Glossary

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We use a lot of terminology that may be confusing to those outside of the plural community however, whether you're a singlet or not taking a look at our terminology will be helpful as you read through our site! There will be a mixture of Psychiatric (medical), Community, and personal terms and each will have a section below with links and/or explanations!

These terms are by no means the entirety of the terms used by the plural community, If you want a Glossary for even more plural terms look no further than Pluralpedia!

This list may be updated often as we learn more about how our collective works, and find more terms that apply to us, however we won't list every single term here or this page would be far too long. If terms apply and are on this site but not listed here, they will be explained wherever they are listed (i.e specific Headspace terms under the Headspace site)

Psychiatric Terms

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These terms are used in the medical establishment and in psychiatric theories.

DID & OSDD- These are diagnosis that some systems have. Not all systems will have a diagnosis as not all systems are Disordered. It's also important to note that people can be diagnosed with OSDD without being a system.
UDD- When someone with a dissociative disorder doesn't fit into the DID or OSDD categories.
System- a collection of entities that share a single physical body. Collective and Plural are both synonyms.
Alter- Members of a DID or OSDD-1 system; this is the psychiatric term for system members. Not used by systems that aren't disordered.
Headspace/Innerworld- For systems that have one; a headspace (also known as wonderland or Innerworld) is a place that members of a system can visit or inhabit, where they can talk to other headmates. Not exclusive to Systems as Singlets may have one too.
Host- This is the member(s) who are in charge of daily life in the shared reality (outside of the headspace). There can be more than one (often called Co-Hosts) or even none.
Fronting- When a headmate is in control of the body.
Co-Fronting- When more than one member of a system is controlling the body at the same time. Sometimes shortened to Co or CO-front.
Co-Conscious- When more than one member of a system is aware of the shared reality at the same time or is otherwise conscious. Sometimes shortened to Co or Co-Con.
Dissociation- Dissociation exists on a large spectrum, from simply zoning out due to loud noises to losing days at a time
Derealization- Derealization is a type of dissociation that includes feelings of being detached from the world or things around oneself, or a foggy or distorted world
Depersonalization- descirbes either A) feeling that they are observing themselves from outside their body such as in third person or B) has the sense that things around them aren't real such as if they were dreaming
Blurring/Blending- A state in which multiple system members are fronting, but it's difficult to tell who's who and where the lines between system members are.
Fusion- This can be temporary or permanent.
Integration- In the past Integration and Fusion meant the same thing but they have been seperated although you may still hear systems using them both for the same definition that belongs to Fusion.
Splitting- A way that new headmates can form.

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Community Terms

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These terms are used by and coined by systems outside of Medical/Psychiatric environments.

Singlet- anyone who does not experience plurality
Plurality- The state of having more than one self in the same brain/body. There are many different experiences of plurality, but they are all united by being "more than one."
Partitionary- is a system where members are distinct and seperate from each other.
Median- is a system where members are not as distinct or separate from each other. It can be considered being somewhere between multiple and singlet
Mediple- a Mixture of Partitionary and Median.
Shared Reality- a system term for the world that the body exists in. Outterworld, Outerworld, and Meatspace are synonyms
Collective- Collective is a term that can be considered a synonym for System, however for some such as Polyplexs this is the chosen term as they are not a single system but a collective of systems.
Polyplex- a Collective of Subsystems and (side)Systems who inhabit a single plural body.
Polyplural- This describes the size of a system/collective. This is an Umbrella term for Polyfragmented, Polyfaceted (a.k.a. Polymedian), and Polymultiple. We specifically use Polyplural.
Origins- How/Why a system formed; can also be applied to headmates, sidesystems, subsystems or clusters.
Traumagenic- Any system that was formed as a result of 1 or more traumas
Endogenic- An unbrella term for any system that is not inherintly Traumagenic (although trauma can still affect them)
Layer- A division of space within a headspace. These are more significant than just areas of the headspace.
Realm- Realms are separate areas of the innerworld that may or may not be part of the main headspace of the system. For us these are Entirely different Headspaces and are experienced as other diminesions of sorts. They are impossible to access without portals (think in Minecraft how to get to the Nether or End you need a portal)
Sector- A sector is a distinct section in the same layer of headspace, and are characterized by their differences from the rest of the layer/headspace in areas like temperature, day/night cycle, and flow of time
Cluster- A cluster is a group of system members who have similarities that bind them together in some way. Things that may bind members into a cluster include but are not limited to; interests/Hobbies, platonic relations, familial relations, romantic relations, sharing roles, etc. Group is considered a synonym
Subsystem- This is a system within a system. Think of Russian Nesting Dolls.
Nested Subsystem- These are Subsystems that exist inside of other Subsystems Think of this as a third nesting doll the largest being the system, the medium one being the subsystem and the smallest being a nested subsystem. This is commonly shortened to "nestsystem"
Sidesystem- A sidesystem is a separate group of headmates that exist, usually parallel/next to other systems within one larger plural body. Sidesystems usually exist in different Layers than the "Main" Headspace. We Refer to our Sidesystems simply as Systems, and refer to our entire collective as a Polyplex
Bridged Sidesystem- A bridged sidesystem, can also be called a linked sidesystem, is a type of sidesystem that is parallel but has some kind of bridge between the sidesystems that allows headmates to travel from one sidesystem to another easily. All of our known Sidesystems are Bridged Sidesystems.
NPC- Think in a video game, an NPC is a character that the player can't control and they have a limited dialogue. NPCs are constructs in headspaces who are not part of the system.
Headmate- This is what a majority of systems use to refer to their system members. See also sysmates, parts, others, Pleeps, etc.
Roles- These can be labels, identifiers, jobs, etc.
Introject- This is a type of Identifier role. This role is applied to any headmate who is sourced.
Source- This is in relation to Introjects, a source is anything that a headmate is based off of.
Littles- Headmates/Sys members who are (usually) children/seen as children (for us infant to 12)
Middles- Same as Little but for Teenagers (for us 13-17)
You&/Me&- pronouns for Plurals

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Personal Terms