Crest Lantern

Coat of arms & monogram maker

Heraldry glossary

The language of coats of arms in plain English: tinctures, divisions, ordinaries, charges, positions and the parts of a full achievement.

Tinctures

Tincture
The general word for the colours, metals and furs of heraldry. Arms are described in tinctures, not exact shades: any clear yellow or gold paint counts as Or.
Metal
The two light tinctures, Or and Argent. Under the rule of tincture a metal is normally set on a colour, or a colour on a metal.
Colour
The darker tinctures: Gules, Azure, Vert, Sable and Purpure. A few rarer ones, such as Tenné (orange-brown) and Sanguine (blood red), are sometimes called stains.
Fur
A tincture imitating animal pelts, chiefly ermine and vair. Furs may lie next to metals or colours without breaking the rule of tincture.
Or
Gold, painted yellow or gold. The name is the French word for gold.
Argent
Silver, nearly always painted white, because silver paint tarnishes to grey.
Gules
Red.
Azure
Blue. Heraldry has no fixed shade: a mid blue is usual.
Vert
Green.
Sable
Black.
Purpure
Purple, less common in early arms than the other colours.
Ermine
White strewn with black ermine tails, after the winter coat of the stoat. Variants change the colours: ermines is black with white tails, erminois gold with black.
Vair
Rows of small bell-shaped pieces, blue and white unless stated otherwise, standing for squirrel pelts sewn together.
Proper
In its natural colours, such as a tree with a brown trunk and green leaves.
Rule of tincture
The custom that metal is not put on metal, nor colour on colour, so arms stay clear at a distance. Furs and things shown proper are exempt, and an ordinary may cross a field divided of a metal and a colour.
Hatching
Lines and dots standing for tinctures in black-and-white drawings: dots for Or, plain for Argent, vertical lines for Gules, horizontal lines for Azure. The usual system is credited to the Jesuit Silvester Petra Sancta, who published it in 1638.

Dividing the field

Field
The background of the shield, always named first in a blazon.
Party
Divided, as in party per pale. Most blazons drop the word and say just per pale. The first tincture named takes the upper or dexter part.
Per pale
Divided in two by a vertical line down the middle.
Per fess
Divided in two by a horizontal line across the middle.
Per bend
Divided by a diagonal line from dexter chief (top left as you look at it) to sinister base.
Per bend sinister
Divided by a diagonal line from sinister chief to dexter base.
Per chevron
Divided by a line shaped like an upside-down V.
Per saltire
Divided by two diagonal lines crossing at the centre into four triangles. The first tincture fills the top and bottom ones.
Quarterly
Divided into four by a vertical and a horizontal line, the first tincture in the first (top left) and fourth quarters. The word is also used for a shield combining several coats of arms.
Paly
Divided into an even number of vertical stripes, as paly of six.
Barry
Divided into an even number of horizontal stripes, as barry of eight. Unlike bars, the stripes are part of the field, not charges on it.
Bendy
Divided into diagonal stripes running the way of a bend.
Chequy
Divided into a chequerboard of small squares, normally at least three rows of them.
Gyronny
Divided into wedge-shaped pieces (gyrons) meeting at the centre, usually eight.
Semé
Scattered all over with small charges, as semé of fleurs-de-lis. Some have their own words: bezanty (with bezants), billetty (with billets).

Ordinaries

Ordinary
One of the simple bold bands that are among the oldest charges: the chief, fess, pale, bend, chevron, cross, saltire and a few others.
Chief
A band across the top of the shield. Blazons name it after the other charges: “three mullets, a chief Or”.
Fess
A horizontal band across the middle of the shield.
Bar
A narrower fess, normally used in twos or threes.
Pale
A vertical band down the middle of the shield.
Bend
A diagonal band from dexter chief to sinister base. A narrow bend is a bendlet. Charges on a bend are tilted to follow it.
Bend sinister
A bend running the other way, from sinister chief to dexter base.
Chevron
A band shaped like an upside-down V, like the gable of a roof. A narrow one is a chevronel.
Cross
A vertical and a horizontal band meeting at the centre and reaching the edges. Crosses with shaped or shortened arms are charges in their own right.
Saltire
A diagonal cross, shaped like an X.
Pall
A Y-shaped band from the two upper corners to the centre and down to the base. Also called a pairle.
Pile
A wedge coming down from the top edge to a point near the base.
Bordure
A border round the edge of the shield, often added to tell apart the arms of related people, especially in Scotland.
Canton
A square in the dexter chief corner, smaller than a quarter.
Orle
A narrow border set in from the edge, so the field shows on both sides of it.
Inescutcheon
A small shield placed on a larger one as a charge.

Charges

Charge
Anything placed on the field: ordinaries, geometric shapes, animals, plants or objects.
Mullet
A star of five straight-sided points. The word comes from the French for the rowel of a spur; a mullet pierced has a round hole in the middle.
Mullet of six points
A mullet with six points instead of five.
Estoile
A star with wavy rays, usually six, told apart from the straight-sided mullet.
Crescent
A half moon with its horns pointing up, unless the blazon says otherwise.
Roundel
A flat disc. English blazon names roundels by tincture: bezant (Or), plate (Argent), torteau (Gules), hurt (Azure), pomme (Vert), pellet (Sable), golpe (Purpure).
Bezant
A gold roundel, named after the gold coin of Byzantium.
Plate
A silver roundel.
Torteau
A red roundel; the plural is torteaux.
Hurt
A blue roundel.
Pellet
A black roundel, also called an ogress or gunstone.
Annulet
A plain ring.
Lozenge
A diamond shape standing on one point. A lozenge-shaped shield has traditionally carried the arms of women in English heraldry.
Mascle
A lozenge with a lozenge-shaped hole through it.
Fusil
A long, narrow lozenge.
Billet
An upright oblong.
Cross couped
A cross with its arms cut short so they do not reach the edges. Couped means cut off straight.
Cross pattée
A cross whose arms widen towards their ends, also called a cross formy.
Cross crosslet
A cross with each arm crossed again near its end. With a pointed foot it is a cross crosslet fitchy.
Fleur-de-lis
A stylised lily of three petals bound by a band, long linked with the royal arms of France. The plural is fleurs-de-lis.
Tower
A single tower, usually with battlements. A castle is drawn as two or more towers joined by a wall.
Key
Usually shown upright with the wards (the toothed end) at the bottom. Two keys crossed in saltire are an emblem of Saint Peter.
Heart
The familiar heart shape, usually Gules.
Escallop
A scallop shell, usually seen from the outside with its hinge at the top; a badge of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela.
Lion rampant
A lion standing on one hind leg with the others raised, as if to strike: the most common animal charge.
Eagle displayed
An eagle seen from the front with its wings and legs spread.

Position and arrangement

Dexter
The shield's own right side, which is your left as you look at it. Heraldry describes the shield as if you were holding it.
Sinister
The shield's own left side, your right as you look at it.
In chief
In the top part of the shield.
Base
The bottom part of the shield; in base means placed there.
Fess point
The centre point of the shield.
Honour point
The point halfway between the fess point and the top of the shield.
In pale
Set one above another in a vertical line.
In fess
Set side by side in a horizontal line.
In bend
Set in a diagonal line, the way a bend runs. A single charge tilted that way is bendwise.
Two and one
The usual arrangement of three charges, two above and one below. Blazons leave it unsaid.
In saltire
Set in the form of an X; five charges in saltire put one in each corner and one in the middle.
Between
Set in the spaces around an ordinary, as in “a chevron between three mullets”.
Charged
Carrying a charge: “a bend charged with three mullets” means the same as “on a bend three mullets”.
Erased
Torn off roughly, leaving a ragged edge; said of animals' heads and limbs. The opposite of couped.
Rampant
Of a beast: rearing on one hind leg, forepaws raised, facing dexter.
Passant
Of a beast: walking towards dexter with one forepaw raised.
Displayed
Of a bird: shown from the front with the wings spread.
Addorsed
Back to back.
Respectant
Face to face; for beasts of prey shown rearing, the word is combatant.

The full achievement

Achievement
The full display of arms: the shield with helm, crest, mantling, motto and, where they have been granted, supporters.
Escutcheon
Another word for the shield on which arms are displayed.
Crest
The figure on top of the helm, once a real ornament worn at tournaments. It is only one part of the arms, although “family crest” is often used loosely for the whole design.
Helm
The helmet above the shield. In British heraldry its style shows the rank of the bearer.
Mantling
The cloth hanging from the helm, drawn as decorative leaves and usually in the main colour and metal of the arms.
Torse
The twisted band of cloth where the crest meets the helm, usually shown with six twists alternately metal and colour. Also called the wreath.
Motto
A word or phrase on a scroll, usually below the shield in English heraldry and above the crest in Scottish heraldry.
Supporters
Figures standing either side of the shield and holding it up, granted only to certain people and bodies.
Compartment
The ground or base on which the supporters stand.
Coronet
A small crown showing rank, placed above the shield of a peer in British heraldry.

Blazon and the law of arms

Blazon
The formal written description of arms, exact enough for an artist to draw them: the field first, then the main charge, then the others.
Emblazon
To draw or paint arms from their blazon. Two artists' drawings of one blazon can look quite different and both be correct.
Trick
A quick outline sketch of arms with the tinctures written in as abbreviations, the way heralds once recorded them.
Armiger
A person entitled to bear arms.
Grant of arms
The formal document by which a heraldic authority gives arms to a person or organisation.
College of Arms
The heraldic authority for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, incorporated by royal charter in 1484. Its Kings of Arms make new grants.
Court of the Lord Lyon
Scotland's heraldic authority, headed by the Lord Lyon King of Arms.
Family coat of arms
In British heraldry arms belong to one person and pass to their descendants, so the College of Arms says there is no such thing as a coat of arms for a surname.
Difference
Any change that tells one person's arms apart from a relative's, such as a different bordure or a small added charge.
Cadency
Small marks showing which son of a family bears the arms, such as the label for an eldest son.
Label
A narrow band across the top of the shield with (usually three) short pendants hanging from it, the cadency mark of an eldest son.
Marshalling
Combining two or more coats of arms on one shield, to show a marriage, an office or an inheritance.
Impalement
Marshalling two coats side by side on a shield divided per pale, as for a husband (dexter) and wife (sinister).
Quartering
Showing several inherited coats of arms in the divisions of one shield, counted from the top left.

Reading the glossary

Terms are grouped the way a blazon is built: first the tinctures, then how the field is divided, the ordinaries, the charges, where things are placed, the parts of a full achievement, and finally the language and law of arms. The search looks through both terms and definitions, so “red” finds Gules and “left” finds dexter and sinister. Each term name is also a link, so you can share an address that opens the glossary at that term.

The small pictures are drawn by the same code as the coat of arms designer, so what you read here is what you can build there. A divided field is shown in Or and Azure, an ordinary in Or on Azure.

Many words come from the Anglo-Norman French spoken by medieval heralds, which is why the tinctures sound French and why adjectives follow nouns in a blazon: “a lion rampant”, “three mullets Argent”. Definitions follow A. C. Fox-Davies and James Parker, whose books are free to read online.

Sources

Questions

Why is dexter on the left?

Because heraldry describes the shield from behind, as the person carrying it sees it. Their right hand side is dexter, which is your left as you face them.

Is every heraldic term here?

No: it covers the words you meet most often. Parker's glossary has thousands more, many with pictures.

Do I have to blazon in this style?

No. Blazon conventions vary between countries and periods; the forms here are common modern English usage.