The common (and some uncommon) Mac terms explained.

If you’re new to Apple computers and macOS you’ve probably run into terminology that is hard to understand. All the core features on your Mac have unique names that might be confusing to beginners, so here’s a breakdown of the top 16 Mac terms that every user should know.

AirDrop

Wireless file transfer that allows you to transfer files between any Mac and iOS device

Apple Menu

The drop-down menu on the top left corner of your screen, giving you quick access to some basic functions like turning off your computer, accessing recently viewed applications and files or quickly accessing your system settings and viewing the specs of your computer.

Control Center

A dropdown menu that has many of your computer’s key controls collected under one switch. Here you can change your screen brightness and volume, quickly access screen mirroring, AirDrop, Wifi and Bluetooth settings and even enable “do not disturb” mode.

Dock

Dock is what you use to launch applications. You can keep it always visible or set it to pop up whenever you bring your cursor near the edge of your screen. Dock can be positioned on the bottom or either side of your screen and you can fully customize it, deciding which applications are displayed in your Dock.

Finder

The basic file browser, similar to Explorer on Windows. This is what you use to find, manage and search for files.

Hot Corners

Often overlooked cool little feature that allows you to add specific actions to each corner of your screen. Touching the corner with your cursor activates these functions and you can choose from starting a screen saver, creating a quick note, putting your display to sleep, activating Mission Control etc.

Apple ID & iCloud

The core elements of your user experience when owning any Apple device. Apple ID is your login to devices and services, iCloud is the cloud storage where a lot of your files and information is stored. When you’re logged in the same Apple ID on an iPhone and Mac for example, both devices are able to sync files through iCloud keeping your applications, notes, calendars, messages and everything else synced between devices.

Launchpad

The Mac version of the iOS home screen with applications laid out in a nice little grid.

M1, M2, M3, Apple Silicon…

Apple Silicon is the new architecture used on modern Mac computers. Older Macs used Intel processors but any modern Mac will be useing Apple’s own chips. M1 was the first to be introduced and the newer generations have followed with M2 and now M3. Each generation also has different versions of the chips, so besides the basic M1 Mac there’s an option for M1 Pro, M1 Max and M1 Ultra.

Sonoma, Ventura, Big Sur, Mojave…

This is not a tour guide taking you through California, these are version names for macOS. The older versions used to be named after cats and back then the operating system was also referred to as Mac OS X, which later got simplified to macOS.

Menu Bar

The top part of your screen that has menus for whatever application is currently active. On the left side you’ll have menus for the active application and each application usually has their own unique menus. On the right side of your menu bar you’ll have some more permanent items like battery status, clock, search, wifi and things like that. Some applications might also place their own small icon on the top right of your menu bar but not all of them do this.

Mission Control

This is Apple’s window management tool that allows you to quickly see all active windows on your computer.

Sidecar

A feature where you can wirelessly use an iPad as a second screen to your Mac and move windows between the iPad and your Mac

Spotlight

The built-in search tool in macOS. Spotlight is really powerful because it can see inside documents, so if you have a 100-page book that mentions a specific term or name somewhere in the book, you can just search that name and Spotlight will highlight the book and the page where it’s mentioned. You can also use spotlight as a calculator or unit converter.

Stage Manager

Another window management tool hiding everything else to the side of your screen except the active application.

Time Machine

The built-in backup solution in macOS. Time Machine will use an external drive to create backups of your files and you can later look and restore your files using Time Machine. Time Machine creates a view where you can jump between specific dates and it will show you how your system and files looked on each day, hence the name Time Machine.