Glossary

Here's a glossary of important terms to help you navigate Polymarket and the UMA voting system.

Word	Definition	Notes
Polymarket	A decentralized prediction market platform where users trade on real-world events.	Users trade against each other. There is no house or trading fee.
Shares	Investment in a market	Shareholders are users who own shares in a Polymarket market.
UMA	Universal Market Access, the oracle that resolves market outcomes.	UMA stakers vote on disputed proposals.
Stakeholder	Any participant with a vested interest in a market.	Includes UMA stakers, Polymarket traders, and proposal authors.
Proposal	A submitted answer to a market question, backed by a bond and reward.	"Proposed" is used interchangeably with "answered."
Dispute	A challenge to a submitted proposal.	Must be submitted within the 2-hour challenge period after a proposal is posted.
Voting	The process where UMA stakers decide the outcome of a disputed proposal.	Voting only happens if a proposal is disputed.
Market Resolution	The final outcome of a proposal after any disputes are resolved.	Once resolved, shareholders may receive payouts based on the result.
Precedent	A decision pattern established through multiple resolved cases.	Precedents are used to help answer similar future proposals.

What's Next

Now that you've learned the foundational knowledge in this guide, you can move on to Precedents or Case Studies to see how these concepts are applied.

If you're curious about proposing, you can also read Why You Probably Shouldn't Propose to understand what to consider before getting started.