Plain English
Glossary
Every word this wiki uses that you might not know yet, in one place.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Add-on | The Bedrock Edition equivalent of a mod. Installs as a .mcaddon file and is switched on per world. |
| Bedrock Edition | The Minecraft that runs on phones, tablets, consoles and the Windows Store. Takes add-ons, not mods. |
| Client-side | A mod only you need to install. It changes what you see or hear, so it works on servers that do not have it. |
| Crash log | The text file the game writes when it dies. Lives in .minecraft/crash-reports and usually names the mod that broke. |
| Datapack | Vanilla Minecraft's own way of changing rules with data files instead of code. Some things, like 1.21 enchantments, are datapacks even inside a mod. |
| Fabric API | A helper mod that nearly every Fabric mod needs. Install it alongside them. |
| Jar | The .jar file that is the mod itself. Goes in the mods folder, unopened. |
| Java Edition | The PC Minecraft that supports mods. What most of this site is about. |
| Loader | Forge, NeoForge or Fabric. A small program that makes Minecraft able to read mods at all. |
| Mixin | A technique mods use to reach inside vanilla code and change it. You never touch these; they just explain why two mods sometimes fight. |
| Mods folder | The folder inside .minecraft where jars go. Created the first time you run a loader. |
| NBT | The format Minecraft stores save data in. Mods write into it, which is why removing a mod can break a world. |
| Server-side | A mod only the server needs. Players join normally without installing anything. |
| Tick | One step of the game clock. Minecraft runs 20 ticks per second, so 60 ticks means three seconds. |
| Vanilla | Unmodded Minecraft, exactly as Mojang ships it. |
| Worldgen | World generation: the code that decides where terrain, caves and structures appear. |