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Darts Glossary
The words you'll hear around a dartboard — the scoring terms, the slang and the traditions — explained in plain English.
Put them into practice →
Darts has a language all its own. Here are the terms that come up most, from the ones you'll use every leg to the old pub slang worth knowing.
- 180
- The maximum three-dart score — three treble 20s. Announced with the traditional bellowed "one hundred and eighty!"
- Arrows
- Slang for the darts themselves — and, loosely, the game ("a game of arrows").
- Bag of nuts
- A score of 45 with three darts.
- Bed
- A specific segment of the board — the "treble 20 bed" is the treble-20 area.
- Bogey number
- A score that has no three-dart finish: 169, 168, 166, 165, 163, 162 and 159.
- Bounce-out
- A dart that hits a wire and falls out without scoring.
- Break of throw
- Winning a leg in which your opponent threw first — the equivalent of a service break in tennis.
- Bull / Bullseye
- The centre of the board: outer bull (green) scores 25, inner bull (red) scores 50 and counts as a double.
- Bull-up (cork)
- Throwing at the bull to decide who starts — closest to the middle throws first.
- Bust
- Scoring more than you need, landing on 1, or reaching zero without a double — the turn scores nothing.
- Checkout
- The darts that take you from your remaining score to exactly zero on a double. See the checkout chart.
- Double
- The thin outer ring — scores twice the number and is required to finish a leg.
- Double in
- A rule (common in 301) where scoring only starts once you hit a double.
- Double out
- The standard finishing rule — the last dart must land in a double or the bull.
- Double top
- Double 20 (40) — the most popular double to finish on.
- Fish / Big fish
- The 170 checkout (T20 T20 Bull), the highest possible finish.
- Chalker
- The person who keeps score at the board — from the days of chalk-and-blackboard scoring. PowerDarts League is your automatic chalker.
- Game shot
- The call when a player hits the winning double: "game shot, and the leg."
- Leg
- A single game from the starting score down to zero.
- Madhouse
- Double 1 (a finish of 2) — the smallest, most feared double.
- Maximum
- Another name for a 180.
- Nine-darter
- A perfect leg of 501 finished in the minimum nine darts — darts' equivalent of a 147 break or a hole-in-one.
- Oche
- The throw line you stand behind, 2.37 m from the board. Pronounced "ock-ey".
- Robin Hood
- A dart that sticks into the flight of a dart already in the board. It doesn't score.
- Set
- A group of legs — in longer matches you win a set by winning a set number of legs.
- Shanghai
- Hitting the single, double and treble of the same number in one turn.
- Splitting the 11
- Aiming between the two halves of the 11 — old slang for a very wayward throw.
- Straight out
- A relaxed finishing rule where any dart to zero wins, no double required.
- Three-dart average
- A player's average points per three darts — the headline measure of scoring form.
- Ton
- A score of 100. "Ton-40" is 140; "ton-eighty" is the 180.
- Treble / Triple
- The thin inner ring — scores three times the number. Treble 20 (60) is the top single-dart score.
- Wire / spider
- The metal frame dividing the board's segments.
Learn the game by playing it — PowerDarts League scores your 501 and 301 legs, tracks your 180s and averages, and calls the checkouts for you.
Start free →Keep reading
Rules of 501 & 301 · Checkout chart · Board setup · FAQ