All levels8 min read · Updated July 2026
Archery Terms: The Complete Glossary (Plain-English Definitions)
Every archery term you'll actually encounter — bows, gear, technique, scoring — defined in plain English, organized so you can find things.
By the Archery Care Editorial Team
Archery has a vocabulary problem. Walk into a shop and someone will mention brace height, let-off and paradox in one sentence, and nod like you obviously followed. This glossary is the antidote — every term defined the way a friend would explain it, grouped by topic so it works as a reference, not a memory test.
Bows and their parts
Term What it means Riser The middle of the bow you hold — the handle section the limbs bolt onto. Limbs The flexing arms above and below the riser that store and release the energy. Brace height Distance from the deepest part of the grip to the string at rest. The recurve tuning number. Axle-to-axle (ATA) A compound's length, measured between its cam axles. Shorter = maneuverable, longer = stable. Cam The oval wheel on a compound's limb tips that creates let-off. Let-off The percentage of draw weight a compound sheds at full draw. 80% let-off turns 70 lb into ~14 lb of holding. Draw weight Peak pounds of force needed to draw the bow, measured at 28" for most bows. Draw length How far you personally pull the string — your body's number, not the bow's. ILF International Limb Fitting — the standard that lets recurve risers and limbs interchange across brands. Nocking point The marked spot on the string where the arrow clips on, so every shot starts identically. Tiller The balance of limb strength top vs bottom, measured as the difference in limb-to-string distances. Stacking When draw weight stops climbing smoothly and piles on hard near full draw — short longbows are famous for it. Arrows and accessories
Term What it means Spine An arrow's stiffness. Match it to your draw weight or arrows fly sideways-ish. The number falls as stiffness rises. Fletching The feathers or plastic vanes that steer the arrow. Three per arrow, usually. Nock The plastic slot on the arrow's tail that clips onto the string. Broadhead A bladed hunting point. Fixed blades don't move; mechanicals open on impact. Field point A practice point shaped like a bullet — what targets and bag targets are built for. FOC Front-of-center — the percentage of an arrow's weight sitting forward of its midpoint. Hunters chase higher FOC. Grain The weight unit for arrows and points. 5,000ish grains to a pound; a typical arrow is 350–500 grains. Rest What the arrow sits on at the riser. Drop-away rests fall out of the way mid-shot. Peep sight The little ring served into a compound string you look through, like a rear sight. Release aid The trigger device compound shooters use instead of fingers. Index, thumb, hinge or tension styles. Stabilizer The weighted rod(s) screwed to the riser that damp vibration and slow your aim's float. Quiver Arrow storage — hip, back, or bolted to the bow itself. Technique and the shot
Term What it means Anchor point The exact spot on your face the string hand returns to every shot. Consistency lives here. Back tension Driving the draw with the muscles between your shoulder blades instead of your arm — the foundation of a clean release. Follow-through Holding your form until the arrow lands. Dropping the bow early starts before the arrow leaves. Archer's paradox The arrow flexes around the riser as it leaves a finger-shot bow and still flies straight. Physics showing off. Cant Tilting the bow off vertical — deliberate for longbow shooters, a flaw in Olympic recurve. Instinctive aiming Shooting without a sight or conscious reference — eyes on the spot, repetition does the math. Gap shooting Aiming with the arrow point held a learned distance below (or on) the spot at each range. String walking Moving your fingers down the string to change the arrow's angle instead of the aim — barebow's aiming system. Punching Slapping the release trigger in anticipation — the compound shooter's most common disease. Target panic The anxiety-driven inability to hold your aim on the spot or release cleanly. Real, common, fixable. Paper tuning Shooting through paper at close range and reading the tear to diagnose arrow flight. Robin Hood Splitting one arrow with another. Glorious, and expensive — you just destroyed two arrows. Competition and scoring
Term What it means End A round of arrows shot before walking to score — usually 3 or 6. FITA / WA round The old and current names for World Archery's standard target rounds — 70m for Olympic recurve. X-ring The inner circle inside the 10. Breaks ties, separates the great from the good. Gold The yellow center zone. 'Shooting gold' means what you'd hope. 3D archery Courses of foam animal targets at unmarked distances, scored on vital zones. Field archery Roving courses with marked and unmarked distances over terrain. Barebow Recurve class with no sight, no stabilizers, no clicker — string walking allowed. Clicker The strip of metal that clicks when an Olympic archer reaches exact full draw — a draw-length alarm. Flu-flu Big spiral fletching that kills an arrow's range on purpose, for aerial and small-game shooting. IBO / ATA speed Standardized bow-speed ratings measured with specific setups. Compare bows only within one standard. Missing one? Every term above links deeper into our guides where a definition alone isn't enough — and if you hit a term in the wild we haven't covered, that's a gap we want to know about.