Pool glossary
Break
The opening shot that scatters the rack.
What it means
The break is the first shot on a fresh rack. Most rulesets require it to be legal: the cue ball struck from behind the head string, and either a ball pocketed or a minimum number of balls driven to a cushion.
Where the word comes from
From breaking the triangle apart. The oldest piece of pool vocabulary there is.
How it sounds at a table
"Who's breaking?" "Whoever's up — it's a new rack."
What it means in a three-strikes night
In a rotation game the break rotates with everything else: when the table runs out of balls, whoever is next up racks and breaks. That matters more than it sounds, because a good breaker will often pocket on the break and then have an open table for their free shot, while the person after them inherits whatever is left.
The mistake people make
Letting the same strong player break every rack because they are good at it. Over a long night that is a real advantage, and in a game where everyone paid the same buy-in, people notice.
Terms that come up alongside it
Written out rather than linked only, because looking up one term usually means you are standing at a table and do not want four more taps.
- Dry break
- A break that pockets nothing. A dry break is a legal break shot that fails to pocket a single ball.
- Rack
- Both the triangle and the balls arranged in it. A rack is the frame used to set the balls up, and also the arrangement itself — "a new rack" means a fresh set of fifteen.
- Head string
- The line across the table you break from behind. An imaginary line across the width of the table through the second diamond from the head rail.
- Rotation
- Two meanings: the order of play, and a rule that you hit the lowest ball first. In a multi-player game, the rotation is the running order — who shoots after whom, and how it wraps round.
Where it comes up
Break matters most in three-strikes pool, where a single turn is one shot and the cost of getting something wrong is a life rather than a visit to the table. If you are learning the game, the guide to running a night puts most of this vocabulary in context, and the format pages show which games the term applies to and which it does not.