- Adjudicator: Also known as the ‘judge’, an adjudicator is an impartial observer who watches the debate and decides which team has won based on the criteria set out by the format of the debate. There can be one or more adjudicators in every debate.
- Break: To ‘break’ is to advance to the elimination rounds at a competition. Teams that advance to the elimination rounds are known as ‘breaking’ teams. This is decided by a combination of i) number of rounds won and ii) total speaker scores across all rounds.
- British Parliamentary (BP): An impromptu debating format involving four teams of two speakers each. Find out more in our guide to BP.
- Chair: Where there is more than one adjudicator assigned to a round (see ‘Panel’), the chair is the adjudicator assigned to facilitate the discussion, call a vote if necessary, and serve as the tie-break if there is an even number of adjudicators assigned to the room.
- Chief Adjudicator (CA): The Chief Adjudicator of each competition is responsible for setting motions, allocating judges, and evaluating judges for the break to elimination rounds.
- Draw: This refers to the match-ups for each round in a debating competition, and includes information about i) the room used for the debate, ii) the teams and their positions in the debate, and iii) the judges assigned to the debate. A sample draw from a schools tournament can be seen below:
- In-round: The preliminary rounds of a competition.
- Motion: This is the topic for the debate. Motions typically start with the phrasing ‘This House’, where ‘This House’ refers to a neutral observer. An example of a motion is ‘This House Believes That schools should not require uniforms’.
- OG / OO / CG / CO: Opening Government, Opening Opposition, Closing Government, and Closing Opposition; these are the four team positions in the British Parliamentary Format.
- Out-round: The elimination rounds of a competition.
- Panel: When there is more than one adjudicator per debate, the adjudicators are collectively known as the adjudication panel. The panel is led by a ‘Chair’, and other adjudicators on the panel are known as ‘panelists’.
- Point of Information (POI): This is a short question or statement offered to the speaker during their speech by the opposing side, which the speaker may choose to accept or decline. Typically, this is done between the first minute and the penultimate minute of the speech.
- Prep time: This refers to the amount of time debaters are given to prepare after the motion has been announced.
- Tab: The system used by tournament organisers to calculate and display match-ups ahead of each round. Tournament organisers typically send out the link to access the tab ahead of each event. A tab from a previous schools tournament can be found here: https://uclwintercup2025.calicotab.com/_/
- THW / THBT / THS / THO: This House Would, This House Believes That, This House Supports, and This House Opposes. These are the most common motion types used at the school level.
- World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC): An annual competition held in the World Schools format. Each country is allowed to field one national team consisting of three to five school-age debaters. Find out more about the English Schools Debating Team.
Debate England 