As the political climate intensifies in the middle of presidential primaries, so too does the language describing our state of political affairs. A cursory search through a news article covering the election will yield terms like “contested convention,” “battleground states,” “superdelegate,” and “endorsement.”

A  common  criticism  of  the  coverage of the presidential election is that it has tended to estrange viewers unfamiliar  with political jargon. Understanding the use of such vocabulary will prevent voters from feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of political information in the news.

The GOP has recently made headlines with talk of a potential contested  Republican convention. While in most election years, a presidential candidate wins a majority of the delegates before entering a party nominating convention, pundits speculate that a contested convention could be likely due to  the  closeness of the race.

In a  contested convention, with no candidate having accumulated a majority of the delegates, convention delegates would repeatedly vote until one nominee hit the “magic number” of 1,237 — the amount of delegates needed to secure the nomination.

Roughly 95% of delegates as of now are “bound” to candidates – that is, they have pledged their support for a nominee. During the convention, they are required to vote for that nominee in the first round  of voting. If  no majority of delegates is reached during the first round  of voting, these delegates are  “unbound”  and  free to vote for other candidates during subsequent rounds of voting.

The Democratic side of the race is complicated by the presence of superdelegates. Superdelegates are unpledged delegates who aren’t beholden to the results of the primaries, and are free to support the candidate of their choice at the convention. Because superdelegates generally cast their ballots for candidates according to popular support in the state, the superdelegate count will most likely go to the candidate with the most pledged delegates.

When it comes to the candidates themselves, much has been made about the use of PACs and SuperPACs in corporate sponsorship. PACs (Political Action Committees) are organizations that are designed to raise campaign contributions for candidates. There are currently about 4,600 active PACs that are connected to labor unions, large businesses, and trade groups.

Unlike PACs, which have caps on spending contributions, SuperPACs can raise unlimited funds for candidates, but can’t directly donate money to the candidates that they support. Both Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders have spoken out against the use of PACs and SuperPACs with respect to campaign contributions.

The election race has also narrowed from a significantly larger pool of candidates, with fifteen Republican candidates and four Democratic candidates having either suspended their campaigns or dropped out of the race. The distinction between dropping out of the race and suspending a campaign is an important one; candidates like Marco Rubio and Chris Christie who have suspended their campaigns can technically re-enter the race at a later date.

As we enter the home stretch of the primary season, a full grasp of the vocabulary used by political pundits, commentators, and candidates will become increasingly pertinent and useful.