Here are some useful origami terms and phrases. Please do not reproduce this list, even in part, but you may link to it. If you have any additions, please send them to Nick Robinson.
| A4 | A rectangle with has sides in the proportion of 1: root 2 – the length of the larger side of the A4 rectangle is equal to the length of the diagonal of a square whose edge length is that of the shorter side |
| Action model | A design which “does” something when finished, such as a banger, paper plane or a bird with flapping wings |
| Adult origami | Origami designs of a sexual nature (sometimes called Naughty Origami or Pornigami) |
| AEP | Assocacion Espanola de Papiroflexia – Spanish folding society |
| Back-coating | Gluing two different sheets (such as foil and tissue paper) together to form a single sheet |
| Base | A combination of folds that can be used as a starting point for creating |
| Bird base | A classic base formed by petal folding both sides of a preliminary base |
| Book fold | A fold that involves folding one side of a square to the opposite side |
| BOGS | British Origami Gourmet Society – a group of paperfolders who practise folding during meals (see poppadom) |
| BOS | British Origami Society |
| Blintz | To fold all four corners of a square into the centre |
| Box- pleating | A technique developed by American folder Neal Elias which pleats the paper and collapses into narrow points |
| Bronco sinkin | A legendary origami figure |
| Canson | A brand of French paper ideal for wet-folding |
| CDO | Centro Diffusione Origami – Italian origami Society |
| Chapeaugraphy | The folding of a felt ring into shapes representing hats |
| Circular origami | As the name suggests, the use of circular paper as the starting point for origami |
| Closed sink | If a standard sink cannot be made by unfolding, it must be gently forced in, the move is then known as a closed sink |
| Collapse | When a series of pre-creases are in place, you can collapse the paper into a new arrangement of layers |
| Convention | A larger group of paperfolders who gather for a long weekend of paper folding – they occur all around the world |
| Crane | An adaptation of the flapping bird, made by narrowing the head and tail |
| Crease | A line formed by folding paper |
| Crease pattern | The result of unfolding a model to a flat piece of paper |
| Cupboard fold | the result of folding left and right hand edges to a central crease |
| Diagonal fold | A fold that involves folding one corner to the opposite corner, creating a diagonal crease |
| Diamond base | An origami base that involves folding in succession two pairs of adjacent edges to a diagonal of a square |
| Dog base | An origami base designed by John Montroll for folding animal models |
| Dollar Bill Fold | see “money fold” |
| Duo | Paper with different colours on either side |
| Elephant Hide | Not, as you might think, the skin of an elephant, but a type of paper made in Germany. |
| ELFA | The Envelope and Letter Folding Association – a small society devoted to the history and science of folding envelopes |
| Elias pleating | See box pleating |
| Fabrigami | The folding of origami models using stiffened fabric or fabric bonded to paper |
| Fish base | A base that is used as the starting point for fish and other models |
| Flapping Bird | A classic design from the bird base, of a tiny bird whose wings can be made to flap |
| Flasher | A class of twisted springy models invented by Chris Palmer and Jeremy Shaffer that are mainly based on the iso-area twist folding developed by Tyoaki Kawasaki |
| Flexagon | Paper folded along regular angles in such a way that faces are hidden and can be revealed by turning the paper “inside out” |
| Foil | Paper with metal foil on one side, ordinary paper on the other |
| Fold | To bring two parts of a sheet of paper into contact, usually flattening the paper |
| Fold line | A line used in origami diagrams – dashes represent valley creases, a dash and two dots represent a mountain fold |
| Folded edge | An edge where two layers join |
| Folding geometry | The specific geometric properties (types of angles, etc) of the crease pattern of an origami model, such as 225/45/90 or 30/60/90 degrees etc |
| Folding Australia | An Australian society devoted to origami |
| Folding level | The classification of an origami model in terms of the folding skill required to fold it (usually designated by “simple”, “low intermediate”, intermediate, “high intermediate”, “complex” and super-complex” |
| Frog base | A complex base where each flap of a waterbomb base is petal folded |
| Fudge Factor | a small gap deliberately left when folding to a crease (typically a centre crease) to make allowance for the thickness of the paper |
| Golden Venture | A style of modular folding where the “Modules” are small wedges of folded paper that are slotted into each other |
| Grain of paper | Because of the nature of the paper making process, a sheet of paper has a grain direction and will be easier to flex along one axis compared to the other |
| Inverted | A point or flap which has been turned inside out |
| IOS | International Origami Society – Japanese folding society founded by Akira Yoshizawa |
| Iso-area folding | A fold which, when complete, displays equal amounts of front and back colour |
| JOAS | Japanese origami Academic Society, sometimes known as the “Tanteidan” or “detectives” |
| Joss paper | A type of paper used to fold paper representations of money and household goods of a deceased person that are burned as part of a traditional Chinese funeral ritual |
| Judgement fold | A fold where an exact location point (or points) do not exist, and so you locate the fold by eye alone (see RAT fold) |
| Kasane origami | A Japanese term for layered origami where many sheets of overlapped and arranged decoratively |
| Kami paper | High quality origami paper |
| Kan-no-mado | An ancient Japanese book showing how to fold 1000 cranes from a single sheet of paper (with cuts) |
| Knotologie | A technique for folding long strips of paper developed by the Austrian folder Heinz Strobl |
| Kirigami | THE Japanese word for paper-cutting, where shapes are produced by cutting a pre-folded sheet of paper |
| Kirikomi origami | Cuts in the paper are used to extend the range of folding possibilities in a standard origami model |
| Kite Fold | A basic fold of a paper square in which creases are made after two adjacent edges of the paper are placed along a diagonal |
| Kusudama | A Japanese word for an origami ball of flowers |
| Landmark | A taget for a fold, such as a corner or intersection of creases |
| Location points | The place on a sheet where a corner or edge should meet in order to complete that fold |
| Manoeuvre | A combination of folds that produce a given result, such as a rabbit’s ear |
| MFPP | Mouvement Francais des Plieurs de Papier – French origami society |
| Mini-meeting | A small group of paperfolders who gather together to enjoy origami |
| Minimalist origami | A type of origami in which the subject is “sketched” rather than “photographed” It usually aims to use the minimal number of folds |
| Minor Miracle | An American phrase used to describe a procedure where, given two flaps on either side, one flap is folded to the left on the front and back |
| Miura-ori map | A special map fold invented by Professor Miura (Japan) |
| Model | The finished item of origami Some folders dislike this term and call it a “design” |
| Modular origami | Where many sheets of paper are folded into (often) identical units or modules These are then slotted together to form larger geometric designs |
| Module | A single element of a modular design |
| Money folding | The use of bank notes to create origami designs |
| Mountain fold | A crease formed by folding paper away from you and underneath Opposite of valley fold |
| Movement arrow | A curved arrow used in origami diagrams to show the direction in which the paper moves |
| Multi piece origami | An origami technique which creates subjects from more than one sheet of paper For instance, the body and head my use different sheets |
| NOA | Nipponese Origami Association – Japanese origami society |
| Noshi | Special ornamental folds that are traditionally attached to gift packages in Japan |
| OD | Origami Deutschland – Germand folding society formed by Paulo Mulatinho |
| One crease origami | A technique proposed by the British paperfolder Paul Jackson, who explored the many unusual and surprising results possible by adding just a single crease to a sheet |
| Origami | A Japanese word meaning ‘folding paper’ |
| OSN | Origami Societeit Nederland, Dutch origami organisation |
| OUSA | Origami USA – an American folding group |
| Painting with paper | A technique which uses two different coloured sides to “paint” a simple, stylised scene or subject |
| Pajarita | Spanish for little bird, a traditional form originating in Spain and probably other parts of Europe |
| Paper plane | A specialised type of origami which can fly! |
| PCOC | The Pacific Coast Origami Conference – one of the two major conventions held in America |
| Petal fold | A technique where a layer is lifted up and the sides are narrowed to form a point |
| Poppadom | People Out Practising Paperfolding And Dining On Masala – a group of folders who enjoy Indian food See BOGS |
| Precreasing | The process of adding creases, then unfolding They are used later on in the sequence to help complete the model |
| Preliminary base | A simple and elegant base formed using “union jack” creases |
| Pure origami | A style of origami where the paper isn’t cut , glued or decorated) |
| Pureland origami | A style invented by the British paperfolder John Smith where you are limited to mountain and valley folds only |
| RAT | An abbreviation meaning ‘right about there’, where no location creases exist, hence “RAT fold” (see judgement fold) |
| Raw edge | The edge of a single layer, one of the original outside edges of the square |
| Rabbit’s ear | A technique that forms a small triangular flap |
| Reference Finder | A computer pogram designed by Robert Lang A numerical or algebraic expression for the coordinates of a point or line is typed in ReferenceFinder returns the 5 “best” short folding sequences that approximate that point or line |
| Reverse fold | Where part of a flap is folded inside or outside another |
| Silver rectangle | A term coined by British folder John Cunliffe for an A4 rectangle |
| Sink | Where paper is reversed in direction along four edges |
| Skeletal polyhedra | Modular designs where the paper is only on the edges, leaving “holes” on the normal faces |
| Soft crease | A fold made gently such that a sharp crease isn’t formed |
| Sonobe Unit | A classic and ground-breaking module created by Mitsunobu Sonobe It has two flaps and two pockets and can be used to form many different shapes |
| Squash | A technique where a flap is separated and flattened, usually symetrcially, but not always |
| Stellated | A design that has points like a star |
| Stretched bird base | A base formed by pulling apart the wing tips of a bird base |
| Surface | Each side of a sheet of paper is a surface |
| Swivel fold | A technique that involves paper moving in different directions |
| Tanteidan | “Detectives” in Japanese, the Japanese society devoted to exploring new (mostly advanced or complex) folding techniques |
| Tension | Where paper is held in a certain position by using the natural strength and tension within the paper |
| Tessellation | A design which can be tiled to from a complete pattern Also applied to a complex method of twisting and collapsing paper |
| Tissue Foil Tissue | A laminate made by glueing (usually with spraymount glue) tissue paper onto either side of a sheet of foil. This gives the malleability of foil, with a more naturalistic finish. |
| Treemaker | A computer program created by Robert Lang for designing origami bases A stick figure (tree) is drawn on the screen; each stick in the represents a flap on the base Once you have defined the tree, TreeMaker computes the full crease pattern for a base |
| Twist folding | Pleats in the paper allow it to be collapsed into a twisted form Developed by Japanese folder Shuzo Fujimoto |
| Unit origami | Yunnito or modular origami |
| Valley fold | A crease made by folding paper towards you |
| Washi | Japanese hand-made paper, usually containing bark from trees |
| Waterbomb | A fold which can be inflated into a square-ish container that can be filled with water and launched at a victim, |
| Waterbomb base | A simple and elegant base formed using “union jack” creases |
| Wet-folding | A technique invented by the Japanese paperfolder Akira Yoshizawa where the paper is dampened before folding The water weakens the glue holding the paper together When dried again, it can retain its shape |
| Windmill fold | A basic fold in which the paper is configured into a pinwheel or windmill |
| X-ray view | A view of hidden crease lines )indicated as dotted lines) in origami instructional diagrams |
| Yakko-san | A traditional Japanese origami form folded from a square and representing a kimono-clad clown |
| Yunitto origami | A Japanese word for modular origami |
Get started on your origami journey by heading over to our simple models page where you can learn to fold from our diagram resources.
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