This is a glossary of the French Revolution. It generally does not explicate names of individual people or their political associations; those can be found in List of people associated with the French Revolution.
The terminology routinely used in discussing the French Revolution can be confusing, even daunting. The same political faction may be referred to by different historians (or by the same historian in different contexts) by different names. During much of the revolutionary period, the French used a newly invented calendar that fell into complete disuse after the revolutionary era. Different legislative bodies had rather similar names, not always translated uniformly into English. This article is intended as a central place to clarify these issues.
The Three Estates
Social Classes
Constitutions
Governmental structures
Political Groupings
Ancien régime taxes
Months of the French Revolutionary Calendar
See main article French Revolutionary Calendar.
Under this calendar, the Year I or "Year 1" began September 22, 1792 (the date of the official abolition of the monarchy and the nobility). Events commonly known by their Revolutionary dates
War
See also main article French Revolutionary Wars.Symbols
Cockades
Cockades (Fr: cocardes) were rosettes or ribbons worn as a badge, typically on a hat.
Other countries and armies at this time typically had their own cockades.Religion
Other terms