camera rolling at once, so the edit has angles to cut between without reshooting anything.
Multistreamingsimulcasting, simulcast, restreamingBroadcasting one live stream to several platforms at once, usually through a relay service that fans out a single encoder feed.
Music Bedbackground music, underscore, bed trackInstrumental music running under narration at low level, carrying energy and pace without competing with the voice.
Music distributoraggregator, distribution serviceThe service that delivers a track to streaming platforms and YouTube, and the route to Content ID and an Official Artist Channel.
Music Librarystock music library, production music library, royalty-free libraryA catalogue of tracks written to be licensed into other people's work, sold either as a subscription or one track at a time.
Music licensing costmusic licensing costs, music deductionThe share of Shorts advertising money taken to pay rights holders for licensed tracks, settled before creators are paid.

N

Nano-influencernano creatorThe smallest paid creator tier in influencer marketing, usually taken as roughly 1,000 to 10,000 followers or subscribers.
Natural lightavailable light, window lightDaylight used as the light source, usually through a window, with no lamps or panels involved.
ND filterneutral density filterA neutral grey filter that cuts the light entering a lens without shifting colour, so you can hold a wide aperture or the right shutter speed.
NebulaA subscription video platform part-owned by the mostly educational creators who make its content, run by the studio Standard.
Negative fillflag, black flagA black surface placed just out of frame to take light away from one side of a subject and deepen the shadows.
Negative spacewhite space, empty spaceThe empty area around a subject in a thumbnail or frame. It gives the eye somewhere to rest and stops elements colliding.
Negativity biasnegative framingThe tendency for people to notice and weight negative information more heavily than equivalent positive information.
Nestingnested sequence, compound clipWrapping a group of clips into a single item on the timeline so the whole run can be moved, trimmed or graded as one.
Net subscribersnet subs, subscriber changeSubscribers gained minus subscribers lost over a period, which is the figure the public counter actually moves by.
Network-attached storageNAS, home serverA multi-drive box on your home network that holds the whole footage library and serves it to any machine in the house.
New viewersfirst-time viewersPeople who watched your channel for the first time inside the date range currently selected in YouTube Analytics.
News shelftop news shelf, breaking news shelfCurated shelves on Home and search that surface coverage from news sources YouTube treats as authoritative during and around a major story.
Newsjackingnews hijacking, reacting to the newsBuilding content around a breaking story fast enough to meet the wave of people searching for it.
Newsletteremail newsletterA recurring email to a list you own, and the one audience relationship no platform can switch off for you.
Newsletter recommendationsrecommendations network, cross-recommendationsA growth mechanic where newsletters recommend each other at signup, so a new subscriber can join several publications at once.
Nicheniche market, content nicheThe topic and audience a channel commits to, defined tightly enough that both viewers and the recommendation system know what to expect.
Niche Downniching down, niching, going niche, narrowing your nicheDeliberately narrowing what a channel covers so a viewer who liked one upload can guess what the next one will be.
Nifty fifty50mm f1.8, fiftyThe cheap 50mm f/1.8 prime every camera brand sells, and the standard first recommendation for anyone stepping off a kit zoom.
NIL dealname image and likeness deal, NILA sponsorship paying an athlete for their name, image and likeness. Standard in US college sport since 2021 and now used well beyond it.
No-code automationZapier, Make, automation workflowWiring separate tools together with triggers and actions in a visual builder, so routine steps run without you and without code.
Noise Floorbackground noise level, room noiseThe constant hiss and hum sitting under everything you record. What you are left with when nobody is speaking.
Noise Gategate, expander, downward expanderA processor that mutes or turns down a signal whenever it falls below a set threshold, silencing the room between phrases.
Noise Reductiondenoise, noise removal, background noise removalProcessing that strips steady background noise, hiss, hum or air conditioning, out of a recording without wrecking the voice.
Non-compete clauserestraint clauseA contract term stopping you working with a brand's rivals, for a defined period and a defined product category.
Non-disclosure agreementNDA, confidentiality agreementA contract barring you from repeating what you learn, typically covering deal terms, unreleased products and anything shared during a campaign.
Non-linear editorNLE, editing software, editor appTimeline-based editing software where clips can be moved, trimmed and reordered at will. Premiere, Resolve, Final Cut, CapCut.
Non-Skippable In-Stream Adnon-skippable ad, unskippable adAn in-stream advert the viewer cannot skip, so it plays in full before or during the video.
North star metricnorth star, primary metricThe single number a team or creator steers by, chosen because moving it means the thing you actually care about is working.
Not interestednot interested feedbackThe viewer-side control that hides a recommendation and tells YouTube to show less like it. One of the satisfaction signals ranking uses.
Notification click-through ratebell CTR, notification CTRThe share of the bell notifications YouTube sent for your video that viewers actually tapped, shown in Studio's notifications card.
Notification squadbell gang, notification gangCreator shorthand for the subscribers who keep all notifications on and turn up in the first hour of every upload.
Notificationsbell notifications, notification bell, push notificationsAlerts sent to subscribers when you publish. YouTube Analytics counts them as their own traffic source, separate from browse and search.
Notify subscriberspublish to subscriptions feed and notify subscribersThe publish-time setting deciding whether an upload reaches subscription feeds and fires notifications. It is ticked by default.
Nudity and sexual content policynudity policy, sexual content policyYouTube's rules on nudity and sexual content, setting where the line falls between removal, an age restriction and normal distribution.

O

OBS StudioOBS, Open Broadcaster SoftwareThe free open-source software most creators stream and record with: scenes, sources, transitions and an encoder in one application.
Official Artist ChannelOAC, artist channelA YouTube channel type for musicians that merges the artist's own channel, their Topic channel and any Vevo channel into one home.
Official Series Playlistofficial series, series playlist, set as official seriesA playlist setting that marks the playlist as the definitive home for its videos, telling YouTube they belong together as one series.
Omnidirectional Microphoneomni mic, omni patternA microphone that picks up sound equally from every direction, the standard pattern for clip-on lavalier mics.
On locationlocation shootFilming somewhere that already exists rather than a set you control: a street, a business, a rented flat, a field.
On-camera presencecamera presence, screen presenceHow engaging and at ease somebody reads on camera. Learnable, and mostly a matter of energy, eye contact and speaking to one person.
On-screen textsupers, text overlay, on-screen graphicsAny words laid over the picture: labels, punchlines, corrections, and the numbers you would rather show than say out loud.
One-take videosingle take, one-shot videoA video recorded straight through with no cuts, so the performance has to carry the whole thing.
Online Coursecourse, paid courseA structured paid teaching product, usually pre-recorded lessons sold to an audience that already trusts the person teaching.
Online Safety ActOSA, UK Online Safety ActThe UK law making platforms responsible for illegal content and for protecting children online, enforced by Ofcom with duties phased in from 2025.
Open captionsburned-in captions, hardsubs, baked-in subtitlesCaptions rendered into the picture itself, so they always show and no viewer can switch them off.
Open GraphOG tags, og:image, social preview tagsThe meta tags controlling how your link looks when shared: the preview title, the description and the image on the card.
Open loopopen loops, curiosity loopA question raised and deliberately left unanswered, so the viewer keeps watching to close it.
Open rateThe share of delivered emails recorded as opened. The basic newsletter health number, and far less reliable than it once was.
Optical flowframe blending, motion interpolationA slow-motion method that invents new frames by tracking pixel movement between existing ones, smoother than frame blending when it works.
Original soundoriginal audioAudio a creator recorded themselves rather than pulled from a library, and on Shorts a sound other people can reuse.
Other videos your audience watchedaudience also watchedA report in Studio's Audience tab naming specific videos your own viewers watched elsewhere on YouTube during the same period.
Outlier videooutlier, outlier score, breakout videoA video that has substantially beaten its channel's own normal performance, treated as evidence a topic has real demand.
Outlinevideo outline, script outline, skeletonThe ordered list of points a video will cover, written before the script so the structure can be tested cheaply.
Outrovideo outro, sign-offThe closing section of a video: the sign-off, the one ask, and the end screen offering somewhere else to go.
OuttakeblooperA take that went wrong: the fluffed line, the collapse into laughter, the dog walking through. Often kept for the end of the video.
Over-the-shoulder shotOTSA shot framed past one person's shoulder onto another, used in interviews and dialogue to show who is listening.
Overhead shottop-down shot, flat lay, bird's-eye shotCamera pointed straight down at the subject, the standard angle for hands, desks, cooking and flat lay product shots.
Overlay Adbanner overlay, overlay bannerA retired YouTube format: a semi-transparent banner across the bottom of the desktop player that viewers could close.
Overpromiseoverpromising, overhypePackaging that claims more than the video can deliver, buying the click at the cost of the watch.
Owned audienceowned list, direct audienceThe part of your audience you can reach directly, without a platform deciding whether the message gets delivered.
Ownership conflictContent ID ownership conflictTwo or more rights holders claiming the same material in Content ID, which freezes monetisation on it until they resolve it.

P

P-scorepopularity scoreAn internal Google metric that scores channels for its premium ad packages. Creators cannot see it and cannot check it.
Pacingedit pace, cut rhythmHow fast information and images move through a cut. The felt speed of a video, set by shot length, density and rhythm.
Packagingtitle and thumbnail, the packageThe title and thumbnail treated as one unit, because that pair is the whole of what a viewer sees before deciding to click.
Packaging-firstpackage before you film, title-first, thumbnail-firstSettling the title and thumbnail before you film, so the video gets built to deliver a promise you already know will land.
Packet lossnetwork lossData from your stream that never reaches the ingest server. Viewers see it as stutter, blocking and audio that cuts out.
Paid amplificationboosting, paid media support, amplification budgetA brand spending ad money behind a creator's post so it reaches well beyond the people who would have seen it organically.
Paid Communitymembership community, paid Discord, community subscriptionA subscription that buys entry to a private group space, where the thing being sold is the room and the people in it.
Paid media rightspaid usage rights, ad usage, boosting rightsPermission for a brand to run your video as a paid advert. Priced separately from the organic post and always time-limited.
Paid Newsletterpremium newsletter, subscription newsletterAn email publication readers pay for, either as a paid-only product or as a premium tier sitting behind a free list.
Paid product placement policysponsored content policy, paid product placements sponsorships and endorsementsYouTube's rules for sponsored segments, plugs and gifted products, including the paid promotion box you tick and the categories nobody may promote.
Paid promotion disclosureincludes paid promotion, paid promotion checkbox, #adThe Studio checkbox declaring that a video contains paid promotion, which shows viewers a notice at the start of playback.
Panpanning, panning shotRotating the camera horizontally on a fixed point, so the framing sweeps across a scene while the camera itself stays where it is.
Paper edittranscript edit plan, edit outlinePlanning a cut on the transcript or on paper before opening the timeline, so the structure is settled before the fiddly work starts.
Parasocial relationshipparasocial, parasocial interactionThe one-sided bond a viewer forms with a creator they know a great deal about and have never met. It feels mutual to one person only.
ParodyWork that takes aim at the original itself. A recognised copyright exception in many countries, and no defence at all against an automated claim.
Partner managerYouTube partner managerA YouTube-assigned contact for larger channels and partners, offering guidance and a route into internal teams. Most channels never get one.
Passive Incomeincome while you sleepMoney that keeps arriving from work already finished, such as ad revenue on old videos or an evergreen course.
Patreonpatreon pageAn off-platform membership service where fans pay monthly for tiered perks, billed and hosted independently of YouTube.
Pattern interruptpattern breakA deliberate break in the visual or audio rhythm of a video, used to reset attention before it wanders off.
Payment Holdpayments on hold, held paymentA block AdSense puts on a creator's payout until something outstanding is cleared, such as tax details or a verified address.
Payment Processorpayment gateway, checkout processorThe service that takes a customer's card payment, checks it, and settles the money into a creator's own bank account.
Payment termsnet 30, net 60, net 15, payment windowHow long after invoicing the brand actually pays, written as net 30, net 60 and so on.
Payment Thresholdpayout threshold, 100 dollar threshold, minimum payoutThe minimum balance an AdSense account must reach before Google releases a payment, with anything under it rolling forward.
Payoffpay-off, deliveryThe moment a video delivers what its title, thumbnail and opening promised. Without it, the click was borrowed rather than earned.
Payout Schedulepayment date, payment cycle, when YouTube paysThe monthly rhythm on which finalised earnings leave YouTube and reach your bank, which runs weeks behind the figure Studio shows today.
Paywallgated contentA payment gate in front of content: pay, or you do not get in. The mechanism underneath memberships, paid newsletters and courses.
Peak concurrent viewerspeak viewers, peak CCVThe highest number of people watching a live stream at the same moment, the usual headline figure for stream size.
Per diemdaily allowanceA fixed daily allowance covering food and incidental costs while travelling for a brand, paid in place of reimbursing receipts.
Percentage pointpoints, ppThe arithmetic gap between two percentages, so 4 per cent rising to 6 per cent is a two point rise and also a 50 per cent increase.
Percentilepercentile rank, top X%A position within a ranked set. Top 10% means the item sits above nine tenths of everything else in that set.
Performance bonusview bonus, bonus structure, kickerExtra payment on a sponsorship that triggers when the content passes agreed view, click or sale thresholds.
Performance-based dealperformance deal, commission-only deal, CPA dealA sponsorship paid on results, such as sales, sign-ups or installs, rather than on a flat fee for the placement itself.
Perpetuityin perpetuity, perpetual licenceA usage clause with no end date. The brand can run your work forever, which is the costliest term to hand over unpriced.
Personal brandThe reputation and recognisable identity a person carries across platforms, made of what they are known for and how they behave.
Personal Monopolycategory of onePositioning built on a combination of skills and interests only you can credibly claim, so direct comparison stops working.
Personalisationpersonalization, personalised recommendationsYouTube building a different set of recommendations for every viewer out of their own watching, searching and subscribing, rather than one ranked list everyone sees.
Personalised notificationsdefault bell setting, some notificationsThe default bell state on a new subscription, where YouTube decides which of a channel's uploads are worth notifying that subscriber about.
Personality-Driven Channelpersonality-led channel, personality-based channelA channel where the draw is the host themselves, so viewers return for the person even when the format changes.
Phantom Power48V, +48VThe 48 volts a mixer or audio interface sends up an XLR cable to run a condenser microphone.
Phase Cancellationout of phase, phasing, comb filteringTwo microphones picking up one source from different distances, thinning or hollowing the sound once you mix them together.
Phone verificationverify your channel, channel verificationConfirming a channel with a phone number, which unlocks custom thumbnails, videos longer than 15 minutes and live streaming from desktop.
Pickup shotpickups, pick-upA shot filmed after the main shoot to fill a hole found in the edit, such as a missing cutaway or a fluffed line.
Picture locklocked cut, locked pictureThe moment in post when the edit's timing is declared final, so sound, colour and graphics can finish against something that will not move.
Picture-in-picturePiP, inset, facecam insetA smaller video window laid over a full-frame shot, most often a facecam sitting in the corner of gameplay or a screen recording.
Piece to cameraPTC, direct to camera, talking to cameraSpeaking straight down the lens to the viewer. The core delivery mode on most YouTube channels, and much harder than it looks.
Pilot episodepilot, pilot video, test episodeA first instalment made deliberately as a test, to find out whether a format is worth committing a run of videos to.
Pinned chat messagepin a message, pinned messageA message fixed to the top of live chat so people arriving mid-stream see it without scrolling back.
Pinned commentpin a commentOne comment fixed to the top of a video's comment section, used for context, corrections, a link or a question to the audience.
Pinned postpin a postA community post fixed to the top of the tab so it stays visible above whatever you post afterwards.
PinterestpinsA visual search and bookmarking site that sends genuine outbound traffic, strongest for tutorial, food, craft and home niches.
Platform diversificationmulti-platform strategyDeliberately building audience on more than one surface, so that a single platform's decision cannot remove your reach in one go.
Platform riskplatform dependency, building on rented landThe exposure you carry from depending on one platform's rules, ranking systems and payouts, none of which you control.
Playback locationwhere views playedStudio's breakdown of where a view actually happened: the watch page, a channel page, an embedded player, or another YouTube surface.
Playback-Based CPMplayback CPM, playback based cpmGross ad revenue per thousand playbacks where at least one ad ran, which reads higher than plain CPM.
Playheadscrubber, scrubbing, current time indicatorThe vertical marker on an editing timeline showing which frame you are looking at; dragging it is scrubbing.
PlaylistYouTube playlistAn ordered collection of videos that plays in sequence, built in YouTube Studio, which sets what plays next for anyone watching inside it.
Playlist trafficviews from playlistsViews that arrived because the video was playing inside a playlist. Studio reports it separately from search, suggested and Home.
Plosivep-pops, popping, b-popsThe burst of air on P and B sounds that hits a microphone diaphragm and lands as a low thump in the recording.
Plugineffect plugin, NLE plugin, extensionAn add-on that extends an editor, DAW or browser with effects, tools or panels the host application does not ship with.
PNGtuberPNG tuberA streamer represented on screen by a static image that swaps between a few states, instead of a rigged animated model.
PodcastAn episodic show distributed by RSS feed to podcast apps, now usually filmed as well and posted as video.
Podcast cover artpodcast artwork, show art, podcast coverThe square image representing a show in every podcast directory, held to a hard spec of 1400 to 3000 pixels square.
Podcast downloadsdownloadsThe headline audience number in podcasting, counted per episode as requests for the audio file that meet the IAB measurement rules.
Podcast hostingmedia hostThe service that stores your episode audio and publishes the RSS feed every podcast app reads to find and download it.
Podcast networkpodcast collective, show networkA group of shows sold and promoted together, usually trading a share of advertising revenue for sales representation.
Podcast playlistset as podcast, YouTube podcastA YouTube playlist marked as a podcast in Studio, which turns the episodes into a show with its own destinations.
Pogo-stickingbouncing back to resultsClicking a search result, deciding within seconds it is wrong, and bouncing straight back to the results page to try another one.
Point-and-shoot cameracompact camera, pocket camera, fixed-lens compactA fixed-lens compact you can film with one-handed, trading sensor size and manual control for pocketability.
Polar Patternpickup pattern, directionality, figure-of-eight, off-axis rejectionThe directions a microphone picks sound up from, and just as usefully the directions it rejects.
Polarising filterCPL, circular polariser, polarizing filterA rotating filter that cuts reflections and glare off non-metallic surfaces, and deepens a blue sky while it does it.
Pop Filterpop shield, pop screenA mesh screen in front of a microphone that breaks up the blast of air from p and b sounds.
Portable SSDexternal SSD, SSDA bus-powered external solid state drive fast enough to edit directly from, without copying footage to an internal disk first.
Post-campaign reportwrap report, campaign recap, results reportThe results pack a creator sends a brand after delivery, and the biggest single lever on whether that brand books again.
Post-productionpost, the editEverything that happens once filming wraps: the edit, sound, colour, graphics, captions and the final export.
Post-Roll Adpostroll, end adAn ad that plays after the video's content has finished, switched on in the monetisation settings alongside the ad before it and the breaks inside.
Potentially inappropriate commentshold potentially inappropriate comments, increase strictnessYouTube's automatic filter that holds borderline comments for the creator to review before they appear publicly.
POV shotpoint of view shot, POVA shot framed as what a character sees, with the camera placed where their eyes would be.
POV videoPOV formatA short-form format staged as a scene the viewer is standing inside, almost always signposted by on-screen text beginning with POV.
Power lawpower-law distribution, 80/20 distributionA distribution where a few entries account for most of the total, the shape a channel's view counts usually take.
Power windowgrading mask, vignette windowA shape drawn in the grade that limits a colour correction to one area of the frame, often tracked to a subject.
Power wordstrigger words, emotional wordsHigh-charge words borrowed from copywriting, dropped into a title or hook to raise the emotional temperature of a plain statement.
Practical lightpracticalsA lamp visible in shot that also lights the scene, such as a desk lamp, a window or a neon sign.
Pre-interviewpre-int, guest prep call, interview guideA short conversation with a guest before recording, run to find the story worth telling and the subjects to leave alone.
Pre-productionprep, pre-pro, planning stageEverything done before the camera rolls: the idea, the research, the script, the shot list and the logistics.
Pre-Roll Adpreroll, pre rollAn advert that plays before a video starts, either skippable after a short delay or non-skippable for its full length.
Premiere countdowncountdown theme, premiere timerThe short themed countdown YouTube plays on the watch page before a Premiere begins, with live chat open while it runs.
Premiere trailerpremiere teaserA short clip that loops on a Premiere's watch page before the scheduled start, so early arrivals have something to watch.
Preview renderingrender cache, background render, render in to outGetting your editor to pre-render heavy stretches of the timeline so they play back smoothly while you keep working.
Prime lensfixed focal length lensA lens with one fixed focal length. No zoom ring, usually a wider maximum aperture, usually sharper than a zoom at the same price.
Print on DemandPOD, made to order merchMerchandise printed and posted only once a customer has ordered it, so there is no stock to buy up front.
Privacy complaintprivacy takedown, privacy complaint processYouTube's process for removing content showing an identifiable person without their consent. Separate from copyright and from Community Guidelines.
Problem-Agitate-SolvePAS, problem agitate solutionA three-beat copy structure: name the problem, make it hurt, then present the fix. Common in problem-led hooks and scripts.
Product placementpaid product placement, in-frame placementA paid appearance of a product on screen with no scripted mention, disclosed like any other sponsorship.
Product seedingseeding, gifting, gifted product, PR packageA brand sending free product with no contract and no fee, hoping the creator likes it enough to feature it.
Product Shelfshopping shelf, product listThe list of tagged products YouTube shows with a video, so a viewer gets a buy link without leaving the page.
Product Taggingtagging products, tag products in videoAttaching shoppable product links to a video, Short or live stream so a buy option appears beside the player.
Production scheduleshooting schedule, shoot schedule, filming scheduleThe dated plan of what gets filmed when, in what order and with whom, for any shoot bigger than one person and a camera.
Programmatic Advertisingprogrammatic, automated ad buyingAds bought and sold by machine through real-time auctions, which is how almost all of the advertising against your videos gets placed.
Project archiveconsolidate and archive, archived projectCollecting a finished project's timeline and the media it actually used into one bundle for long-term storage.
Project management toolNotion, Trello, Asana, content dashboardThe app where each video sits on a board and moves along it, idea to published, so nothing stalls silently.
Project templateedit template, timeline templateA pre-built editing project with bins, sequence settings and recurring graphics already in place, duplicated for every new video.
PropspropObjects that appear on camera and get handled, held up or pointed at, as distinct from the set dressing behind you.
ProResApple ProRes, ProRes 422, mezzanine codecApple's high-quality intermediate codec. It is what you edit and hand over in, and generally not what you upload.
Proximity Effectbass proximity, close-mic bass boostThe bass boost you get when a directional microphone sits very close to the source. Move in and the low end swells.
Proxy mediaproxy, proxies, proxy workflow, optimised mediaLow-resolution copies of your footage that the editor plays instead of the originals, so the timeline runs smoothly on ordinary hardware.
Public domainPDWork with no copyright attached, because the term has expired or because it never qualified for protection in the first place.
Public Watch Hours4000 watch hours, valid public watch hoursWatch time on your public long-form and live videos over the past 12 months, the figure YouTube counts towards Partner Programme eligibility.
Publishing rightscomposition rights, songwriting rightsThe copyright in the song itself, its melody and lyrics, held by the writers and their publisher. The second right in every track.
Punch-indigital zoom, jump zoom, reframe zoomScaling into the frame in post to make a tighter shot out of wide footage, faking a second angle or adding emphasis.
Punch-uppunching up, joke passA final pass over a locked script that only sharpens the jokes and the wording, with structure and running order left untouched.
Push indolly in, slow pushMoving the camera slowly toward the subject during a shot, adding pressure or intimacy as the frame tightens around them.

Q

Qualified viewqualified viewsTikTok's payable view. It counts only when a real account watches more than five seconds, with paid and artificial views stripped out.
Quiz postcommunity quizA community post with up to four answers, one marked correct, plus an optional explanation the voter reads straight after.
Quote tweetquote post, QTReposting someone else's post on X with your own comment attached above it, so both appear together in your followers' feeds.

R

Rabbit holerecommendation rabbit holeThe chain of related suggestions and autoplays that carries a viewer from one video deep into a single topic or channel.
Rack focusfocus pull, pulling focusShifting focus from one subject to another inside a single shot, moving the viewer's eye without a cut.
Rage baitragebait, outrage baitPackaging built to make people angry enough to click, comment and argue, where the reaction is the point rather than the subject.
RAID arrayRAID storage, disk array, RAID 1, RAID 5Several drives the computer treats as one volume, so an edit bay survives a dead drive. On 20TB drives, dual parity is now the sensible default.
Ranking signalranking factor, algorithm signal, input signalAny input a recommendation or search system weighs when deciding which videos to show a viewer, and in what order.
Rate cardrates sheet, pricing sheetYour written prices per deliverable, sent to brands so a conversation starts from your number instead of their budget.
Ratioedratio, getting ratioedWhen replies to a post massively outnumber its likes or reposts, read as a sign the audience has turned on whoever wrote it.
Raw videoRAW footage, BRAW, ProRes RAWSensor data recorded with minimal processing, so white balance and exposure decisions stay adjustable in the edit.
Re-hookrehook, re-hookingA fresh hook placed mid-video, written to hold attention at a point where the retention graph shows viewers leaving.
ReachReach tabThe Studio analytics section covering how people find a video: impressions, click-through rate, views, unique viewers and traffic sources.
Reaction videoreaction content, react videoA format built on watching and responding to someone else's work. Legally and policy-wise it lives or dies on how much you add.
Realtime analyticsrealtime, last 48 hours, last 60 minutesThe Studio card showing estimated views for the last 48 hours and the last 60 minutes, before the numbers have been validated.
Rec. 709Rec709, BT.709, standard dynamic rangeThe standard colour space for HD video, and what most YouTube uploads are graded in and viewed in.
ReceiptsScreenshots, clips and messages produced as evidence in a public dispute. Bring them, or the accusation does not survive contact.
Recommendation systemrecommender, recommendation engine, recsysThe machine learning system that decides which videos to show each viewer on the home page, in suggested and in the Shorts feed.
Recommended upload encoding settingsYouTube upload settings, YouTube encoding spec, recommended bitrateYouTube's published guidance on container, codecs, resolution, frame rate and bitrate for the file you hand it at upload.
RedditA network of topic communities that can send a channel real traffic and will bury you for self-promoting badly.
ReelsInstagram ReelsInstagram's vertical short-form format, with its own tab and a recommendation surface that reaches well past your existing followers.
Referral trafficreferrer, referring siteVisits that arrive through a link on somebody else's site or app, credited to that source in your analytics.
Regression to the meanreversion to the meanThe tendency for an unusually high or low result to be followed by a more ordinary one, with nothing causing the move.
Regulated goods policysale of illegal or regulated goods, firearms policyYouTube's rule against content that helps viewers buy or obtain restricted items, covering firearms, drugs, nicotine, alcohol and gambling among others.
Related video linkWatch full video link, link a Short to a long-form videoA link attached to a Short that sends viewers to a chosen long-form video from your channel, shown under your handle in the player.
Relative audience retentionrelative retention, above average retentionA Studio report showing how your video holds viewers compared with other YouTube videos of a similar length.
Relevancequery relevanceHow closely a video answers the query being asked and suits the person asking it. One of the main ranking inputs.
Remixsampling, remix a videoBuilding a Short from part of someone else's YouTube video or Short, using its sound, a clip, green screen or a side-by-side collab.
Remix permissionsallow remixing, sampling settingsThe Studio setting deciding whether other creators may sample your long-form video, in full or audio only, when making their own Shorts.
Remote recording platformRiverside, SquadCast, local recording platformA tool that records each guest locally at full quality and uploads the files afterwards, so the recording never depends on the call.
Repackagingrepackage, re-package old videos, metadata refreshRewriting the title and remaking the thumbnail on a video that is already published, to give it a second run at an audience.
Repeat infringer policyA platform's obligation to terminate accounts that keep infringing copyright, which is what the strike system exists to enforce.
Reply with a Shortvideo reply, comment reply ShortAnswering a viewer's comment by publishing a Short, with the comment itself shown on screen inside the video.
Research tabStudio Research tab, searches across YouTubeThe YouTube Studio surface showing what your viewers and the wider platform are searching for, used for spotting unmet demand.
Resolution1080p, 4K, 2160pThe pixel dimensions of the frame. 1080p is 1920 by 1080 and 4K on most cameras is 3840 by 2160.
Response videocallout video, clapbackA video made to answer, rebut or attack another creator's video or claim. Fast to produce and reliably divisive.
Restricted ModeAn optional viewer filter that hides content YouTube flags as potentially mature. Schools and workplaces routinely lock it on for everyone.
Resurfacingsecond wave, revival, re-promotionAn older upload starting to collect views again, sometimes long after publication, because YouTube keeps testing it against new audiences.
Retainerretainer agreement, monthly retainerA recurring fee for an agreed volume of work each month, replacing one-off negotiation with income both sides can plan around.
Retention cliffcliff, retention dropA near-vertical drop in the audience retention graph, showing that a group of viewers all left at the same moment.
Retention curveretention graph, retention chartThe line showing what share of viewers are still watching at each second, read left to right for the shape an average hides.
Retention dipdip, valleyA localised drop in the audience retention graph at a moment where a chunk of viewers left or skipped ahead.
Retention editingediting for retentionEditing driven by one question at every cut: what would make somebody click away here, and can it be tightened, covered or removed?
Retention spikespike, bumpAn upward blip in the audience retention graph, caused by viewers scrubbing back or rewatching the same moment.
Retrieval-augmented generationRAGAn AI setup that searches a document store first, then writes its answer from what it found, instead of relying on memory alone.
Returning viewersreturning audiencePeople who watched your channel in an earlier window and came back during the period you are looking at.
Reuploadre-upload, delete and reuploadDeleting your own video and posting it again as a new file. The old URL dies and the new upload starts from zero.
Reusable stream keypersistent stream keyA stream key you save and use again, so your encoder keeps working across broadcasts without being reconfigured every time.
Revenue Diversificationdiversified income, multiple income streams, income diversificationSpreading income across several sources so one policy change, one sponsor leaving or one bad quarter of ad rates cannot end the business.
Revenue Per MilleRPM, revenue per thousand views, revenue per milleTotal earnings per thousand views after YouTube's cut, counting every revenue source on the channel rather than advertising alone.
Revenue Sharerevenue split, 55/45 split, platform revenue sharingHow ad income from a video is divided between the platform and the creator who made it.
Revenue share dealrev share, profit share dealA brand deal paid as an agreed percentage of the revenue your coverage generates, rather than a flat fee.
Reverbreverberation, room echo, roominessReflected sound arriving after the direct sound, either added on purpose as an effect or captured by accident from the room.
Reverse engineeringreverse engineer a video, deconstructing a videoTaking a video that worked and walking backwards through its packaging, structure and choices to find what actually did the work.
Revision roundrevisions, feedback round, change request, revision feeOne pass of sponsor feedback and the changes made in response. Contracts normally include a set number and bill for anything after.
Right of first refusalROFR, first refusalA clause giving a sponsor the first option to match any competing offer in their category before you accept it.
Right of publicitylikeness rights, image rights, personality rightsA person's control over commercial use of their name, face, voice or other identifying features.
Rights clearanceclearance, clearing rightsGetting written permission to use somebody else's material before you publish, instead of hoping nobody notices.
Rights holderrightsholder, copyright owner, rights ownerThe person or company owning or controlling a work, and therefore the only party who can license, claim or take it down.
Ring lightringlightA circular lamp that sits around the lens, throwing flat frontal light and leaving a ring-shaped catchlight in the eyes.
Ripple deleteclose gap, delete and close gapRemoving a section of timeline and pulling everything after it back, so no gap is left behind.
robots.txtrobots file, crawler directivesA plain text file at a website's root that tells crawlers which paths they may request, now used to allow or block AI crawlers too.
Rolling shutterjello effect, skewThe skew and wobble on fast movement, caused by a sensor reading the frame line by line instead of all at once.
Room Toneambience, atmos, presence trackA recording of a room with nobody speaking, used to patch gaps and hide edits so cuts never fall into dead silence.
Rotoscopingroto, roto brushCutting a subject out of the frame by hand across time, used where no green screen exists to key against.
Rough cutfirst cutThe version where the story works and nothing else does yet: structure in place, timing loose, no colour, music, graphics or sound work.
Royaltiesroyalty, ongoing rights paymentsOngoing payments for continued use of something you own the rights to, arriving long after the work that produced them was finished.
RSS feedpodcast feedThe XML file that carries a podcast to every listening app. Whoever controls the feed controls the show's distribution.
RTMPReal-Time Messaging Protocol, RTMPSThe protocol most encoders use to push a live feed up to YouTube and other platforms, now normally in its encrypted RTMPS form.
RTMP ingestRTMP, stream URL, ingest serverThe streaming protocol and server address an encoder pushes a live signal to. YouTube hands you an ingest URL and a stream key.
Rule of thirdsthirds gridDividing the frame into thirds and placing the subject on one of the dividing lines instead of dead centre.
Rule of threethrees, tripleGrouping things in threes, a rhythm borrowed from writing and comedy where the third item lands the punch.
RumbleA Toronto-founded video platform launched in 2013 and now positioned as a looser-moderation alternative to YouTube.
Run of showrundown, show flowThe timed running order for a live production: every segment, who is doing what, and when it happens.
Rush feeexpedite feeA surcharge for turning work around faster than your standard lead time, priced so speed costs the client something.

S

S corporationS-corp, S corp electionA US tax election, available to an LLC or a corporation, that splits an owner's income between salary and distributions to reduce self-employment tax.
Safe harboursafe harbor, Section 512The legal shield that keeps a platform from being liable for what users upload, provided it removes infringing material on notice.
Safe zonesafe area, thumbnail safe zoneThe area of a thumbnail that stays visible once YouTube's own overlays, such as the duration stamp, are drawn on top of it.
Safety takesafety, one for safetyOne more clean take recorded after you already have the shot, as insurance against a fault you only find in the edit.
Safety Trackbackup audio track, dual-channel safety, -12dB safetyA second copy of the same audio recorded quieter, kept as insurance in case the main track distorts.
Sample Rate44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, sampling rateHow many times per second audio is measured while recording. 48 kHz is the standard for anything going into video.
Sample sizen, sampleHow much data a conclusion actually rests on. Small samples produce differences that look real and are mostly noise.
SatireWork that uses existing material to comment on something other than that material. Weaker fair use footing than parody, which targets the original.
Satisfaction signalsviewer satisfaction, satisfaction metricsFeedback YouTube reads as whether a viewer was glad they watched, sitting alongside engagement signals that only record that they turned up.
Satisfaction surveyviewer survey, user survey, star rating surveyThe one-to-five star prompt YouTube shows a small share of viewers after a video, feeding its read on whether the watch was worth it.
Saturated Nicheniche saturation, crowded niche, oversaturated nicheA topic where the number of creators covering it has outgrown the number of people looking for it, so views per video fall.
Saturationchroma, colour intensityThe intensity of colour in an image, raised or lowered uniformly across everything in the frame.
SceneOBS scene, scene switchingA saved arrangement of video, audio and graphic sources in streaming software that you cut to as a single unit while live.
Scheduled live streamscheduled stream, live eventA stream set up in advance so it has a public watch page before it starts, letting viewers set a reminder.
Schema markupstructured data, VideoObject schema, JSON-LDStructured data added to a web page so search engines and AI systems can read what the page contains.
Scope creepout-of-scope work, extra deliverablesSponsor requests growing past what the contract priced, one small extra at a time, until you deliver far more than you sold.
Scratch diskcache drive, working driveThe drive an editing or design application uses for cache files, render previews and temporary data while you work.
Scratch Trackreference audio, guide track, camera audioA rough recording kept only as a reference, most often the camera's own microphone used to line up the proper audio.
Screen recordingscreencast, screen captureCapturing what happens on a display as footage, used for tutorials, software walkthroughs, gameplay and anything easier to show than describe.
Scriptvideo script, the scriptThe written text a video gets built from, at any level of detail from a bullet outline to every spoken word.
Script breakdownbreakdown, breaking down the scriptGoing through a finished script and pulling out every shot, prop, location and graphic it will need before you film.
Script locklocked script, locking the scriptThe point where a script stops changing so filming, graphics and edit prep can all proceed against one fixed target.
Scroll stopperstop the scroll, thumb stopperThe opening beat of a vertical video, built to interrupt the swipe before a viewer moves on to the next thing.
Seamless loopperfect loop, loopable ShortA Short edited so its last frame flows straight into its first, which hides the automatic replay.
Search engine results pageSERP, results pageThe page a search engine returns for a query, made up of ranked links plus features like video carousels, snippets and AI answers.
Search entityentity, named entity, entity SEOA distinct thing search engines recognise and hold facts about, such as a person, place, product or company, rather than a string of words.
Search historyThe record of what a viewer has searched for, which YouTube uses to personalise their results, their Home feed and what it suggests next.
Search intentquery intent, user intentWhat someone actually wants when they type a query, which decides whether your video answers them or merely matches their words.
Search queryquery, search termThe exact words a viewer typed into a search box, spelling mistakes and all, and the raw material behind every keyword tool's tidy figures.
Search rankingvideo ranking, rank in searchWhere a video places in the results for a specific query, worked out per query rather than as a fixed score attached to the video.
Search terms reporttop search terms, search queries, YouTube search termsThe list of queries that put a video in front of people, found in Studio analytics under the YouTube search traffic source.
Search volumesearch demand, monthly searchesHow many times a phrase gets searched in a period. YouTube publishes no figures of its own, so every tool is estimating.
Seasonal contentseasonality, holiday content, calendar contentIdeas timed to demand that arrives on the calendar every year, from gift guides and tax deadlines to exam revision.
Seasonalityseasonal effect, seasonal trendThe repeating calendar pattern in a channel's views, search demand and ad rates that lands at roughly the same point every year.
Second Channel2nd channel, alt channel, sister channel, spin-off channelAn extra channel run alongside the main one, usually for content that would not fit the main channel's promise.
Secondary colour correctionsecondaries, secondary gradeGrading one part of the picture rather than the whole frame. Skin, sky, a logo, a single colour.
Seed audiencetest audience, initial audienceThe small first group of viewers a new upload reaches, whose response decides whether distribution widens or tails off.
Selectspulling selects, selects reel, keepersThe takes and moments marked as usable on a first pass through the footage, before any cutting or sequencing begins.
Self-Certificationself certification questionnaire, content rating questionnaireThe questionnaire at upload where you rate your own video against YouTube's advertiser-friendly guidelines, which then shapes the ads it can carry.
Semantic searchmeaning-based searchSearch that matches on meaning rather than the exact words typed, so a query and the right answer can share almost no vocabulary.
Semi-scriptedloosely scripted, part scriptedWriting the lines that have to land and improvising the rest around an outline. The middle ground between fully scripted and winging it.
Series bibleshow bible, format bible, channel bibleThe reference document that fixes a format's rules, tone and recurring elements so anyone can make an episode that fits.
Server roleDiscord role, roles, linked rolesA named permission set in a Discord server, shown as a colour or badge, and often granted automatically to paying YouTube members.
Session startssession initiationsThe number of viewing sessions on YouTube that begin with one of your videos, instead of continuing on from something already playing.
Session watch timesession time, watch session, session durationTotal time a viewer spends on YouTube in one sitting, across every video they watch, rather than time on yours alone.
Set dressingdressing the setThe objects placed in the background of a shot to build the look of a space, distinct from props that people handle.
Shadowbanshadow ban, shadowbannedCreator shorthand for a suspected silent throttling of reach, describing a suspicion about the data rather than a documented setting.
Sharesshare countHow many times viewers used the platform's share button, which is always lower than the number of times a video actually got passed on.
Sharing serviceshare destinationThe analytics dimension naming which app or method viewers used when they tapped share on your video.
Sharpeningsharpen, unsharp maskAdding contrast at edges to make an image read as crisper, applied in the edit, on export, or in camera.
Shelfhome shelf, recommendation shelfA horizontal row of videos grouped under a heading, used on the home page, in search results and down a channel page.
Shock Mountsuspension mount, spider mountAn elastic cradle that suspends a microphone so knocks through the desk or stand never reach the capsule.
Shoot dayfilm day, filming dayA day set aside only for filming, usually covering several videos at once so the setup cost is paid once instead of five times.
Shooting ratiofootage ratioHow much footage you shot against how much survived the edit. A high ratio usually points at a thin plan rather than at thoroughness.
Shooting scriptproduction scriptThe script marked up for production, with shot descriptions, camera moves, locations, props and staging notes sat alongside the words.
Short-form videoshort formThe umbrella term for vertical clips watched in a swipe feed, covering YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok.
Shorts algorithmShorts recommendation systemThe recommendation system deciding which Shorts appear in the vertical feed, running on different signals from the long-form one.
Shorts cameraCreate a Short, Shorts editorYouTube's in-app capture and editing tool for making Shorts, reached through the create button in the mobile app.
Shorts eligibilitywhat counts as a Short, Shorts requirementsAn upload becomes a Short when it is square or taller and runs no longer than three minutes. YouTube decides automatically.
Shorts feedvertical feed, Shorts playerThe full-screen vertical feed viewers swipe through, and the surface almost all Shorts views come from.
Shorts feed adsads between ShortsThe ads shown between Shorts in the feed; their revenue is pooled and shared out rather than tied to any single Short.
Shorts FundYouTube Shorts FundThe retired 100 million dollar bonus pot that paid Shorts creators monthly through 2021 and 2022, before revenue sharing replaced it.
Shorts hashtag#ShortsThe #Shorts tag added to titles and descriptions. A leftover from the early days, since classification no longer depends on it.
Shorts length limit3-minute Shorts, Shorts maximum length, 60-second limitThree minutes. A square or vertical video at or under that runtime, uploaded from 15 October 2024, is treated as a Short.
Shorts Monetization ModuleShorts moduleThe optional Partner Program module that opts a channel into the Shorts ad revenue pool, separate from watch page monetisation.
Shorts RPMShorts revenue per mille, Shorts earnings rateRevenue per thousand Shorts views, calculated out of a shared ad pool rather than from ads sold against your individual Short.
Shorts shelfShorts rowA horizontal row of Shorts dropped into another part of YouTube, such as the home feed, search results or a channel page.
Shorts sound pagesound page, audio pivot pageThe page behind a Short's audio, listing every Short built on that track and offering a one-tap button to record your own with it.
Shorts templateUse this template, Shorts effect templateA reusable timing and layout preset lifted from an existing Short, so you drop your own clips into the same structure.
Shorts thumbnailShorts cover, cover frameThe still image chosen for a Short, seen on your channel grid, in search and on shelves, and never in the swipe feed.
Shorts-to-long-form conversionShorts funnel, Shorts to long-formTurning viewers who found you in the Shorts feed into people who watch your longer videos. Rarely automatic.
Shot listshotlist, b-roll listThe itemised list of every shot a video needs, written before the shoot so the edit never asks for footage nobody filmed.
Shot matchingcolour matching, match shots, match gradeMaking shots from different angles, cameras or days look like one continuous scene, mostly by matching exposure, white balance and contrast.
Shot reverse shotreverse angleCutting back and forth between two facing camera angles so a conversation reads as two people talking to each other.
Shotgun Microphoneshotgun mic, boom mic, interference tube micA highly directional microphone aimed at the speaker from just out of frame. The standard tool for recording dialogue on a set.
Shout-outshoutoutNaming a viewer, member or fellow creator on camera as recognition, thanks, or a nudge to go and watch them.
Show notesepisode notesThe written material published with a podcast episode: a summary, who is on it, section timestamps and every link mentioned.
Shutter angleshutter degreesShutter speed expressed in degrees relative to frame rate, the cine convention. 180 degrees is the standard starting point.
Shutter speedexposure timeHow long the sensor is exposed for each frame. In video it governs motion blur as much as brightness.
Sibilanceharsh S sounds, essingThe piercing, hissing quality of S, T and SH sounds in a recording, which turns fatiguing once it gets exaggerated.
Signpostingsignpost, telling them what's comingScript lines that tell the viewer where they are and what is coming next, so a long video stays easy to follow.
Silence detectionstrip silence, auto-cut silences, detect silenceAn editing tool that finds gaps in a recording below a set volume threshold and strips them out automatically.
Single-Use Licenceper-use licence, needle drop, per-track licenceA music licence covering one track in one project, bought per use, as opposed to a subscription giving you a whole library.
Sizzle reelshowreel, highlight reelA short highlight edit showing what you make and who watches, used to pitch a brand, an event or a partner.
Skin tonesskin tone lineThe reference every grade gets judged by, with a dedicated diagonal line on the vectorscope for checking them.
Skippable In-Stream Adskippable ad, skip ad, TrueView in-streamThe YouTube ad format a viewer can skip after five seconds. It plays before, during or after a video.
SkoolSkool platformA paid community platform combining a discussion feed, a course area and a points leaderboard, used by creators as a members' hub.
SLAPP suitanti-SLAPP, strategic lawsuit against public participationA lawsuit filed to silence criticism through the cost and stress of litigation, with no real expectation of winning on the merits.
Slateclapperboard, clapper, sync clapThe board clapped at the head of a take, carrying the scene and take number and giving the editor a sync point.
Slip editslipping a clipChanging which part of a source clip plays, without moving the clip or altering its length on the timeline.
Slow modechat slow mode, message delayA live chat setting that forces a minimum wait between messages from the same viewer, used to keep a busy chat readable.
Slow motionslow-mo, overcrankingFootage recorded at a high frame rate and played back at normal speed, stretching the action out smoothly.
Sludge contentsplit-screen filler, Subway Surfers content, slop stackVertical video pairing a narration or clip with unrelated gameplay or satisfying footage underneath, built to stop a thumb mid-swipe.
Smart glassescamera glasses, POV glasses, Meta Ray-Bans, recording glassesGlasses with a camera and microphones built in, for hands-free POV filming where lifting a camera would change what happens.
Smash cutA jarring cut between two shots that clash on purpose, used for comic timing or for shock.
SnapchatSnap, Snap Star, Snapchat StarsA messaging-first social app with a real creator layer: public Stories, the Spotlight vertical feed and Snap Star status.
Snapchat SpotlightSpotlightSnapchat's vertical short-video feed, ranked by recommendation rather than by who you follow, and a common third home for Shorts.
Social BladesocialbladeA third-party site publishing public YouTube, Twitch and Instagram statistics, best known for its wildly wide estimated earnings ranges.
Social proofThe habit of judging something by how many other people have chosen it, which is why view counts and follower numbers change behaviour.
Social scheduling toolscheduler, Buffer, HootsuiteSoftware that holds a queue of posts and publishes them to several platforms on a calendar you set in advance.
Soft lightsoftened lightLight from a large or diffused source, so shadows have gentle edges. Forgiving, flattering, the default for talking heads.
Softboxsoft boxA fabric enclosure over a light that enlarges and diffuses the source, producing softer shadows with gentler edges.
Software encoderCPU encoding, x264 encodingEncoding done by your computer's processor inside the streaming application, most often x264 in OBS.
Sole tradersole proprietorship, sole prop, self-employedThe simplest way to be self-employed. You and the business are one legal person, with no company sitting in between.
Sound attributionSound from, audio creditThe credit line on a remixed Short naming where its audio came from and linking back to the original that carried it.
Sound Designaudio designThe deliberate construction of everything a viewer hears: music, effects, ambience, silence, and how all of it sits against the voice.
Sound EffectsSFX, sound FXNon-musical audio added in the edit: whooshes, clicks, impacts, room tone and the sounds the camera never caught.
Sound effects librarySFX library, SFX packA catalogue of licensed sound effects, whooshes, impacts and stingers that editors pull from to punctuate a cut.
Soundproofingsound isolation, noise blockingStopping sound getting into or out of a room, which takes mass and airtight seals and is really a building job.
Spam and deceptive practices policyspam policy, deceptive practices, scams policyThe Community Guidelines section covering scams, misleading metadata, engagement gaming, mass-produced uploads and comment spam.
Spam commentcomment spam, bot commentBulk or automated comments pushing links, crypto scams, fake giveaways, or impersonating the channel owner to fleece your commenters.
Speaking feeappearance fee, booking fee, speaking engagementWhat a creator charges to appear at an event, panel, convention or conference, quoted separately from travel and accommodation.
Speaking pacetalking speed, words per minute, delivery speedHow fast you deliver lines on camera, and how much that speed varies from one sentence to the next.
Spec workon spec, speculative work, free test video, working on specProducing a finished piece before anyone has agreed to pay for it, hoping the client buys it once they can see it.
Speech EnhancementAI audio enhancement, enhance speech, voice enhancementAI processing that separates a voice from the room and the noise around it, then rebuilds it closer to a studio recording.
Speed rampspeed ramping, rampAn animated change in clip speed, usually accelerating into a cut and slowing out of it.
Speedrunspeedrunning, any% runCompleting a game as fast as possible under an agreed set of rules, timed and ranked against everyone else.
Spill suppressiongreen spill, spill removal, despillRemoving the green or blue light bouncing off the screen onto your hair, shoulders and edges after a key.
Split screenstacked frame, top and bottom splitDividing the vertical frame between two sources, most often a talking head above and the footage being discussed below.
Split-screen thumbnailsplit thumbnail, versus thumbnailA thumbnail divided into two halves so the viewer reads a comparison, a before and after, or a versus, in one glance.
Sponsored integrationintegration, in-video integration, integrated ad readA paid sponsor segment woven into a video that would have existed anyway, rather than a standalone advert.
Sponsorship CPMdeal CPM, cost per mille, sponsor CPMThe price a sponsor pays per thousand expected views, the unit almost every brand deal gets benchmarked in.
Sponsorship deckpartnership deck, sponsor pitch deckA short slide document pitching a brand on specific packages and prices, sent rather than waiting to be found.
Sponsorship scamfake brand deal, brand deal phishing, malware sponsorship emailA fake brand deal email built to steal channel access or money, usually through a download disguised as a brief or contract.
Spotify for CreatorsAnchor, Spotify for PodcastersSpotify's free podcast hosting and analytics tool, previously Anchor and then Spotify for Podcasters, and the route to video podcasts on Spotify.
Square video1:1 aspect ratio, one by oneA 1:1 frame, equal in width and height. The widest shape YouTube will still classify and shelve as a Short.
Squint testshrink test, blur test, small-screen testShrinking or blurring a thumbnail to check the main idea still reads at the size a phone actually shows it.
SRTSecure Reliable TransportSecure Reliable Transport, an open protocol that pushes video dependably over a shaky internet connection. It carries feeds to an encoder rather than to YouTube.
SRT filesubrip, .srt, subtitle fileA plain-text subtitle format of numbered cues with start and end timecodes, readable by almost every platform.
Stakesraising the stakes, what's at stakeWhat stands to be won or lost in a video, put there so the viewer has a reason to care how it turns out.
Stanstans, stan accountAn intensely devoted fan. From Eminem's 2000 song about an obsessive letter writer, now ordinary internet vocabulary.
Standard operating procedureSOP, process docA written, step-by-step description of how one recurring task gets done, so it runs the same way every time or can be handed over.
Standard YouTube Licensestandard licence, default licenceThe default licence on a YouTube upload. It reserves your rights and gives nobody permission to reuse the video.
Starting soon screenBRB screen, holding screen, waiting screenThe holding scene a stream shows before it properly begins or during a break, usually a title card, a timer and some music.
Statement of workSOW, scope of workThe contract section itemising exactly what a brand is buying: deliverables, dates, formats, approvals and revision rounds.
Statistical significancesignificance, stat sigWhether a measured difference is large enough that random variation is an unlikely explanation for it.
Stem Separationsource separation, vocal isolation, music removalSoftware that splits a finished mix back into separate tracks for vocals, drums, bass and everything else.
Stereostereo, two-channel, stereo imageTwo audio channels, left and right, carrying slightly different signals so sounds can be placed across a width.
Stinger transitionstinger, animated transitionA short animation that plays over the switch between scenes in a live stream, hiding the cut behind motion and sound.
StitchTikTok StitchTikTok's reply format: your video opens with up to five seconds of somebody else's, then cuts straight into your response.
Stock footagestock video, stock clipsLicensed clips filmed by somebody else, used as b-roll to cover shots you cannot get yourself.
Store Tabchannel store, storeThe tab on a channel page listing products a creator sells or promotes through YouTube Shopping.
Story arcnarrative arcThe shape of change across a video or a series: where things start, what shifts in the middle, and where they end up.
Story beatbeat, script beatOne unit of movement in a script, the point at which something changes for the person watching.
Story circleDan Harmon story circle, eight-step story circleDan Harmon's eight-step narrative loop, a stripped-down hero's journey borrowed heavily by video essayists and vloggers.
Storyboardstoryboarding, boardsA sequence of rough sketches showing the planned shots in order, so the visuals get decided before you film.
Storytimestory time videoA talking-head format built on one personal anecdote, told straight to camera with the payoff held back until the end.
Stream alertalerts, alert box, donation alertAn on-screen animation and sound fired live by a subscribe, membership, gift, Super Chat or tip.
Stream DeckElgato Stream DeckA panel of programmable keys, made by Elgato, used to fire scene switches, sounds and other actions during a live broadcast.
Stream healthstream health panel, connection statusThe Live Control Room panel that grades your incoming feed in real time and flags bitrate, dropped frames or network problems.
Stream keystreaming keyThe secret string that authorises your encoder to broadcast to your channel. Anyone holding it can stream as you.
Stream latencylatency, glass-to-glass delayThe delay between something happening in front of the camera and a viewer seeing it, measured glass to glass.
Stream overlayoverlay, stream graphicsThe graphics layer sitting over your live picture: webcam frames, name plates, alert popups, the chat box and the goal bar.
Stream snipingstream sniper, snipingWatching a streamer's live feed while playing against them, using what the broadcast shows to gain an advantage they cannot see.
StreamElementsSE, StreamElements OBS LiveA free cloud platform for stream overlays, alerts, chat moderation and tipping, used to dress and automate a broadcast.
Streamerlive streamerA creator whose main output is live broadcast, where the show happens in real time and the audience sits in the chat.
StreamlabsStreamlabs Desktop, SLOBSA streaming suite built on the OBS engine, bundling the encoder with alerts, overlay themes, a chat dock and a tipping page.
StreamYardStreamyard studioBrowser-based live studio built for interviews and panels, adding guests, overlays and multistreaming without any software installed on your own machine.
Strike appealappeal a strikeAsking YouTube for human review of a removal or a Community Guidelines strike, on the grounds that it was applied wrongly.
Strike expirationstrike expiry, 90 day strikeThe point at which a strike stops counting against a channel, ninety days after the day it was issued.
Study with mework with me, StudyTubeA long real-time video or stream of somebody studying or working, watched for company and structure rather than content.
Sub for subsub4sub, subscribe for subscribeTwo creators subscribing to each other purely to trade the number. YouTube classes it as incentivization spam and prohibits it.
Sub-Nichesubniche, niche within a nicheA narrower slice inside a broader subject, defined tightly enough that a viewer can tell in one line whether a channel is for them.
Subathonsub-a-thon, marathon streamA stream with no fixed end, where every new subscription or donation adds time to a countdown clock the audience controls.
Subredditsub, r/A single topic community on Reddit, written as r/something, with its own moderators, rules and culture.
Subscribe buttonsub buttonThe control that turns a viewer into a subscriber, and the thing every subscribe call to action is pointing at.
Subscribe confirmation linksub_confirmation=1, auto-subscribe link, one-click subscribe linkA channel URL with ?sub_confirmation=1 on the end, which opens the subscribe prompt as soon as someone arrives from off-platform.
Subscribersub, subsA viewer who has opted in to a channel, so new uploads reach their Subscriptions feed and can trigger a notification.
Subscriber conversion ratesubs per view, sub-to-view ratio, subscribers per 1000 viewsHow many views a video takes to earn one subscriber, usually written as subscribers gained per thousand views.
Subscriber countsubs, subscribers, sub countThe running total of people subscribed to a channel. It shows publicly as a rounded figure and exactly to the owner in Studio.
Subscriber milestonesub milestone, 100k, 1k subsA round subscriber number a creator marks publicly, usually with a thank-you video, a stream or a giveaway.
Subscriber purgesub purge, subscriber removalThe creator term for a sudden fall in subscriber count that arrives without a matching wave of people actually leaving.
Subscribers gainedsubs gained, new subscribersNew subscriptions in a period, broken down by the video, Short, live stream or post the viewer was watching when they subscribed.
Subscribers lostunsubscribes, subs lostThe number of subscriptions removed from a channel over a given period, reported separately from subscribers gained.
Subscribers-only chatsubscriber only mode, sub-only chatA live chat setting that limits messages to channel subscribers, with a minimum subscription age you set yourself.
Subscription sourcesubscriber source, where subscribers came fromThe YouTube Analytics breakdown showing where viewers were when they clicked subscribe, by video, Short, live stream or post.
Subscriptions feedsubs feed, subscriber feedThe feed of recent uploads from the channels a viewer follows, ordered by date and reached without a personalised ranking sitting in front of it.
SubstackA publishing platform for newsletters and paid subscriptions, with a recommendation network that moves readers between publications.
Subtitlessubs, subtitle trackTimed on-screen text of what is said, often translated into another language, without the sound descriptions that captions carry.
Suggested videossuggested, suggested video, related videos, sidebar recommendationsRecommendations YouTube shows beside or after the video someone is watching, chosen mainly from that viewer's history and behaviour.
Suicide and self-harm policyself-harm policyYouTube's rules on how self-harm and suicide may be shown or discussed, and what the platform requires of videos touching the subject.
Super Chatsuperchat, paid chat messageA paid, highlighted chat message during a live stream or Premiere, pinned at the top of chat for a period set by the amount paid.
Super Stickerssuper sticker, paid sticker, Super StickerA paid animated graphic viewers buy during a live stream or Premiere, which pins itself into the live chat.
Super Thankssuper thanks, applause, paid tip on videoA one-off paid tip a viewer buys on a video or Short, which pins their comment in a colour matching the amount they spent.
Supercutmontage supercutAn edit that strings every instance of one thing back to back, so the repetition itself becomes the joke or the argument.
Superfansuperfans, top fanThe small share of an audience who watch everything, buy what you sell, and bring other people in without being asked.
Survivorship biassurvivor biasDrawing lessons only from the channels that made it, while the identical channels that did the same things and stalled stay invisible.
SwattingswatA hoax emergency call made to send armed police to someone's home, often aimed at a streamer while they are live.
Swipe fileinspiration file, reference fileA saved collection of titles, thumbnails and hooks kept to study the patterns and borrow structure from later.

T

Table readread-through, reading it aloudReading your script out loud before you film, so the lines that only work on paper get caught while they are still cheap to change.
Tagsvideo tags, YouTube tagsThe keyword field filled in at upload. It carries far less weight than most creators assume, and viewers never see it at all.
Taketakes, another takeOne recorded attempt at a shot, from the moment recording starts to the moment it stops.
Talent agencycreator agency, representation, rosterA firm that represents a roster of creators to brands, sourcing and negotiating deals in exchange for a percentage of what they bring in.
Talent managercreator manager, managementSomeone who represents a creator, finds and negotiates work, and takes a percentage of what the creator earns.
Talking headtalking head shot, talking head videoThe presenter-to-camera shot that carries most creator video: one person, framed head and shoulders, speaking straight down the lens.
Talking pointsbullet script, bullets, beat notesA short list of prompts a presenter speaks from, holding the running order in place without fixing the actual words.
Tax Treaty Benefitstreaty rate, double taxation treatyA reduced US withholding rate on the part of your YouTube income that comes from US viewers, where your country has a treaty.
TeamYouTubeTeam YouTube, YouTube supportYouTube's public-facing support presence, run on social and in the help forums, and the first place creators take account and policy problems.
Telephoto lenslong lens, tele lensA long focal length. Narrow field of view, subject isolated from its surroundings, background apparently pulled closer and thrown out of focus.
Teleprompterprompter, autocueA screen scrolling your script beside or through the lens, so you can deliver written lines while still appearing to look at the camera.
Tentpole Contenttentpole video, event videoA big planned release that the rest of a schedule is built around, absorbing more budget, time and promotion than usual.
Termination clauseexit clause, get-out clause, cancellation clauseThe part of a contract setting out how either side can end the agreement early and what is owed when they do.
Territorygeographic rights, territorial rightsThe clause in a brand contract naming the countries or regions the brand may use your content in. Wider costs more.
Text hookon-screen hook, hook textOn-screen text carrying the promise of a video in its opening seconds, standard on short-form because so much of it is watched with the sound off.
Text strokeoutline, text outlineAn outline drawn round thumbnail text so the letters hold up against a busy or moving background.
Text-based editingtranscript-based editing, edit by transcriptCutting video by editing its transcript. Delete a sentence in the text and the matching footage leaves the timeline.
Text-to-SpeechTTS, synthetic narrationSoftware that turns a written script into spoken narration, now good enough that most listeners will not spot it inside a sentence or two.
Third-party AI training settingAI training opt-in, third-party trainingThe YouTube Studio control deciding whether outside companies may use your uploads to train their AI models.
ThreadsMeta ThreadsMeta's text-first app, tied to an Instagram account, with posts of up to 500 characters and an audience that overlaps Instagram's.
Three strikes rule3 strikes, three strike policyThree copyright strikes and YouTube can terminate the account, take its uploads offline and bar the owner from making new channels.
Three-act structure3-act structure, setup confrontation resolutionSetup, confrontation, resolution. The oldest story shape there is, and a workable spine for a long-form video.
Three-point editingthree point editSetting three of the four in and out points across source and timeline, and letting the editing software work out the fourth.
Three-point lighting3-point lightingThe standard interview setup: a key light for the subject, a fill to soften the shadow, and a backlight to separate them from the background.
Thumbnailthumb, video thumbnailThe still image that stands in for a video everywhere it appears, from the homepage and search results to embeds and share previews.
Thumbnail A/B testa/b test thumbnail, split test thumbnail, thumbnail testingRunning two or three thumbnails against each other on the same video to see which one earns more watch time.
Thumbnail artistthumbnail designerThe designer, in house or freelance, who makes a channel's thumbnails, usually working from the title and a brief.
Thumbnail colour palettethumbnail color palette, paletteThe small set of colours a channel repeats across its thumbnails so its videos are recognisable at a glance in a crowded feed.
Thumbnail dimensionsthumbnail size, thumbnail resolution, 1280x7201280 by 720 pixels, 16:9, at least 640 wide. Meeting the specification is easy and it is rarely the thing that goes wrong.
Thumbnail faceshocked face, surprised face, reaction faceThe exaggerated expression a creator pulls purely for the thumbnail, shot for the still image and often nothing like their real reaction.
Thumbnail swapthumbnail change, thumbnail refreshReplacing a published video's thumbnail to try to lift its click rate, either in the first day or long after upload.
Thumbnail templatepsd template, thumbnail presetA reusable layout, type treatment and colour scheme, so thumbnails ship quickly and the channel reads as a set in the feed.
Thumbnail Test & Comparetest and compare, test & compare, youtube thumbnail testYouTube's own A/B test, running up to three thumbnails or titles on a published video and deciding the winner on watch time.
Thumbnail texttext overlay, text on thumbnail, on-image textWords drawn onto the thumbnail image itself, there to add something the title cannot say rather than repeat it.
Tier list videotier list, ranking videoA format where the creator sorts things into ranked tiers on screen and argues each placement as they go.
TikTokThe short-form vertical video app that reset audience expectations for pacing, and the main non-YouTube surface most creators also post to.
TikTok Creator Rewards ProgramCreator Rewards, Creativity Program, TikTok creator fundTikTok's payout scheme for qualifying videos over a minute long. It pays on qualified views and replaced the old Creator Fund.
TikTok ShopTikTok commerce, TikTok affiliateTikTok's in-app storefront and affiliate marketplace, where a viewer buys without leaving the app and the creator takes commission.
Tilttilt shot, tilt up, tilt downA camera move that pivots the lens up or down from a fixed position, the vertical partner to a pan.
Time remappingretiming, speed change, slow motion in postChanging a clip's playback speed across its own length, so one shot can ramp from slow motion into real time.
Time-lapsetimelapseFrames shot at set intervals and played back at normal speed, so hours of real time pass in seconds on screen.
TimecodeTC, drop frame timecodeThe hours, minutes, seconds and frames address for any point in footage, used to locate and sync material precisely.
Timelinesequence, edit timelineThe track-based workspace in an editor where clips, audio and effects are laid out in time and assembled into a cut.
Timeline tracktrack, video track, audio track, layerA horizontal lane in an editing timeline holding clips. Stacked video tracks composite upwards; audio tracks all play together.
Tippingtips, tip jar, donationsOne-off voluntary payments from viewers, given because they felt like it, with no perk or ongoing subscription attached.
Title cardtitle slide, section card, chapter cardA full-frame graphic marking a section, a chapter or a joke. Gives the viewer a beat and gives the edit visible structure.
Title casecapitalisation, sentence case, capitalizationThe capitalisation style of a title, from full title case through sentence case to all caps. It sets tone, and no platform rule governs it.
Title character limit100 character limit, title length limit, character limitYouTube caps a title at 100 characters. Where the title visually cuts off on screen is a separate matter entirely.
Title formulaheadline formula, title template, title patternA title pattern a creator or a whole niche keeps returning to, because it fits the audience and beats the blank page.
Title safe areasafe zone, safe margins, action safeThe inner region of the frame where text is guaranteed to survive cropping and stay clear of player controls and platform interface.
Title truncationtruncated title, title cut off, ellipsisWhen a title runs longer than the surface showing it, so the display cuts it short and adds an ellipsis.
Top chattop chat filterYouTube's filtered view of live chat, shown by default, which holds back messages its systems read as spam or unwanted.
Top commentssort by top, newest first, comment sortingYouTube's default comment ordering, which surfaces comments by engagement and creator attention instead of by the time they were posted.
Topic channelauto-generated channelAn auto-generated YouTube channel, named Artist Name and the word Topic, created when music is delivered through a distributor.
Topic clustercontent cluster, hub and spokeA group of related videos covering one subject thoroughly, so a viewer who wants that subject always has somewhere to go next.
Topical authoritytopic authority, subject authorityThe idea that a channel or site earns standing across a whole subject, so its work is trusted on anything inside it.
Topical contenttimely content, news-led contentAnything pegged to a moment in time. Attention arrives fast because the demand already exists, then it drains away within days.
Total Addressable MarketTAM, addressable audience, market sizeThe full pool of people who could plausibly watch or buy what you make. Borrowed from business planning and used for niche sizing.
Track mattematte, alpha matte, luma matteUsing one layer's shape or brightness to control what is visible in another, the standard trick for putting text behind a subject.
Tracking linkattribution link, tracked URLA URL carrying parameters or a unique path so a sponsor can measure the traffic and sales that came from you.
Tracking shotdolly shot, follow shotA shot where the camera travels along with a moving subject, holding the framing while both move through the space.
Trademarktrade mark, registered markLegal protection for the name, logo or slogan a business trades under, registered by class of goods and by country.
Trademark complainttrademark takedownYouTube's separate complaint route for use of a brand's mark in a channel name, thumbnail, title or metadata, handled apart from copyright.
Trademark infringementtrade mark infringementUsing someone's brand name, logo or slogan in a way that could make people think they made or endorsed your video.
Traffic sourcetraffic source types, where views come fromThe Studio breakdown showing which surface delivered each view: search, browse, suggested, external, playlists and the rest.
Transaction Revenuepaid content revenue, transactionsThe YouTube Analytics line covering money viewers pay you directly, reported separately from advertising and Premium earnings.
Transcodinglive transcoding, rendition ladderThe platform re-encoding your single incoming feed into the ladder of resolutions and bitrates viewers actually choose from.
Transcriptvideo transcript, caption transcriptThe full written text of everything said in a video, used for captions, chapters, subtitles, translation and repurposing.
Transformative usetransformative workThe fair use question of whether a work adds new meaning or purpose instead of standing in for the original.
Transitionvideo transitionAny effect carrying the edit from one clip into the next instead of a straight cut: a dissolve, a wipe, a whip pan.
Travel feetravel expenses, travel and accommodationThe cost of getting to and staying at a brand's shoot, billed on top of the creative fee instead of absorbed into it.
Treatmentvideo treatmentA prose description of how a video will actually play out, written before anyone starts scripting.
Trending pageTrending, Trending Now, Trending tabYouTube's old platform-wide list of popular videos, retired in July 2025 and replaced with category-specific Charts.
Trendjackingtrend jacking, trend hijacking, riding a trendBuilding a video around a live trend, format or news moment while attention is still on it, to borrow the demand it created.
Trial Reelstrial reelAn Instagram option to publish a Reel to non-followers only, see how strangers respond, then decide whether your followers ever see it.
Trimtrimming, trim editAdjusting where a clip starts or ends on the timeline. The most-used edit there is, and the one worth learning shortcuts for.
Tripodsticks, fluid head tripodThree-legged camera support for locked-off shots. A fluid head adds damped pans and tilts for anything that has to move.
TrolltrollingA commenter who wants a reaction rather than a conversation. Moderation tools handle them; replying rarely does.
True PeakdBTP, inter-sample peakThe real maximum level of an audio signal, including the peaks that fall between samples. Measured in dBTP.
TrueViewTrueView ads, TrueView for actionGoogle's retired name for YouTube's skippable, pay-per-view ad formats. The label outlived the product and still turns up in rate cards.
Trusted FlaggerPriority FlaggerYouTube's programme, renamed Priority Flagger in 2023, which gives vetted government agencies and NGOs bulk reporting tools and faster review of what they flag.
Tube lightLED tube, light stickA slim LED tube used as an accent or background light, usually RGB, and often placed in shot rather than hidden.
TubeBuddytube buddyA browser extension and app for YouTube channel management, best known for bulk editing tools that appear inside the Studio interface.
Tutorial videohow-to video, walkthroughA video teaching the viewer to do one specific thing, following the task through from setup to a finished result.
TwitchAmazon's live streaming platform and the reference point for streamer culture, from chat conventions to subscription mechanics.
Twitch AffiliateTwitch's entry monetisation tier, unlocking subscriptions, Bits and channel points once a channel clears the qualifying thresholds.
Twitch SubscriptionTwitch sub, sub, tier 1 subA recurring monthly payment to a Twitch channel that buys perks such as emotes and ad-free viewing, split with the platform.
Two-column scriptAV script, A/V script, split-page scriptA script laid out with visuals down one column and audio down the other, so you read what is seen and heard together.
Two-factor authentication2FA, two-step verificationA second proof of identity at login, so a stolen password on its own is not enough to take a channel.
Two-pass encoding2-pass, dual pass exportAn export where the encoder analyses the whole video first, then spends its bitrate on the second run where the picture needs it.
Two-shot2-shotA frame holding two people at once, so the audience can read both reactions without the editor cutting between them.
Typical performance rangetypical performance, above average, below averageThe shaded band in Studio charts showing how your recent comparable uploads did, so a new video reads as above or below normal.
Typographytype, typeface, font choiceThe craft of choosing and setting type: typeface, weight, size, spacing and contrast, on thumbnails and on screen.

U

UGC creatoruser-generated content creator, UGC deal, UGC adSomeone paid to produce advertising footage in a creator style for a brand to run on its own channels.
Ultra-low latencylow latency mode, latency modeThe live setting that puts the smallest possible delay between your encoder and the viewer, paid for with buffering headroom.
Unboxingunboxing videoA format built entirely around opening a product on camera, from sealed box through to first use.
Underserved Audienceunder-served audience, neglected audienceA group of viewers who want something specific and cannot find anybody making it properly.
Unique Selling PropositionUSP, unique selling point, differentiatorThe single reason a viewer picks your channel over the other channels covering the same subject.
Unique viewersestimated unique viewersYouTube Analytics' estimate of how many separate people watched in a period, counting someone once however many times they came back.
Unlisted videounlisted, private video, visibility settingsA visibility setting where the video is live but hidden from search, browse and your channel page. Anyone holding the link can watch.
Unscriptedoff the cuff, freestyle, no scriptRecorded without written lines, working from a plan held in the head, a short bullet list, or nothing at all.
Upfront depositdeposit, advance payment, 50 percent upfrontPart of the fee paid before work begins, commonly half, protecting you against a brand that vanishes halfway through production.
Upload checksChecks, copyright check, ad suitability checkThe Checks step in the upload flow, where YouTube scans for copyright matches and rates ad suitability before you publish.
Upload defaultsdefault upload settingsThe Studio setting that pre-fills title, description, visibility, category and comment settings on every new upload.
Upload Scheduleposting schedule, upload cadence, upload frequency, posting frequencyThe rhythm at which a channel publishes, covering both how often and, for some channels, which day and time.
UpscalingAI upscaling, upscale to 4KRaising a video's resolution after it was shot, by interpolating pixels or, in AI tools, generating detail that was never recorded.
Usage buyoutbuyout, content buyoutA lump sum a brand pays to use your video beyond the original terms, covering extra channels, longer periods or paid media.
Usage rightscontent usage rights, licensing rightsThe clause in a brand deal setting out what the brand may do with your content beyond your own channel, and for how long.
USB MicrophoneUSB mic, plug-and-play micA microphone with the audio interface built into it, so it plugs straight into a computer with no mixer or separate box needed.
User-generated contentUGCContent made by the people who use a platform. In marketing the term has drifted to mean paid content made to look that way.
UTM parameterUTM code, UTM tag, campaign tracking parameterTags added to the end of a link so your own analytics can tell which post, email or platform actually sent the visitor.

V

Valid Public Shorts Views10 million Shorts views, Shorts view thresholdThe Shorts view count YouTube measures against Partner Programme eligibility, taken over a rolling ninety days.
Validated viewsview validation, view count freeze, 301+ viewsViews that have survived YouTube's checks for genuine traffic, which is why the public count lags and can be revised down.
Value Added TaxVAT, sales tax, GSTA consumption tax added to sales in the UK, the EU and many other countries. It can apply to memberships, digital products and merch.
Value Ladderproduct ladder, offer ladderA sequence of offers rising in price and depth, from free videos at the bottom to your most expensive product at the top.
Valued watch timeWatch time weighted by whether viewers reported the time as well spent, so a padded video can score worse than a shorter honest one.
Vanity metricsvanity metricNumbers that feel good to look at and change nothing about what you do next.
Vanity URLvanity link, custom landing page, branded linkA memorable sponsor address carrying the creator's name, short enough to say out loud and type from memory.
Variable bitrateVBR, CBR, constant bitrateEncoding that varies how much data each second of video gets, spending more on complicated shots and less on simple ones.
Variable frame rateVFRFootage whose frame rate shifts while recording. It plays fine on the phone and drifts out of sync once you edit it.
Variable ND filterVND, variable neutral densityAn adjustable neutral density filter that dials light down as you rotate it, so you can hold your shutter and aperture while conditions change.
Variety Channelvariety content, general-interest channel, no-niche channelA channel that publishes across unrelated topics on purpose, held together by the presenter instead of by subject.
Vectorscopecolour vectorscopeA circular scope showing a picture's hue and saturation, with a diagonal skin tone line used to judge whether faces look right.
Verbal hookspoken hook, first lineThe spoken opening line of a video, distinct from the visual hook, doing the work of keeping a new arrival in the room.
Verified badgeblue tick, checkmark, verificationThe tick beside a channel or account name, confirming the platform has checked it belongs to who it claims to be.
Vertical live streamportrait stream, vertical streamingA live broadcast in 9:16, so it fills a phone screen and can be surfaced in the Shorts feed.
Vertical microdramamicro-drama, short drama, vertical dramaSerialised scripted fiction shot vertically and cut into one to two minute episodes, dozens per season, each ending on a cliffhanger.
Vertical videoportrait videoFootage framed taller than it is wide, usually 9:16, so it fills a phone screen held upright.
VidConThe creator industry's main conference, founded in 2010 by Hank and John Green and split into community, creator and industry tracks.
Video categorycategory settingThe classification you pick for an upload in Studio, from a fixed list such as Education, Gaming or Entertainment.
Video conceptconcept, the conceptThe core proposition of a video, the thing that makes someone want to watch it, held separate from how you go on to make it.
Video descriptiondescription, description box, YouTube descriptionThe text field under a video holding the summary, links, timestamps and hashtags. Only the opening lines show before Show more.
Video essayessay videoA long-form argued piece with narration, research and illustrated editing, closer to an essay read aloud than to a documentary.
Video Formatformat, repeatable format, show format, content formatA repeatable structure you can run again with new inputs, so the audience knows the shape and you stop reinventing the video each time.
Video IDYouTube video ID, watch IDThe eleven-character code identifying a YouTube video, sitting after v= in every watch URL and inside every share link.
Video introintro, intro sequence, branded introThe opening segment that sets a video up, branded animation included, before the substance of it begins.
Video languagespoken language, audio languageThe Studio field declaring the spoken language of a video, which drives automatic captions, translations and auto dubbing.
Video lengthvideo duration, runtime, how long should a video beThe runtime of a video, and the number creators most often work backwards from by picking a target before they have the idea.
Video noise reductiondenoise, NR, noise removalCleaning sensor grain out of footage in post. Effective in small doses and instantly obvious in large ones.
Video on demandVOD, stream VOD, archived streamThe recording a finished live stream leaves on the channel, watchable afterwards like any other video.
Video podcastYouTube podcastA podcast filmed as well as recorded, with the video edition on YouTube and often the main way new listeners find the show.
Video processingYouTube processing, still processing, SD then HDThe work YouTube does after an upload lands, re-encoding the file into every resolution it will serve to viewers.
Video removalvideo taken down, removed videoA single video taken down from the platform, which may or may not come with a strike attached to the channel.
Video restrictionsrestrictions, restrictions columnThe Studio column flagging limits on a video, such as a copyright claim, an age restriction or a block in some countries.
Video review platformFrame.io, review and approval, timecoded commentsA tool where an editor posts a cut and reviewers leave notes pinned to exact frames, so every comment arrives with a timecode on it.
Video rich resultvideo carousel, video snippet, video resultsA Google search listing that carries a video thumbnail or sits in a video carousel, drawn from a page where the video is the main content.
Video scopesscopes, colour scopesMeasurement displays such as the waveform, vectorscope, histogram and RGB parade, used to judge exposure and colour by numbers.
Video Seriesseries, content series, recurring series, miniseriesA run of uploads sharing a title convention, a premise and a promise, so viewers know what they are getting before they click.
Video sitemapAn XML file that tells search engines which videos are on your site, where each one plays and what it contains.
Video switcherswitcher, vision mixer, ATEMThe box or software that cuts between cameras and graphics live and sends one finished feed out to the stream.
Video titletitleThe line of text shown beside your thumbnail everywhere on YouTube, read by viewers deciding whether to click and by systems deciding what to recommend.
Video visibilityvisibility settingThe setting deciding who can reach an upload: public, unlisted, private, or scheduled to turn public later.
Videos added to playlistsplaylist saves, saves, added to playlistsA YouTube Analytics count of how many times viewers saved a video into a playlist, with Watch Later included in the total.
vidIQvid IQA YouTube analytics and research tool sold as a browser extension and web app, and one of the two best-known creator tools.
View bottingbot views, fake views, view botsUsing automated traffic to inflate a view count. The views get stripped out, and the channel carries the risk.
View velocityvelocity, view speedHow fast a video gathers views after publishing, usually judged over the first hours or days against the channel's own past uploads.
Viewed vs swiped awayviewed vs. swiped away, Shorts retention chartThe Shorts figure showing how many people who saw your Short stayed to watch instead of swiping straight past it.
Viewer personaaudience avatar, ideal viewer, audience personaA written profile of the one person a channel is made for, used to settle decisions that taste alone would argue about forever.
Viewer submissionfan submission, audience submissionMaterial sent in by the audience, questions, clips, photos or problems, that becomes the raw content for a video or a segment.
Viewing sessionwatch session, session, YouTube sessionThe continuous stretch of YouTube watching a viewer is in when they reach your video, covering everything before and after it.
Viewsview count, viewThe headline count of plays a video has picked up. What qualifies differs between long-form and Shorts, which is where people go wrong.
Views by subscription statussubscribed vs not subscribed, views from subscribers, watch time from subscribersA Studio breakdown splitting views and watch time between people subscribed to your channel and people who are not.
Views per playlist startplaylist views per startThe average number of videos watched once someone starts one of your playlists. A figure near one means they leave after the first.
Views per vieweraverage views per viewerViews divided by unique viewers over a chosen period. A loyalty read: how many times the average person came back.
Vignettingvignette, corner darkeningDarkening towards the corners of the frame, either an optical fault of the lens or an effect added deliberately in the grade.
Violent or graphic content policygraphic content policy, violence policyYouTube's community guideline on gore, real violence and shocking imagery, and the rules on what gets removed or age-restricted.
Viralgoing viral, viralityReach far beyond a channel's usual range, driven by sharing and recommendation. The word describes an outcome and makes a poor plan.
Virtual Giftinggifting, live gifts, virtual giftsViewers buying digital items during a live stream and sending them to the creator, where they convert into income.
Visual hierarchyreading orderThe order a viewer takes in the parts of a thumbnail: what lands first, what lands second, what never gets seen at all.
Visual hookopening visualThe image or action on screen in the opening seconds, holding attention before a single spoken word has landed.
Vlogvideo blog, vloggingA video diary format where the creator narrates their own day, trip or project to camera while it is happening.
Vlogmasdaily December vlogsA vlog every day through December up to Christmas. The best-known seasonal upload commitment, and the one that burns the most people out.
Vocal varietyvocal delivery, intonationChanging pitch, pace and volume as you speak so delivery holds attention instead of settling into one flat tone.
VoiceoverVO, narration, voice-overNarration recorded separately from the picture and laid over it, either scripted in advance or written to a finished cut.
Voiceover scriptVO script, narration scriptA script written to be read over footage rather than performed to camera, so the words work with what the viewer is already seeing.
VP9VP9, WebM codecGoogle's royalty-free video codec, one of the formats YouTube transcodes uploads into for delivery to viewers.
VTubervirtual YouTuberA creator who performs through an animated avatar instead of appearing on camera themselves.

W

W-9 tax formW-9, taxpayer identification formThe US form a sponsor asks for before paying, certifying your name, address and taxpayer identification number.
Wardrobecostume, outfit continuityWhat the person on camera wears, and keeping it consistent across takes, days and any footage that has to cut together.
Warp Stabilizerwarp stabiliser, post stabilisationAdobe's post-production stabilisation effect, which analyses a clip and then smooths out the shake it finds.
Watch historyviewing historyThe running record of what a viewer has watched on YouTube, and one of the main inputs to what they get recommended next.
Watch pagevideo pageThe page a video plays on, carrying the player, description, comments and the watch-next suggestions that send viewers somewhere else.
Watch Page Monetization Modulewatch page module, long-form monetisation moduleThe section of the YouTube Partner Program contract covering ad and Premium revenue on standard watch page videos.
Watch partyco-watch, group watchA group watching the same existing content in sync, with live chat running alongside it as they react together.
Watch timewatch hours, estimated minutes watched, total watch timeTotal time viewers spent watching, reported in minutes or hours, and the number behind both YouTube ranking and Partner Programme eligibility.
Waveform monitorwaveform, luma waveformA scope plotting brightness across the frame, so exposure gets judged by measurement instead of by how your screen happens to look.
WebcamUSB cameraA USB camera that plugs straight into a computer, used for streaming, calls and simple talking-head recording.
Webcam streamingbrowser streaming, stream from webcamGoing live straight from a desktop browser using your built-in camera and mic. The simplest way onto YouTube Live, with no encoder involved.
WebVTTVTT, .vttThe standard text format for web captions, storing timed cues in a plain file that supports positioning and basic styling.
When your viewers are on YouTubeviewer activity chart, when your audience is onlineThe Studio heat map showing which hours your existing audience is active on YouTube. Frequently misread as an optimal posting schedule.
Whip panswish panA fast camera pan that smears into motion blur, used most often to hide the cut between two shots.
Whip pan transitionswish pan, whoosh transitionA fast pan that blurs the frame, used to hide the join between two shots so the cut reads as one continuous move.
White balanceWB, auto white balance, AWBTelling the camera what counts as white under the current light, so skin and colours come out neutral instead of orange or blue.
Whitelistingallowlisting, partnership ads, creator ad licensingA creator granting a brand permission to run paid ads from the creator's own handle, so the advert appears to come from them.
Wide shotlong shot, WS, full shotA shot framing the subject in full along with enough of the surroundings to show where they are.
Wide-angle lenswide lens, ultra-wide lensA lens with a short focal length and a broad field of view, standard for vlogging because it fits you and your surroundings in at arm's length.
Windscreendead cat, windjammer, wind muff, foam coverThe foam or fur cover over a microphone that stops moving air hitting the capsule and turning into low-frequency roar.
Wipewipe transitionA transition where the incoming shot pushes or slides the outgoing one off the screen along an edge.
Wireless Microphone Systemwireless lav, radio mic, wireless micA transmitter and receiver pair that sends audio from a moving subject to the camera without a cable.
Withholding TaxUS withholding, tax withholding, withheld earningsTax deducted at source before you are paid. For creators it mainly means US tax taken from the earnings generated by US viewers.
Word-for-word scriptfull script, fully scripted, tight scriptA script written out sentence by sentence and delivered as written, so nothing on camera is improvised.
Words per minuteWPM, speaking rate, script read timeSpeaking pace, used to turn a script's word count into an estimated runtime before you record a single line of it.
Work for hirework made for hireAn arrangement where the person paying owns the copyright in the finished work from the start, instead of the editor or artist who made it.
Working titleplaceholder titleA temporary title carried through production so files and drafts have a name before the real title is chosen.
Writers' roomwriter's room, writing teamA team session where ideas and scripts get developed together, borrowed from television and now standard on larger channels.

X

XTwitterThe text-first social network formerly called Twitter, used by creators for commentary, industry news and reaching people outside their subscriber base.
X SpacesSpaces, Twitter Spaces, live audio roomLive audio rooms on X, where a host and invited speakers talk to a listening audience and the recording stays available afterwards.
XLR CableXLR, balanced cable, three-pin cableThe locking three-pin balanced cable used for professional microphones, able to run long distances without picking up noise.

Y

Year-over-yearYoY, year on yearComparing a period with the same period a year earlier, so seasonal swings do not get mistaken for growth or decline.
YouTube algorithmthe algorithm, YT algorithmUmbrella name for the ranking systems that decide which videos get shown to which viewers, on the home feed, in search and beside other videos.
YouTube AnalyticsStudio analytics, channel analyticsThe reporting product inside YouTube Studio: views, watch time, retention, traffic sources, audience and revenue, for the channel and every video.
YouTube Analytics APIAnalytics API, Reporting APIGoogle's programmatic route to channel and video metrics, used by dashboards and third-party tools instead of reading Studio by hand.
YouTube Audio LibraryAudio Library, free music libraryYouTube's own free library of music and sound effects, cleared for use on the platform and reachable from inside YouTube Studio.
YouTube Automationautomated channel, outsourced channelRunning a channel on outsourced or automated production, usually faceless, with the owner directing the work instead of making it.
YouTube BrandConnectBrandConnect, YouTube Brand ConnectYouTube's own brand-deal marketplace inside Studio, now folding into the wider Creator Partnerships platform.
YouTube channel monetization policiesmonetisation policies, YPP policiesThe combined rule set a channel has to follow to join the Partner Programme and keep earning, checked continuously rather than once.
YouTube ChartsCharts, trending chartsRanked lists of what is popular inside one category, such as music videos or podcasts. They replaced the old Trending page.
YouTube Clipsclip, clips featureA 5 to 60 second excerpt a viewer cuts from your video or stream and shares as a link that plays inside the original.
YouTube CommunitiesCommunitiesA dedicated in-app space where a channel's viewers post and talk to each other, separate from the comments under a video.
YouTube Content ManagerCMS, content management systemThe rights-management back end labels, networks and MCNs use, sitting above ordinary Studio and administering many channels at once.
YouTube CoursesCourses on YouTubeStructured courses eligible creators build in Studio and publish on their channel, free or for a one-off price.
YouTube CreateCreate appYouTube's own free mobile editing app, built for cutting, captioning and scoring videos and Shorts on a phone.
YouTube Creator Liaisoncreator liaisonThe YouTube role that carries creator feedback into product teams and explains platform decisions in public.
YouTube Data APIYouTube API, Data API v3Google's public interface for reading and managing YouTube data programmatically, the pipe almost every third-party creator tool runs on.
YouTube handle@handle, channel handleThe @name that identifies your channel across YouTube and forms its short URL, unique to you and separate from your display name.
YouTube KidsYouTube's separate app for children, with its own curated catalogue and standards, distinct from the made for kids setting.
YouTube Mastheadmasthead, home feed mastheadThe reserved advertising slot across the top of the YouTube home feed, bought through a Google sales contact instead of self-serve.
YouTube MixMix, radio playlist, auto-generated playlistAn endless playlist YouTube generates around a seed video, artist or topic, extending itself as you watch instead of ending at a fixed last track.
YouTube Partner ProgramYPP, partner programThe programme a channel joins to earn on YouTube. It opens in two stages: fan funding first, ad revenue at the higher one.
YouTube Partner Program Base Termsbase terms, YPP base termsThe core YPP agreement accepted first. The monetisation modules for the watch page, Shorts and commerce all attach on top of it.
YouTube PlayablesPlayablesFree casual games playable inside YouTube itself through the Explore menu, with no separate app download needed.
YouTube PremierePremiere, PremieresA finished upload scheduled to play to everyone at the same moment, with a countdown and a live chat running alongside it.
YouTube Premium RevenuePremium revenue, red views revenue, subscription revenue shareThe creator's share of YouTube Premium subscription fees, allocated according to how much of their content Premium members watched.
YouTube searchsearch results page, in-platform search, search trafficThe query box inside YouTube and the ranked list it returns. Analytics counts it as a traffic source in its own right.
YouTube search filterssearch filtersThe controls above a search results page for date, type, duration, features and sort order. The cheapest competitor research on the platform.
YouTube SelectGoogle PreferredYouTube's premium advertising lineups, letting brands reserve placements against the most popular content in a given market.
YouTube SEOvideo SEO, YouTube search optimisationShaping a video's topic, title, description and spoken words around what people actually type into YouTube search.
YouTube ShoppingShopping on YouTube, shopping featureYouTube's commerce layer for tagging products in videos, Shorts and live streams, either your own or through the affiliate programme.
YouTube Shopping Affiliate ProgramShopping affiliate, affiliate programme YouTubeThe YouTube Shopping feature letting approved creators tag other brands' products in their videos and earn commission on sales.
YouTube ShortsShortsYouTube's vertical short-form format and the swipe feed it plays in, covering uploads of up to three minutes.
YouTube StudioStudio, YT Studio, Creator StudioThe creator side of YouTube. Uploads, analytics, comments, monetisation, copyright and channel settings all live behind studio.youtube.com.
YouTube Studio editorStudio editor, YouTube video editor, trim tool, blur toolYouTube's built-in editor for trimming, blurring and swapping audio on a video that is already published, without losing its URL or views.
YouTube Terms of ServiceToS, YouTube terms, platform terms of serviceThe contract between YouTube and everyone who uses it, which sits above the Community Guidelines and every other policy on the platform.

Z

Zebraszebra stripesA monitoring overlay that stripes any part of the image brighter than a threshold you set, so you can judge exposure.
Zero-click searchzero click, no-click searchA search answered on the results page itself, so nobody clicks through to the site or video that supplied the answer.
Zoom lensvariable focal length lensA lens covering a range of focal lengths, so you can reframe from wide to tight without swapping glass.

#

16:9 aspect ratiosixteen by nine, widescreen, horizontalThe standard horizontal shape of a long-form video, 1920 by 1080 and its multiples. It is also what keeps an upload out of Shorts.
180-degree rulecrossing the line, axis of actionKeep the camera on one side of an imaginary line through the action and screen direction stays consistent from shot to shot.
180-degree shutter rule180 shutter, double the frame rateSet the shutter speed to roughly double the frame rate, so motion carries the amount of blur audiences read as natural.
24 fps24p, cinematic frame rateTwenty-four frames per second, the film standard, and the frame rate that gives motion the blur people read as cinematic.
24/7 streamalways-on stream, looped live streamA channel kept permanently live by looping a playlist or a generated feed, common for music, ambience and radio-style formats.
3-2-1 backup rule321 backup, backup ruleKeep three copies of your footage, on two different kinds of storage, with one of them somewhere else entirely.
30 fps30p, 29.97Thirty frames a second, the standard rate for talking heads and broadcast-style work in North America, where it is really 29.97.
4:5 aspect ratiofour by five, portrait feed ratioThe tall in-feed ratio, 1080 by 1350 pixels, used for Instagram and Facebook posts when a full-height vertical clip will not fit.
60 fps60pRecording sixty frames a second, for smoother motion on fast action and room to slow the footage down in the edit.
9:16 aspect rationine by sixteen, full verticalThe full-screen vertical frame used by Shorts, Reels and TikTok, nine units wide for every sixteen tall.