Prepper Glossary: Survival and Preparedness Terms Explained
Prepping has its own vocabulary, and half of it is acronyms. This glossary defines the terms you will run into on this site, in preparedness forums and in gear reviews, in plain English.
Bags & Kits
Bug Out Bag (BOB)
A single pre-packed bag holding everything you need to be self-sufficient for about 72 hours after leaving home in an emergency: food, water, shelter, first aid, fire and tools. Also called a go bag. See our bug out bags.
Get Home Bag (GHB)
A smaller kit kept in your vehicle or at work, built for the opposite trip of a bug out bag: getting from wherever you are back to your house when normal transport fails. Usually lighter than a full 72-hour kit.
INCH Bag
Stands for "I'm Never Coming Home." A long-term kit built for permanently leaving your home rather than riding out a 72-hour emergency. Heavier and centered on sustainable tools like shelter, food production and repair gear rather than consumables.
72-Hour Kit
Another name for a bug out bag, named for the widely used emergency planning window: three days is how long it typically takes for power, water and road access to be restored or for you to reach help.
EDC (Everyday Carry)
The small set of preparedness items you keep on your person daily: typically a knife or multi-tool, flashlight, lighter and phone battery. See our EDC collection.
IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit)
A compact trauma kit built around stopping severe bleeding: tourniquet, pressure bandage, hemostatic gauze and chest seals. Originally a military term. An IFAK treats life-threatening injuries, while a general first aid kit treats everyday ones. See first aid and trauma.
Gear & Equipment
MOLLE
Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment, pronounced "Molly." The grid of nylon webbing rows on tactical bags and vests that lets you attach standardized pouches and accessories wherever you want them.
Paracord (550 Cord)
Lightweight nylon rope originally used in parachute lines, rated to hold 550 pounds. A survival staple because the outer sheath and seven inner strands can be separated for fishing line, sewing thread, snares or lashings.
Faraday Bag
A pouch lined with conductive material that blocks radio signals from reaching whatever is inside. Preppers use them to protect electronics against EMP and to stop phones, key fobs and credit cards from being tracked or skimmed.
Tourniquet (CAT)
A strap-and-windlass device that stops life-threatening bleeding in an arm or leg by clamping off blood flow. CAT stands for Combat Application Tourniquet, the most widely issued design. Modern trauma care treats a properly applied tourniquet as a first response, not a last resort.
Chest Seal
An adhesive dressing applied over a penetrating chest wound to stop air from being sucked into the chest cavity, which can collapse a lung. A standard component of any IFAK-level trauma kit.
NOAA Weather Radio
A radio that receives the US government's continuous emergency broadcast network, which keeps transmitting local hazard alerts when cell networks and power fail. Emergency radios often add hand cranks and solar panels so they work with no grid at all.
Water Purification vs Filtration
Filtration physically strains out bacteria, protozoa and sediment. Purification also neutralizes viruses, using chemicals, UV light or boiling. Filters handle most North American backcountry water; purification matters when water may be contaminated by sewage or flooding.
Scenarios & Strategy
Prepping
The practice of preparing for emergencies before they happen: storing food and water, building kits, learning skills and making family plans. A prepper is simply someone who does this deliberately.
Bug In
The opposite of bugging out: staying in your home during an emergency because leaving is more dangerous than staying. Most real emergencies are bug-in events, which is why home food, water and power storage matter as much as a go bag.
SHTF
Short for the moment things go seriously wrong, a catch-all for any large-scale disruption: grid failure, natural disaster or civil unrest. Used to describe gear and plans meant for worst-case events rather than everyday inconveniences.
EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse)
A burst of electromagnetic energy, from a solar storm or a high-altitude nuclear detonation, capable of damaging electronics and the power grid over a wide area. The reason preppers store backup electronics in Faraday protection.
Rule of Threes
The survival priority framework: you can survive roughly three minutes without air, three hours without shelter in harsh conditions, three days without water and three weeks without food. It orders what you address first in an emergency, and it is why shelter and water beat food in kit design.
Grey Man
The strategy of blending into a crowd during a crisis by avoiding clothing and gear that mark you as equipped or prepared. The idea is that looking unremarkable makes you less of a target.
Situational Awareness
The habit of continuously reading your environment: exits, hazards, people and changes. In preparedness circles it is treated as the first survival skill because it buys you time before you need any gear at all.
Off-Grid
Operating without public utilities: generating your own power, sourcing your own water and handling your own waste. Applies to both permanent homesteads and temporary emergency operation of a normal home.
Food & Self-Sufficiency
Heirloom Seeds
Open-pollinated seed varieties passed down for generations. Unlike hybrid seeds, plants grown from heirloom seeds produce seeds you can save and replant next season, which makes them the standard for long-term food security. See food growing.
Seed Vault
A sealed, long-storage collection of seed varieties packaged to stay viable for years. Kept as insurance so you can start food production even if you have never gardened before the emergency.
MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat)
A self-contained ration developed for the military: a full meal, often with a flameless heater, that needs no cooking or refrigeration. Common in bug out bags alongside lighter freeze-dried options.
Homesteading
The lifestyle of producing more of what you consume: growing food, raising chickens or bees, storing water and generating power. Overlaps heavily with prepping, but as a permanent way of living rather than an emergency plan. See chicken supplies and home prep.