Knot & Rope Terminology

Terminology for ropes and knots is confusing. Knots are divided into broad categories such as hitches and bends. If you are trying to learn what we have presented here then you may be perfectly happy to call them all knots. However, the correct terminology is useful and worth learning.

Jump directly to Boating Terms, Climbing Terms or Fishing Terms.

General Knot & Rope Terms

• Bend: Joins two ropes or fishing lines, e.g., Sheet Bend, Alpine Butterfly Bend, Figure 8 Bend, Ashley Bend, Hunter’s Bend, Zeppelin Bend.
• Bight: Made by folding a piece of rope so that the two parts lie alongside each other. When tied near the rope’s end, the parts will be the Tail lying beside the Standing End. A bight can be used to finish many knots – making them easy to untie by just pulling the tail. The term “Bight” does not imply a “Loop” and does not mean the same.
• Bitter End: Derived from the “Bitts” – the stout metal posts used for attaching mooring ropes – it is applied to the tail end of a mooring line.
• Breaking Strength: The theoretical strength of a rope – derived by averaging many tests of a rope tested under optimal conditions, i.e., when stretched slowly while wound many times round a smooth, large diameter drum. The theoretical breaking strength is rarely (if ever) achieved in practice despite claims made by enthusiastic knot proponents.
• Dressing a Knot: Arranging the components of the knot to optimize security and/or strength.
• Fake (or Flake) a Rope: Lay a rope out neatly on the deck in a Zig-Zag Pattern ready for easy use. Both Fake and Flake are in widespread use. People using Flake tend to reject Fake and vice-versa. History and literature support both names. “Flaking” a rope could have entered common use because of the generally accepted “Flaking” a sail.
• Flake a Sail: Fold a sail back and forth in neat layers for storage. This prolongs the life of the sail and facilitates raising the sail later. (Photo used with permission of Michael Harpur from the Eoceanic website).
• Frapping Turns: Additional turns added in another axis to bind a Lashing or a Sailmaker’s Whipping.
• Hitch: Attaches a rope to something, e.g., a Hitching Post, dock pole, mooring buoy, anchor, or cleat. Such knots include the Rolling Hitch, Cleat Hitch, Buntline Hitch, Icicle Hitch, Distel Hitch, and Lighterman’s Hitch, and Midshipman’s Hitch.
• Hollow Braid: A loosely woven single-braid rope which can be spliced using a Brummel or a Long Bury technique.
• Kernmantle: A type of rope construction with a Kern (interior core) protected by a Mantle (woven exterior sheath) – a design that achieves abrasion resistance and strength.
• Lay: The direction in which the strands of a rope twist. As the strands progress away from the viewer, if they rotate clockwise like a right hand thread, it is a Right Hand Lay or Z-Twist – typically used for most three-strand rope. Steel cables are usually laid with a Left Hand Lay or S-Twist – hence the term Cable Laid, which is used when rope has a Left Hand Lay. If you have become accustomed to splicing three-stranded rope, splicing a piece of cabled-laid rope feels very awkward.
• Loop: Made when a rope forms a partial circle with the ends crossing each other.
• Racking Turns: Lashing turns which pass between poles to bind against the pole better. They are used in Tripod Lashings.
• Round Turn: Two passes of a rope round an object – to completely encircle it.
• Slipped: A knot is Slipped when it is completed using a loop or loops. The best known example is the Bow, a slipped version of the Square Knot. Many of the knots described can be slipped. Using a loop makes them less secure – think of shoelaces – but they are released more easily.
• Solid Braid: A tightly woven single-braid rope which cannot be spliced using a Brummel or a Long Bury technique.
• Splice: A knot made using the strands of a rope rather than the whole rope – stronger than ordinary knots and intended to be permanent.
• Standing End: The long end – the part not knotted. The standing part lies between the standing end and the knot.
• Stopper Knot: A knot in the end of a rope – used to prevent fraying or to prevent the end passing through a hole.
• Strands: The major components of a rope – three in a three-strand rope. Each “Strand” is made up of many separate fibers.
• Tail: The short end – the part getting knotted – see Working End
• Turn: One pass of the rope round or through an object.
• Whipping: A binding knot used to prevent a rope’s end fraying.
• Working End: The short end – the part doing the knotting.