Video Game Vocabulary

We hope this video game vocabulary helps you collect more power-ups, save your avatar lives, and reach the highest level! So, grab your controller and hit play!
14 words 612 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. console
    a scientific instrument with displays and an input device
    The blackened video screens on all the game consoles filling the room sprang to life. Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics
  2. controller
    a mechanism that controls the operation of a machine
    Books are strewn across the coffee table along with two video-game controllers. We Are Okay
  3. joystick
    a manual lever used to control computers or video games
    He plops down in front of the Atari, picks up a joystick, and begins to play. Ready Player One: A Novel
  4. avatar
    an electronic image representing a computer user
    I curl my toes slightly and imagine walking—and with those double cues, my avatar moves forward. Warcross
  5. level
    a specific identifiable position in a continuum or series
    I managed to clear all eight levels of the game in just under three hours. Ready Player One: A Novel
  6. quest
    the act of searching for something
    We visited the planet Goondocks and finished the entire Goonies quest in just one day. Ready Player One: A Novel
  7. achievement
    the action of accomplishing something
    You earn the Shenanigans! achievement in Cloudberry Kingdom for simply completing chapter seven. Yet, that chapter happens to be punishingly difficult and makes Cloudberry Kingdom one of the hardest platformers ever. The Gamer
  8. loot
    goods or money obtained illegally
    Their bodies slowly faded out of existence, each leaving behind a tiny pile of weapons and loot. Ready Player One: A Novel
  9. strategy
    an elaborate and systematic plan of action
    That strategy had worked for them on Ludus, but only for a few hours, and they’d only had one location to barricade. Ready Player One: A Novel
  10. code
    the symbolic arrangement of data in a computer program
    I can see the code running the virtual simulations around the dome—but I can’t see any code or data on this shape. Warcross
  11. computer
    a machine for performing calculations automatically
    Otherwise, both computers, electronic and human, had performed like a dream. Hidden Figures
  12. glitch
    a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine
    “After our first meeting in here, remember? I told you it wasn’t a software glitch.” Ready Player One: A Novel
  13. simulation
    representing the real world by a computer program
    She was racking up points on a war simulation. Genuine Fraud
  14. virtual reality
    a hypothetical three-dimensional visual world created by a computer; user wears special goggles and fiber optic gloves etc., and can enter and move about in this world and interact with objects as if inside it
    It felt like I was playing one of those virtual reality video games. The Million Dollar Shot
Created on Fri Dec 01 13:49:37 EST 2023 (updated Thu Jan 25 13:52:03 EST 2024)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.