| Anonymous aggregate | A record .{ ... } or tuple ( ... ) literal with no type context. Each literal has its own type. | Structs, tuples and arrays |
| Config (manifest) | A line under [config] in silk.toml, or config.<module>.<parameter> in a profile, that sets a package parameter's value, such as main.port = 8080. | Package parameters |
| Binding (variable) | A name introduced by let, a parameter or a pattern. | Bindings and statements |
| Borrow | &e or &mut e: a reference to a place that lends access without moving the value. | Borrowing |
| Bound | A requirement on a type parameter, as in T: Order or T: 'a. | Generics |
| Bound method | value.method without a call, which makes a callable with the receiver captured. | Closures and callable types |
| Callable | A value that can be called: a function literal, a named function used as a value, a staged call or a bound method. | Closures and callable types |
| Cancellation | Dropping a parked Execution. Owners live at the suspension point are dropped and non-parking finalizers run; the body does not resume. | Suspension and cancellation |
| Conformance | An impl Interface for Type that makes a type satisfy an interface. | Interfaces and impls |
| Contextual record | .{ x: 1, y: 2 }, a record literal whose type comes from where it is used. | Structs, tuples and arrays |
Copy | The conformance for types that copy implicitly instead of moving: scalars, string, shared references, scalar enums and others. | Ownership and moves |
| Detached | Intrinsic.Detached: a sealed property of an executable that retains no external lexical or provider loan. | Suspension and cancellation |
| Directive | A fixed instruction written on the line before a function or service operation, such as @inline, @cold or @features("avx2"), that says how to build it but not what it means. The set is closed, and arguments are literals. A with clause, the older spelling, is PAR0011. | Intrinsics, Unsafe code and C interop |
Drop | The conformance that gives a type a fn drop hook, run when its owner drops it. | Ownership and moves |
| Effect | A lazy computation value of type Effect<'env; A ! E ? R>. Calling an effect fn or writing effect { ... } builds one; nothing runs until run. | Effects and run |
| Environment | The lifetime a callable's or Effect's captured state lives for, written fn<'env> or Effect<'env; ...>. | Closures and callable types, Effects and run |
| Exclusive access | &mut: the only access to a place or service while it lasts. | Borrowing, Services and providers |
| Execution | An owner of a suspendable computation from silk/concurrency/execution. It parks and is woken by a Wake. | Suspension and cancellation |
| Failure | A value an effect raises with fail instead of succeeding. Its type appears in the failure row. | Typed failures |
| Fiber | A cooperative task on one thread, created with Fiber.forkChild and observed through a Fiber<A, E> handle. | Fibers and scheduling |
| Finalizer | Code that Effect.ensuring and related operations run after an Effect finishes. | Typed failures, Suspension and cancellation |
| Instance | One specialization of a generic declaration for one set of concrete arguments. | Generics |
| Interface | A named set of operations that types conform to with impl. | Interfaces and impls |
| Intrinsic | A compiler-provided operation, type or property in the Intrinsic namespace. | Intrinsics |
| Invocation mode | How often a callable can be called: shared (fn), mutable (mut fn) or once (once fn). | Closures and callable types |
| Manifest | The silk.toml file that describes a package. | The manifest |
| Module | One .silk source file, imported by its path, as in import silk.collections.list. | Modules and imports |
never | The empty type: an expression of type never does not produce a value. | Values and primitive types |
| NonParking | Intrinsic.NonParking: a sealed property of an executable whose call graph cannot reach external parking. | Suspension and cancellation |
| Nominal union | A union declaration whose variants may carry named fields. | Enums and unions |
| Outcome | The success value or failure of an Effect, held or returned as data, as by Effect.result. | Typed failures |
| Package | A unit of compilation described by a manifest, named name@version. | The manifest |
| Package parameter | A named static value declared with param in a package's root module and set under [config] in silk.toml or by its default. | Package parameters |
| Park | Giving up the current Execution until a Wake makes it eligible again. | Suspension and cancellation |
| Place | Something that can be assigned, borrowed or moved from: a mut local, a field p.x, an element a[i] or a referent r.*. | Bindings and statements, Borrowing |
| Reborrow | Borrowing again through an existing reference, as in &mut x.*. | Borrowing |
| Referent | The value a reference points to, reached with .*. | Borrowing |
| Role marker | #Role after a reference type, as in &Port #Reader. The parser accepts it; this compiler reports it as unsupported. Requirement rows name a role with at instead. | Services and providers |
| Root module | The module [package].main names below [package].source; by default src/main.silk, or src/lib.silk for a library. | The manifest |
run | The prefix that executes an Effect and yields its success value. | Effects and run |
| Row variable | ?R in a generic list: a parameter that stands for a whole requirement row. | Services and providers |
| Scheduler | The service that runs fibers. LocalScheduler is the provided implementation. | Fibers and scheduling |
| Shared access | &: read access that may coexist with other shared access. | Borrowing, Services and providers |
| Slice | &[T] or &mut [T]: a borrowed view of a run of elements. | Structs, tuples and arrays |
| Specialization | Compiling a generic declaration separately for each set of concrete arguments. There is no runtime dispatch. | Generics |
| Staged call | A call with fewer arguments than parameters. The arguments fill the trailing parameters and the result is a callable for the leading ones: combine(3)(2)(1) is combine(1, 2, 3). | Closures and callable types |
| Static evaluation | Running Silk code inside the compiler, for const, let static, static fn, static parameters and array lengths. | Static evaluation |
| Static value | A value known during static evaluation. | Static evaluation |
| Stored loan | A reference stored into a struct, array or out-parameter. Its loan stays alive as long as the container is used. | Borrowing |
| Structural union | An anonymous union type such as i32 | bool. | Enums and unions |
| Unit | The type () and its only value (). | Values and primitive types |
| Unsafe | Code whose memory safety the compiler cannot check: unsafe blocks, functions and calls. | Unsafe code and C interop |
Without | A row operator, Without<R, S>: row R with the entries of S removed. | Typed failures, Services and providers |
| WASI | The WebAssembly System Interface, the host API a WebAssembly program uses outside a browser. --target wasm32-wasip1 builds a preview 1 module; wasm32-wasip2 builds a preview 2 component and needs wasm-tools. | Targets and profiles |
| Witness | The conformance selected to supply an interface operation for one instance. | Generics |