Model United Nations has its own vocabulary. Most of it is learned in the first hour of a conference, and none of it is difficult once someone has said it out loud.
These are the words you meet first. The full list of terms lives in the Dictionary in MediBook, which is searchable and covers far more than this page.
SCREENSHOT: /medibook/dictionary - the Dictionary open with the search box and a term expanded
Delegate. A student representing a country in a committee.
Delegation. All the delegates representing one country. Also used for the group of delegates a single school sends.
Double delegation. Two delegates sharing one country's seat in the same committee, speaking in the same slot and casting one vote between them. Some conferences work this way, and THIMUN does it in some of its forums. MEDIMUN does not. In a MEDIMUN committee, one delegate represents one country.
Chair. A student who runs a committee. Chairs recognise speakers, rule on points, and run the votes.
Student Officer. A student who runs part of the conference. The Secretariat, the chairs and the department managers are Student Officers.
School director. The teacher leading a school's delegation.
Main submitter. The delegate who puts a resolution forward. They speak first on it.
Co-submitter. A delegate who backs a resolution and puts their name to it.
See Who is who at a conference for the full list of roles.
Committee. The room you are assigned to, and the delegates in it.
Forum. Another word for a committee or a body. You will hear it in "refer this resolution to another forum".
General Assembly. The large committees. Every delegate in one represents a country.
Security Council. A small committee of 15 members. Five of them are permanent members with a veto. It debates clause by clause rather than resolution by resolution.
Special Committee. A committee that follows a procedure close to the Security Council. Delegates usually represent bodies rather than countries.
Plenary Session. A session where the delegates of the General Assembly committees leave their own rooms and come together in one room to debate there.
The house. Everyone in the committee room. A chair addresses the house, not one delegate.
The floor. The right to speak. A delegate who has been recognised has the floor.
Lobbying. The part of the conference where delegates find allies, share ideas, and merge their drafts into shared resolutions. It is the most important part of a conference.
Alliance. A group of delegates working on one resolution together.
Position paper. A short written statement of the position a delegate's country takes on a topic.
Research report. A document written by the chairs about one of the committee's topics, for delegates to prepare from.
Open debate. The normal mode. Delegates speak for and against in whatever order the chair recognises them.
Closed debate. The mode used for amendments. Speaking time is split into time in favour and time against.
Reading time. Time the chair gives the room to read a text before debating it, and to prepare questions and amendments.
Debate time. The time the chair sets for debate on a text.
Recognise. When the chair calls on a delegate to speak or to state a point.
Placard. The card with a country's name on it. You raise it to be recognised, and you keep it down until the chair asks for it.
Point. A short intervention from a delegate that is not a speech. There are five kinds. A point of information to the speaker, a point of information to the chair, a point of parliamentary inquiry, a point of order, and a point of personal privilege. See Points.
Yield. To hand the floor on. A delegate yields the floor to the chair, or to another delegation.
Motion. A formal proposal about how the debate should proceed, such as closing debate or extending the time. See Motions.
Second. Another delegate backing a motion so it can be considered. Some motions need one.
Out of order. Not allowed under the rules at that moment.
Recess. A short pause in the meeting.
Delegates often say "motion to move directly into voting procedures". The correct wording is "motion to move to the previous question". Chairs will correct it.
Resolution. The written text a committee debates and votes on.
Preambulatory clause. A clause setting out the background. It says why the problem matters and what has been done already.
Operative clause. A clause saying what should happen. These are the actions the committee is asking for.
Sub-clause. A clause indented under an operative clause. A list of sub-clauses needs at least two items, never exactly one.
Amendment. A proposed change to the resolution being debated. An amendment of the first degree changes the resolution. An amendment of the second degree changes an amendment. See Amendments.
Plagiarism. Presenting somebody else's ideas, words or work as your own. It is not accepted, and it includes rephrasing something found online. See Plagiarism.
In favour, against, abstain. The three ways to vote on a resolution. Abstaining means taking no side.
Present and voting. A delegate who answered "present and voting" at roll call may vote in favour or against, and cannot abstain.
Quorum. The number of delegations that must be present for the meeting to proceed, and for a decision to be taken. See Quorum.
Divide the house. A motion, moved after a vote, that removes abstentions and makes every delegate vote in favour or against.
Simple majority. More votes in favour than against.
Veto. The power a permanent member of the Security Council holds to block a resolution.
Adopted. A resolution that passed.
Failed. A resolution that did not pass. A tied vote fails.
As a bloc. Voted on together as one item rather than one by one.
All delegations have full voting rights. That includes non-member delegations such as non-governmental organisations and United Nations organs. They vote on amendments and on resolutions like everyone else.
In the plenary session. Every delegate representing the same country sits together and speaks as one delegate. The country has one vote, whoever casts it.
Clapping is only in order when a resolution as a whole passes. Not after an amendment, and not when a resolution fails.
In MEDIMUN, you will also meet these. Session. One conference year, from applications through to certificates. MediBook. MEDIMUN's platform. Applications, position papers, resolutions, roll calls, debate, voting, messaging and certificates all run through it. The Approval Panel. The department that does the editorial pass on resolutions after the chairs have checked them. The morning register. The QR code scan that records you as present at the start of each conference day. Mai. The assistant built into MediBook.
If you are unsure. Search the Dictionary in MediBook for any word that is not on this page. It covers both general MUN terms and MEDIMUN's own. See The Dictionary.