A Glossary of Fencing Terms for Beginners

Fencing terms are mostly French: “en garde” means “on guard”, the piste is the strip you fence on, and a “touche” is a valid hit. This glossary explains the words you will hear in your first weeks, grouped by basics, actions, rules and people, so you can focus on footwork instead of feeling lost.

Walk into a first lesson and the stream of French-sounding words can feel like a foreign language. It is never too late to learn them, and a trial lesson at Fencing Masters in Singapore is a low-pressure way to hear them in use.

What are the basic fencing terms?

• Piste: the narrow strip, roughly 14 metres long, on which a bout takes place.
• Salle: the fencing hall or club where lessons and bouts are held.
• Foil: a light thrusting weapon with a flexible blade; hits count only on the torso, from the collar to the groin line, front and back, excluding the arms.
• Épée: a heavier thrusting weapon where the entire body is a valid target.
• Sabre: a cutting and thrusting weapon where hits count above the waist, including the arms and head. For all three at once, see fencing swords explained.
• Mask: the protective wire mesh helmet every fencer wears.
• Bout: a single fencing match between two fencers.
• En garde: the ready stance fencers take before an action begins, and also the referee’s call to assume it.
• Prêts?: “ready?”, the referee’s check that both fencers are set, said after “en garde”.
• Allez: “go”, the referee’s command to start fencing, often given in English as “Fence!”.
• Halte: “stop”, the referee’s command to stop the action, for example after a touch.
• Pas de touche: “no touch”, the referee’s call when nothing is scored.
• On guard line: the line on the piste where each fencer stands in the en garde position.

Choosing a weapon is one of the first decisions a new fencer makes, and each one suits a slightly different temperament. Our guide to the three weapons breaks down foil, épée and sabre in more depth if you want to compare them before your trial, and which fencing weapon should a beginner start with offers a more practical starting point.

What are the common fencing actions?

• Advance: a forward step used to close distance with your opponent.
• Retreat: a backward step used to open distance or avoid an attack.
• Lunge: the classic fencing attack, a long forward step that extends the sword arm toward the target.
• Flèche: a running attack in which the fencer leaps past the opponent, used mainly in foil and épée.
• Parry: a defensive action that blocks or deflects the opponent’s blade.
• Riposte: the attack made immediately after a successful parry.
• Remise: a simple continuation of the attack, replacing the point on target after a parry or miss, before the opponent ripostes.
• Feint: a fake attack meant to draw a reaction before the real attack lands.
• Beat: a sharp tap on the opponent’s blade to provoke a reaction or open a line.
• Disengage: passing the point under or around the opponent’s blade to the opposite line, to avoid their parry.

What do the scoring and rules terms mean?

• Right of way: the rule in foil and sabre that decides which fencer’s attack counts when both land at the same time.
• Priority: another term for right of way, referring to who has the “right” to attack at that moment.
• Touche: French for “touch,” called out (or signalled electronically) when a valid hit lands.
• Target area: the part of the body where a hit counts as a valid touch, which differs by weapon.
• Off target: a hit that lands outside the valid target area and does not score, used mainly in foil.
• Double touch: when both fencers land a valid hit in the same action, common in épée where both can score.
• Corps a corps: body contact between fencers. In foil and sabre the referee halts the bout; in épée it is allowed unless it is violent or used to avoid being hit.

People and Places

• Referee: the official who applies the rules, awards touches and keeps the bout moving safely.
• Director: another name for the referee, used mainly in American fencing.
• Armourer: the technician who checks and repairs weapons and electrical scoring equipment.
• Coach: the person guiding technique, tactics and match preparation, ideally a registered coach.
• FIE: the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime, the international fencing federation, which sets the rules used at the Olympics and international events and runs the world rankings. Our article on what the FIE is explains its role.
• Fencing Singapore: the national governing body for fencing in Singapore, also called the sport’s National Sports Association (NSA), established in 1965 and formerly known as the Amateur Fencing Association of Singapore. Fencing Masters is an affiliate.
• FencingTimeLive: a results website many tournaments use to publish pools, the elimination table and final results as they happen; check whether your event uses it.

Learning this vocabulary is part of what makes fencing so rewarding as a sport. Beyond the words, fencing builds sharp reflexes, discipline and strategic thinking in a way few other activities do, and it welcomes complete beginners at almost any age.

Fencing Around the Region

Wherever you fence, competition referees use the same French commands (“en garde”, “prêts”, “allez”, “halte”). What changes from country to country is the name of the sport itself, and in Chinese, the names of the weapons.

In Southeast Asia:

Country or territory	Fencing is called	Notes
Singapore	Fencing; lawan pedang (Malay); 击剑 (jījiàn, Chinese); வாள்வீச்சு (vaal veechu, Tamil)	The sport in each of Singapore’s official languages
Malaysia	Lawan pedang	Malay for “sword fighting”
Indonesia	Anggar
Thailand	ฟันดาบสากล (fan dap sakon)	“International sword fighting”, to set it apart from traditional Thai swordsmanship
Vietnam	Đấu kiếm	”Sword fighting”
Philippines	Fencing	Not the same as eskrima (arnis), the Filipino martial art, though both names come from the Spanish esgrima
Timor-Leste	Esgrima	Portuguese

Across the rest of Asia:

Country or territory	Fencing is called	Notes
Mainland China	击剑 (jījiàn)	“Striking sword”
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau	擊劍 (jíjiàn in Mandarin, gik gim in Cantonese)	The same word in traditional characters; esgrima in Portuguese in Macau
Japan	フェンシング (fenshingu)	Borrowed from English
Korea	펜싱 (pensing)	Borrowed from English
India	तलवारबाज़ी (talwarbazi, Hindi); வாள்வீச்சு (vaal veechu, Tamil)	“Swordplay”
Pakistan	شمشیر زنی (shamsheer zani, Urdu)	“Sword wielding”
Iran	شمشیربازی (shamshirbazi)	Persian for “swordplay”
Arabic-speaking countries	المبارزة (al-mubaraza)	“Duelling”, in full المبارزة بالسيف (al-mubaraza bil-sayf), “duelling with the sword”
Israel	סיוף (siyuf)
Turkey	Eskrim
Kazakhstan and Central Asia	Фехтование (fekhtovanie)	The Russian word, widely used in the region

The three weapons have their own Chinese names, and Taiwan uses different ones from the mainland:

Weapon	Mainland China	Taiwan	Hong Kong (Cantonese)
Foil	花剑 (huājiàn)	鈍劍 (dùnjiàn)	花劍 (faa gim)
Épée	重剑 (zhòngjiàn)	銳劍 (ruìjiàn)	重劍 (zung gim)
Sabre	佩剑 (pèijiàn)	軍刀 (jūndāo)	佩劍 (pui gim)

Learning Terms on the Piste

Picking up terms from videos only gets you so far. Understanding right of way, for instance, is far easier when a coach explains it live on the piste and shows you why an attack was awarded rather than a counter. Our guides to right of way in fencing and how fencing scoring works cover the ground first. Learning at an established club helps here. Fencing Masters has taught fencing in Singapore since 1995, and its coaches explain each term as it comes up.

Private lessons start from age 3 and group classes from age 7, and you can try the sport before deciding to commit. We lend the mask, jacket and blade once you join, for the first 8 lessons in a group class, on a membership of 8 weeks or longer (on a 4-week membership, the loan covers those 4 weeks), or for the first 10 lessons in private coaching with a 10-lesson pack (the first 5 with a 5-lesson pack or single lessons).

From Vocabulary to the Piste

Reading a glossary is one thing, feeling en garde and the lunge in your own body is another. The best way to make this vocabulary click is to step onto the piste yourself. To find out what en garde really feels like, request a trial and let a coach show you.