Sensation & activity glossary

Explore each term in this topic, then open its full explanation for context, sources and related reading.

Blindfold play
The consensual reduction or removal of sight using a blindfold to alter anticipation, attention, sensory balance or role experience.
Blood interests and blood play
An adult interest, fantasy or activity involving blood imagery or blood. Blood exposure can transmit infection and needs to be distinguished from fantasy, medical care, self-harm or non-consensual injury.
Branding and scarification interest
An adult interest or fantasy involving permanent or semi-permanent marks associated with heat, cutting or scar formation. The interest is distinct from a recommendation or instruction to create such marks.
Breath restriction interest
An adult interest in fantasies or acts involving restricted breathing or blood flow. Community language often says sexual choking, while clinical and legal sources distinguish external neck compression as strangulation from choking on an internal obstruction. Every form of actual oxygen or blood-flow restriction can cause severe injury or death.
Caning
An impact-play term for the use or fantasy of a cane-like implement. It is not interchangeable with flogging, paddles, crops or spanking, and can carry concentrated physical risk.
Cuffs and handcuffs
Restraint terms for devices that limit movement around wrists, ankles or other body areas. Purpose-made cuffs, rigid handcuffs and decorative accessories have different fit, locking and release properties.
Erotic electrostimulation
The use of purpose-designed electrical devices to create controlled bodily sensation. It is a specialist activity with important device, placement and health contraindications.
Erotic hypnosis
The consensual use of hypnotic language, focused attention or imaginative suggestion in an erotic or power-exchange context. Hypnosis is not mind control, and prior agreement does not make every later suggestion acceptable.
Flogging
An impact-play term usually referring to a multi-strand implement. It is distinct from a paddle, crop, cane or open-hand spanking, and the label alone says nothing about intensity or safety.
Food play
The consensual use of food, taste, scent or mess as a sensory or playful element. Interest may centre on texture, indulgence, ritual or visual contrast.
Genital impact and compression interest
An umbrella for consensual adult interests in intense sensation, impact, pressure or power exchange focused on genital tissue, covering a wide range of fantasies and risk.
Ice and cold-temperature play
A sensory interest in cold objects, temperature contrast or the anticipation of cold. It is distinct from wax, heat and any activity that risks cold injury or reduced sensation.
Impact play
A broad term for consensual striking used to create sound, rhythm, sensation or power exchange. Tools and intensity vary widely, and apparently similar activities can carry very different injury risks.
Marking kink
A consensual adult interest in temporary visible marks, symbols or traces on the body or clothing, which may be valued for aesthetics, memory, ritual or negotiated power. The description does not give permission to cause an injury, publish an image or leave an unwanted reminder afterwards.
Medical role-play
Consensual role-play using the imagery, procedures or authority associated with clinical settings. Costumes and non-invasive props can be symbolic; actual medical procedures create substantially different risks and are not implied by the term.
Messy play
A sensory interest in contact with visibly wet, soft or messy materials, often valued for texture, spectacle or a playful loss of neatness. Community terms such as sploshing and WAM overlap with, but do not define, every person's interest.
Mummification bondage
Advanced restraint in which much of an adult participant's body is wrapped or enclosed to create stillness, pressure, sensory change or transformation symbolism.
Needle play
A specialist adult interest involving temporary skin piercing for sensation, ritual, pattern or symbolism. It differs from permanent body piercing, injection and acupuncture, but it still creates puncture wounds and sharps exposure with risks of bleeding, infection, scarring and injury.
Paddles, crops and impact implements
A comparison term for different impact-play objects whose materials, construction and meaning vary. A product name or retailer label is not a safety rating.
Pegging
A consensual adult practice involving a wearable harness and an attachment, commonly used to describe anal penetration by a partner. The term describes an activity, not a person's gender, orientation or role.
Predicament bondage
A bondage scenario in which an adult participant's movement changes strain, position or another agreed sensation, creating a staged choice between discomforts or tasks.
Pressure and bodyweight play
A broad adult umbrella for consensual interest in weight, pressure, pinning or physical presence. It can have many meanings and must be separated from any activity that compromises breathing, circulation, awareness or exit.
Rope bondage
A form of bondage using rope for restraint, connection, visual composition or ritual. Japanese-derived practices are often called shibari or kinbaku in English-language communities, though histories and preferred terminology are debated.
Self-bondage and solo restraint
An adult interest in experiencing restraint alone. Solo circumstances remove a second person's ability to notice distress, communicate, assist or release, creating distinct and serious risks.
Sensation play
Exploration of contrasting tactile experiences such as softness, pressure, vibration or texture. The term covers a wide spectrum, from gentle touch to intense stimulation, without implying a particular power dynamic.
Sensory deprivation
The consensual reduction of one or more senses—often sight or sound—to alter attention, anticipation or dependence on communication. Even simple forms require a reliable way to monitor comfort and stop.
Slime, mud and non-food messy play
A subset of messy play involving non-food wet, soft or coating materials such as slime or mud. Materials that look similar can have very different chemical, allergy, slip and cleanup risks.
Sound and audio play
Consensual use of voices, music, instructions, rhythm, repeated sounds, spatial audio or controlled quiet to shape attention, atmosphere, sensation or role.
Spanking
A consensual adult form of impact play in which an open hand creates sound, rhythm, sensation or symbolic emphasis. It may be playful, erotic, ritualised or part of an agreed role, but it is not synonymous with every kind of impact play or with real punishment.
Spreader bars and positional restraint
Terms for restraint equipment or arrangements that alter spacing, posture or movement. They introduce mobility, joint, balance and emergency-exit questions beyond a simple cuff.
Suspension bondage
Advanced bondage in which equipment supports some or all of an adult participant's body weight above the floor, creating serious fall, compression, circulation and rescue risks.
Temperature play
The controlled use of warm or cool sensations for contrast and attention. Because temperature injury can occur before pain feels extreme, the category needs more caution than its everyday materials may suggest.
Tickling fetish
An erotic or intensely pleasurable focus on giving, receiving or anticipating tickling. It may involve sensation, loss of composure or power exchange; involuntary laughter is not proof that someone wishes to continue.
Trampling
A consensual adult activity involving standing or stepping on another person's body, sometimes associated with pressure, footwear, worship or power exchange.
Urethral sounding interest
A specialist adult interest involving urethral instrumentation, sometimes linked to medical aesthetics, sensation, vulnerability or control.
Vacuum-bed interest
An interest in specialised equipment that uses flexible material and suction to create enclosure, pressure, stillness and a distinctive visual silhouette.
Water-based play
An umbrella for consensual adult sensory, aesthetic or ritual interests involving water, from rain imagery and bathing to wet clothing. Settings involving immersion or open water carry distinct hazards and are not interchangeable with ordinary wet-look play.
Watersports
An adult interest involving urine as a bodily-fluid, sensory, ritual, humiliation or power-exchange element; the community term is unrelated to aquatic sport.
Wax play
A form of temperature and sensation play involving melted wax. Products and formulations transfer heat differently, and no candle or label makes skin contact inherently safe. An adult may value the theme without wanting bodily contact; consent to candlelight does not extend to melted wax.
Wrestling and consensual pinning
An adult interest in wrestling-themed play, competitive movement or agreed pinning imagery. It should be distinguished from a real fight, unwanted restraint or any situation that limits breathing, mobility or escape.