Fencing terms

Fencing terms relating to the sport (not constructing barriers to encircle your property) are perhaps more common than you might think. As a sport, fencing dates back centuries to the time when swordfighting skills were a literal matter of life and death.

Although fencing is an Olympic sport (on its own and as part of the modern pentathlon), it still remains a fairly niche activity; with an estimated two million participants worldwide, it is dwarfed by estimates for soccer (265 million) and cricket (300 million).

Fencing rules

Fencing rules are very complicated, so we’ll limit ourselves to a brief description. The contest is between two players who meet on a 14-meter-long fighting surface called the piste. Fencers use the foil, épée, or sabre as their weapon, and they wear protective clothing from head to toe. The aim is to score 15 hits against your opponent.

Fencing terms

Perhaps one of the reasons that fencing is a niche sport is that it has a large, complex, and often French lexicon and complicated rules of engagement. To the casual observer, it can be blindingly fast and confusing to watch.

Some of the most common fencing terms include:

• Advance: To step forward (relevant to right of way decisions)
• Allez: The command to fencers to begin fencing (from the French for “go”)
• Beat: A tap on the opponent’s blade to start an attack
• Engagement: Contact between the blades
• En garde: The starting position before the bout begins
• Épée: One of the three sword types. A scoring hit is contact between the tip of the blade and the opponent’s body. There’s no right of way, so points can be scored simultaneously by both players.
• Feint: A false attack designed to provoke the opponent into a riposte
• Flèche: A running, explosive attack (foil and épée only)
• Foil: A fencing weapon where only the tip can register a hit, and the target area is the opponent’s torso, including the groin area.
• Guard: Blocking your opponent’s attack
• Hit: The three different fencing disciplines have different criteria for scoring a hit. In any serious competition, the hits are registered through the use of electronic connections attached to the blade, the floor, and the opponent.
• Lunge: An attacking move, pushing off from the back leg
• Parry: A defensive move blocking your opponent’s blade with your own
• Piste: The fencing strip. All action has to take place on it. In épée competitions the piste is electrically grounded to prevent a strike on the piste from registering as a hit
• Point-in-line: Extending your blade with a straight arm pointed at the opponent gives you right of way, and they cannot attack without first executing a beat.
• Prete: The command given to fencers to get ready
• Recover: Returning to your starting (en guard) position after an attack
• Right of way: Except in épée, only the fencer with right of way can initiate an attack
• Riposte: An immediate attack once you have successfully parried an attack
• Saber: A fencing weapon with a broader blade. In saber fencing, any part of the blade can score a hit, with the target being anywhere above the opponent’s waist.
• Touché: An acknowledgement by a fencer that they have been hit by their opponent.

Fencing terms in common use

Because fencing and swordfighting are inextricably linked, the root of these words or sayings might come from either world.

Frequently asked questions about fencing terms

What are some common fencing terms used in English?

There are some common terms in English that come from either fencing or swordfighting. These include:

• En garde
• Touché
• Riposte
• Parry

Many fencing terms come from French because of its popularity and the importance of French when dueling and swordfighting were at their peak.

If you are unsure whether a word has come from fencing, you can ask QuillBot’s AI Chat to tell you.