Knowing Your Geocaching Terms

For any seasoned cacher, you have come to learn the little acronyms and nicknames of various things geocaching. Whether it’s a TFTC, or an FTF, we’ve all heard them. But for those who may be new to the world of geocaching, some of these may elude you. For those folks, I provide you a select list of geocaching terms you may or may not be familiar with:

• TFTC – Thanks for the cache
• FTF – First to Find
• TNLN – Took nothing, left nothing
• CO – Cacher Owner
• GZ – Ground Zero, where your GPS reads a distance of zero to a cache
• BYOP – Bring your own pen/pencil
• CITO – Cache in, trash out
• DNF – Did not find
• GPX – A data file format used by GPS technology, including geocaching.
• PQ – Pocket query, provided by Geocaching.com for premium members
• PM Cache – Premium Member geocache. A cache that is only available to premium members
• LPC – Lamp post cache (usually found under a lamp post skirt)
• Muggle – A non-geocacher who doesn’t know what geocaching is
• P&G/PNG – Park and grab, really quick find
• Ape Cache – A Project A.P.E geocache.
• Seed Coords – The placeholder coordinates used by puzzle caches
• SL – Signed log
• TFTH – Thanks for the hide
• TFTV – Thanks for the virtual
• TFTE – Thanks for the event
• TPTB – The powers that be
• GSP – Groundspeak
• TB – Travel bug
• ALR – Additional logging requirement (no longer allowed)

I’m sure there are other ones but this is a good snapshot of most of the big ones.