List of established military terms
Raid
Rank: a single line of soldiers.
Reconnaissance
Reconnoitre: to go to an area (reconnoitering) to find out information of the exact location of an enemy force.
Retreat: withdrawal of troops from a battlefield (can be either orderly or unorderly; fighting or by rout).
Rout: disorderly withdrawal of troops from a battlefield following a defeat, either real or perceived.
Sack: the destruction and looting of a city, usually after an assault.
Safe-guard: individual soldiers or detachments placed to prevent resources (often farms full of crops and livestock) from being looted or plundered
Salients: a pocket or "bulge" in a fortified or battle line. The enemy's line facing a salient is referred to as a "re-entrant".
Scorched earth: the deliberate destruction of resources in order to deny their use to the enemy.
Scuttlebutt: For gossip or water fountain.
Scuttling: the deliberate destruction of a ship to prevent its capture and use by an enemy. Commonly used as a coup de grâce, but has also been a protest (as after the First World War).
Shield wall: the massed use of interconnected shields to form a wall in battle.
Shield wall (fortification): the highest and thickest wall of a castle protecting the main assault approach.
Shoot and scoot: a type of fire-and-movement tactic used by artillery to avoid counter-battery fire.
Siege: a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by force or attrition, often accompanied by an assault in the later phase.
Siege en régle: A siege where a city or fortress is invested but no bombardment or assault takes place. Instead, the besieger attempts to persuade the defenders to surrender through negotiation, inducement, or through privations such as starvation. This may be done because the fortress is too strong for the attackers to capture through bombardment and assault, or because if the fortification when captured is undamaged it immediately becomes a functional strong point for the former besiegers.
Circumvallation: a line of fortifications built by the attackers around the besieged fortification facing towards it.
Contravallation: a second line of fortifications behind the circumvallation facing away from the enemy fort to protect the besiegers from attacks by allies of the besieged.
Escalade: the act of scaling defensive walls or ramparts with the aid of ladders, a prominent feature of siege warfare in medieval times.
Chevaux de frise: sword blades chained together to incapacitate people trying to charge into a breach in the walls.
Investment: surrounding an enemy fort (or town) with armed forces to prevent entry or escape.
Military mining, undermining of defence positions either fortifications or enemy front line trenches (see also camouflet).
Parallel trenches
Sapping: digging approach trench towards enemy fortifications within range of the besieged guns.
Siege engines: specialised weapons used to overcome fortifications of a besieged fort or town; in modern times, the task has fallen to large artillery pieces.
Siege train: specialised siege artillery moved in a column by road or by rail.
Siege tower: a wooden tower on wheels constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification.
Sortie (also "to sally (forth)"): a sudden attack against a besieging enemy from within a besieged fort or town.
Surrender at discretion: unconditional surrender instead of surrendering with terms.
Skirmish
Switch position: A defensive position oblique to, and connecting, successive defensive positions paralleling the front.
thunder run: quick surprise penetration attack deep into enemy territory, designed to confuse and potentially break enemy lines and take a city.
Vedette, a mounted sentry or outpost, who has the function of bringing information, giving signals or warnings of danger, etc.
Withdrawal (military): retreat (i.e., pulling back) of troops from a battlefield (can be either orderly or unorderly; fighting or by rout)

Ordnance: These terms concern identification of means of combat to inflict damage on the opponent.

Edged: Weapons that inflict damage through cutting or stabbing.

Bayonet
Bill (weapon)
Danish axe
Halberd
Hands
Knife or Dagger
Lance
Polearm or poleaxe
Pike (weapon)
Partisan (weapon)
Sabre
Spear
Sword

Projectile munitions: Munitions are weapons and ordnance that inflict damage through impact.

Individual: Bow (weapon)
Crossbow
Sling (weapon) and slingshot (hand catapult)
Firearms

Carbine
Machine gun
Musket
Pistol
Revolver
Rifle
Shotgun
Submachine gun

Artillery: Crew-served, non-vehicle mounted weapons

Ballista
Catapult
Mangonel
Onager (siege weapon)
Trebuchet
Guns

Bombard (weapon)
Cannon
Autocannon
Basilisk
Bombard
Carronade
Culverin
Demi-cannon
Demi-culverin
Falconet
Hand cannon
Minion
Saker
Gun
Field gun
Naval artillery
Howitzer
Mortar (weapon)

Explosives: Explosive ordnance causes damage through release of chemical energy.

Artillery shell
Bangalore torpedo
Camouflet
Grenade
Hand grenade
Rifle grenade (see also Grenade launcher)
Rocket propelled grenade
Land mine
Anti-tank mine
Anti-personnel mine

Incendiary: Incendiary ordnance causes damage through release of heat.

Flamethrower
Greek fire
Napalm
White phosphorus

Vehicles: Armoured car
Chariot
Half-track
Armoured personnel carrier
Tank
Tank destroyer

Engineering: See also List of fortifications
Abatis: a defensive obstacle consisting of an obstacle formed (in the modern era) of the branches of trees laid in a row.
Banquette, or fire step
Barbed wire
Bartizan: a cylindrical turret or sentry post projecting beyond the parapet of a fort or castle
Bastion
Bastion fortress: a star-shaped fortress surrounding a town or city (also known as star fort or Trace italienne).
Battery: an artillery position, which may be fortified.
Berm
Blast wall: a barrier for protection from high explosive blast.
Blockhouse: a) Medieval and Renaissance - a small artillery tower, b) 18th and 19th centuries - a small colonial wooden fort, c) 20th century - a large concrete defensive structure.
Breastwork
Bulwark
Bunker: a heavily fortified, mainly underground, facility used as a defensive position; also commonly used as command centres for high-level officers.
Caponier: a defensive firing position either projecting into, or traversing the ditch of a fort.
Carnot wall: a wall pierced with loopholes, sited above the scarp of a ditch but below the rampart.
Casemate: a vaulted chamber for protected storage, accommodation or if provided with an embrasure, for artillery
Castle
Medieval fortification
Arrow slit (arrow loop, loophole)
Barbican
Chemin de ronde
Concentric castle
Drawbridge
Gatehouse
Keep or donjon
Moat
Machicolation
Murder-hole
Portcullis
Citadel
Counterscarp: the opposing side of a ditch in front of a fortification, i.e., the side facing it.
Counterscarp gallery: a firing position built into the counterscarp wall of the ditch.
Counter mine: anti-siege tunnel dug by a fortification's defenders below an attacker's mine with the intent of destroying it before the attackers are able to damage (the foundations of) the fortification's walls.
Coupure
Covertway
Defensive fighting position; for example, a rifle pit, sangar or fox hole.
Demi-lune
Ditch: a dry moat.
Dragon's teeth: Triangular obstacles acting as roadblocks for armoured vehicles.
Dutch Water Line: a series of water-based defensive measures designed to flood large areas in case of attack.
Earthworks
Embrasure: an opening in a parapet or casemate, for a gun to fire through.
Fascine is a bundle of sticks or similar, were used in military defences for revetting (shoring up) trenches or ramparts, especially around artillery batteries, or filling in ditches and trenches during an attack.
Flèche: an arrow shaped outwork, smaller than a ravelin or a lunette, with 2 faces with a parapet and an open gorge
Fort
Fortification
Fortress
Gabion: a large basket filled with earth, used to form a temporary parapet for artillery
Glacis: a bank of earth sloping away from the fort, to protect it from direct artillery fire
Gorge: opening at the rear of an outwork for access by defending troops from the main defensive position
Hill fort (New Zealand: Pa (Māori))
Lunette: an outwork consisting of a salient angle with two flanks and an open gorge.
Magazine: a protected place within a fort, where ammunition is stored and prepared for use.
Mining: a siege method used since antiquity against a walled city, fortress or castle, where tunnels are dug to undermine the foundations of the walls; also see counter-mine.