Unpack Debate Jargon

Affirmative

The affirmative team supports the resolution.

Affirmative Constructive

The affirmative constructive, or first affirmative constructive in some events, is when the pro team lays out their reasons for affirming the resolution.

Alternative

Argued as part of a kritik, the alt is the method by which the kritik seeks to resolve the problematic system or ideology argued for by the opposing team.

Analytic

An analytical response is one that does not include any evidence.

Ballot

A ballot is the judge's decision. Within it, they will decide who won the round and usually provide a reason for the decision (RFD).

Block

Blocks are pre-written responses to arguments on the topic. They generally include evidence to support them.

Break/Broke

To break at a tournament means to make it into the elimination or "out rounds" of a tournament.

Bye Round

A bye round means the team does not have to debate the round and they are granted a win. This can happen if their opponents do not show up or if they are a top seed at a tournament.

Card

A card is a way to format evidence for a debate round. Cards are “cut” to include only the most important portions of the evidence and increase efficiency.

Case

A case is a prewritten speech given in a constructive and generally consists of contentions or advantages.

Claim

A claim is a point a debtaer is asserting to be true.

Clash

Clash occurs when opposing arguments directly engage with each other. For instance, if both teams have a climate change impact then there is clash between them.

Clipping

Clipping is when a debater cuts a piece of evidence to say something other than what the author meant. For instance, if an article said: "the economy will not fall apart this year," clipping the card would make it say: "The economy will fall apart this year." This is against the rules and has caused teams to lose rounds and be removed from tournaments.

Collapse

To collapse means to diregard unimportant arguments and only focus on the points a team is winning. This is a ubiquitious practice across all debate events.

Con

The con team is against the resolution/topic presented.

Concede

When a team concedes an opposing team's argument it means they do not contest and the other team wins that part of the argument.

Constructive

Constructives are the first speech(es) in a round. They are used for teams to lay out their positions and in some event types, respond to their opponents.

Contention

A contention is another word for an argument.

Counterplan

A counterplan is an alternative proposal presented by the negative side that addresses the major issues raised by the affirmative.

Cross Application

A cross-application draws from the rebutalist's case to respond to the opponent’s arguments. In other words, it involves using arguments made during the first couple of speeches and directly applying them to the opposing team's arguments.

Cross examination

Cross examination is when one team asks questions of the other.

Cross fire

Cross fire is when both sides ask each other questions during the round.

Cutting Cards

Cutting cards is a way of saying a debater is formatting pieces of evidence for an upcoming debate round.

Debate Tournament

A debate tournament is the most frequent method of debating. Generally occurring on weekends, the tournaments consist of preliminary rounds and are then followed by a play off, or what debaters call out rounds.

Disclosure

Disclosure is a norm established on the national circuit, as well as in some states, where debaters must put their cases up on the openCaselist wiki once they have completed a round.

Double Octafinals

Doubles is for the top 32 teams of a tournamen and is the elimination round which directly precedes quartefinals.

Drop A Ballot

To drop a ballot means to lose the round.

Entry

An entry refers to a participant or team registered to compete in a specific event at a debate tournament.

Evidence

Evidence is another word for the card. It consists of a position or data taken from a source who is not the debater. Evidence can be from news articles, journals, and government sources.

Extend

To extend an argument means to brielfy go over a previeous argument made and extrapolate on why it's important. Debaters do this in the second half of the round.

Fiat

Fiat is the assumption that if the resolution is affirmed, the action will occur. This allows debaters to argue the topic's consequences instead of whether it's probably the government would pass the resolution.

Final Focus

The Final Focus speech is unique to Public Forum. It is two minutes and is the final time the judge will hear from both sides.

First Affirmative Rebuttal

The first affirmative rebuttal is when the affirmative team attacks the negative's positions and rebuilds their own.

First Negative Rebuttal

The first negative rebuttal is when the negative team attacks the affirmative's positions and rebuilds their own.

Flay Judge

A flay judge is somewhere between a lay and flow judge. They generally have some experience with debate but aren't well suited for progressive debate and don't take scrupulous notes.

Flow Judge

Flow judges are usually former debaters and/or coaches. They understand the complexities of debate and are generally experienced with progressive types of argumentation, though some will discourage theories and Kritiks.

Flow Through

Flows through means an argument has gone unrefuted and, therefore, should be weighed by the judge.

Flowing

Flowing is how debaters take notes within a round. There are multiple different methods, with some competitors using computers and others preferring pen and paper.

Format

Numerous debate formats exist. The main three in the United States are Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, and Policy. Other types are Parliamentary Debate and World Schools.

Gold Bid

A Gold Bid is an award given out by the University of Kentucky to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. To receive one, a debater must make it to a certain round a tournament which provides bids, known as a bid tournament.

Hybrid Entry

A hybrid entry, is when in a two-versus-two event the partners come from different schools. Numerous tournaments do not allow these types of entries to compete.

Impact

The impact of an argument is why it matters in a debate round.

Impact Turn

An impact turn is a type of turn where the debater accepts their opponents links but then argues that their impact is actually a good or bad thing.

Independent Entry

An independent entry is one not affiliated with their school.

Internal Link

An internal link is the connecting logic between two parts of an argument—typically between a cause and its effect, or between a smaller impact and a larger one. While commonly discussed in the context of disadvantages, internal links exist in all types of arguments. For example, if a team argues that banning fossil fuels will reduce carbon emissions, and reduced emissions will slow climate change, the internal link is the argument that lower emissions lead to a slowdown in climate change.

Interpretation

An interpretation is generally part of a theory shell. It is the team's definition of a particular rule or norm.

Judge

A judge is the adjudicator in a debate round. They decide who winds and who loses.

Junior Varsity

Junior Varsity is for students who are too skilled for novice but not quite ready for varsity.

Kritik

A Kritik is a type of argument made that challenges the underlying assumptions of another team's advocacy.

Lay Judge

A lay judge is someone who is inexperienced or does not like technical debate. These judges are usually parents and require debaters to speak at slower speeds and utilize less jargon.

Lincoln Douglas

Lincoln Douglas (LD) is a one-versus-one debate format. It consists of an affirmative and negative side and is generally considered to be focused on philosophical and moral questions. LD is highly regionalized with certain states adopting a slower version of the activity and others (including the national circuit) utilizing a more technical style.

Line-by-line

Line-by-line refers to a strategy where a team responds to each argument point by point. This contrasts with the use of “voting issues,” which focus on overarching themes in the debate. Most rebuttals follow the line-by-line approach.

Link

The link is where debaters assert causality between the resolution and an outcome.

Link Turn

A link turn is a type of turn where a debater accepts their opponent’s impact but argues that the link makes the impact more likely, rather than preventing it—or vice versa.

Link-in

To link-in means that one impact gains access to the other. I.e. climate change links to poverty.

Local Circuit

The local circuit refers to an individual state circuit or a specific league in a major city.

Magnitude

Magnitude is the multiplication of severity times scope. While one person dying may have a high severity, it does not have a large magnitude. Similarly, 1,000 people losing internet would also not have a large magnitude.

Maverick

Maverick refers to debaters who do not have a partner in two versus two formats.

Mitigation

Mitigatory responses downplay the significance of an argument's impact rather than directly refuting it. For example, if a team argues that their proposal would prevent a recession, a mitigatory response might claim that the recession’s impact on the economy would be minor. Mitigation is one of the least effective ways to respond to an opponent’s argument.

NSDA Campus

NSDA campus is a video conference platform made specifically for debate.

National Circuit

The national circuit refers to TOC bid tournaments and generally consists of teams who consistently travel out of state to compete.

National Debate Coaches Association

The National Debate Coaches Association (NDCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing debate education by providing resources, professional development, and a supportive community for debate coaches. It hosts a national championship as well openCaselist.

National Speech & Debate Association

The National Speech and Debate Association is the primary governing body of speech and debate within the United States. They release topics for each event and host NSDA Nationals, which is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year.

Negative

The negative team is against the resolution/topic presented.

Negative Constructive

The negative constructive, or first negative constructive in some events, is when the con team lays out their reasons for negating the resolution.

No-link/De-link

A no-link or de-link refers to a response that challenges the connection between the warrant and the impact. For example, if a team claims that a specific policy will lead to economic growth, a no-link response would argue that there is no clear connection between the policy and economic growth.

Non-unique

A non-unique argument challenges the uniqueness of an opponent’s claim by disputing their description of the current state of affairs. Since uniqueness refers to the baseline condition or status quo, a non-unique argument asserts that this baseline is incorrect or undermines the opponent’s argument. For example, if a team claims that implementing a specific policy will fix the economy, a non-unique response would argue that the economy is already improving on its own, making the proposed policy unnecessary.

Novice

A novice is a person with one or fewer years of debate experience.

Octafinals

Octafinals is for the top 16 teams of a tournament and is the elimination round which directly precedes quarter finals.

Off Case

Off-case positions are arguments read by the negative in constructive that are independent from what the affirmative said in their first constructive.

Offensive Response

Offensive responses generate a reason for the judge to vote for the side making them. They are usually turns.

Out Rounds

Out rounds are the stages of a debate tournament that occur after preliminary rounds. Only the top-performing teams or debaters advance to out rounds, which are single-elimination—meaning once a team loses, they are out of the tournament.

Overview

An Overview refers to a response that addresses the opposing team’s entire argument before tackling specific points. Overviews can be either offensive, like a turn, or defensive, like a no-link. For example, in a debate about regulating cryptocurrency, a defensive overview might argue that companies would simply ignore the regulations, preventing any of the proposed impacts. An offensive overview, on the other hand, might argue that increased regulation would destabilize cryptocurrency rather than make it more secure, directly countering the opponent’s case.

Paradigm

A paradigm is produced by every judge. Within it, they will list out their preferences and anything else they think a debater should know.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is a practice where instead of directly quoting evidence, debaters will put it into their own words. In many regions, and especially in Lincoln Douglas and Policy, paraphrasing is heavily discouraged.

Partial X-finals

Partials occur when a tournament does not have enough qualified teams to fill a complete elimination bracket. For example, if a tournament advances only teams with a 4-2 record to elimination rounds but 40 teams meet that threshold, the tournament might hold a partial double-octafinal where the top 24 teams receive a bye and the remaining 16 compete for the final 8 spots in the octafinals. This allows the bracket to be balanced while still honoring competitive cutoffs.

Policy

Policy (CX) is one of the original debate forms. It is a two-versus-two style and focuses on one topic for the entirety of the year. Policy tends to be the most technical of the three major U.S. debate styles.

Post-fiat

Post-fiat is an argument or impact that happens in the hypothetical world where the resolution is affirmed or negated.

Pre-fiat

Pre-fiat is an argument or impact that results from something happening in the debate round itself. For instance, a more fair debate space is a pre-fiat impact.

Preferences

Judge preferences are used at tournaments to match Judges with rounds. Before the tournament, teams will rank the judges in the pool and then be matched with judges that they and their opponents share a similar ranking. Depending on the tournament there are variations to this model.

Preflow

A preflow is the process of writing down the basic structure of your case on paper or a digital document before the round begins.

Preliminary Round

A preliminary round is an early-round debate in a tournament used to determine rankings, win-loss records, and speaker points before elimination rounds begin. All teams or debaters typically compete in 4-7 prelim rounds regardless of their performance, and the results are used to decide which entries “break” to out rounds.

Prep time

In every debate event debaters are given a certain amount of time to develope argument and talk with their partners. This can be used at any point within speeches.

Prerequisite

A prerequisite is when one impact comes before another. For instance, economic growth is a prerequisite to welfare expansion because we need a strong economy to be able to fund new programs. Interestingly, a lot of prerequisites can work both ways. A team could argue that welfare expansion is necessary to generate a strong economy.

Pro

The pro team supports the resolution.

Probability

Probability is how likely an event is to occur. For instance, nuclear war has a relatively low probability, while a minor cyberattack has a fairly high probability. A word of caution: while the probability of an event is tied to the real world, a debate around an unresponded argument would have an almost 100% chance of happening. So, if a team made an argument that there would be a nuclear war and the other team did not respond to it, the probability would be high.

Progressive Arguments

Progressive arguments are non-topical arguments. These generally consist of the theory and kritiks.

Public Forum

Public Forum (PF) is a popular two-versus-two style of debate. Consisting of a Pro and Con side debaters use evidence and persuasion techniques to vote for their side of the resolution. Compared to other forms of debate, PF is considered to be slower with a higher emphasis on accessibility to the general public.

Reason For Decision

The reason for decision, is why the judge decided to vote for either the affirmative or negative team.

Rebuttal

Rebuttal speeches are used to attack the opponent's main arguments.

Recency

Recency is a weighing mechanism for evidence. If an article was published in 2025 and another was released in 2022 the 2025 one wins on recency.

Resolution

A resolution is another word for a topic. Most topics will begin with the word. For instance, Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase investment in domestic nuclear energy.

Reverse Voting Issue

A reverse voting issue is when a team argues that if the other person loses an argument that should be enough for them to lose the round. This argument is generally made against theory.

Reversibility

Severity can be viewed as the opposite of scope. It’s how much a person or thing was impacted. For instance, one person dying would have a high severity.

Scope

Scope is how many people or things are affected. For example, a million people losing internet access would have a large scope.

Second Affirmative Rebuttal

The second affirmative rebuttal is utilized to rebuild the affirmative and focus on the key arguments in the round.

Severity

Severity can be viewed as the opposite of scope. It’s how much a person or thing was impacted. For instance, one person dying would have a high severity.

Short-circuit

An argument is short-circuited when one impact with a shorter timeframe stops another from happening. For instance, a trade war shortcircuits economic growth because tariffs increase prices.

Silver Bid

Speaker Points

Speaker points are a way to evaluate how well each individual spoke. They are on a scale from 0 to 30, but most judges score between 25 and 30 with 30 reserved for top debaters.