Anatomy — a component's internal sub-part structure (not heavily used in this catalogue, since components ship as single copy-paste files rather than composed primitives).
Bento grid — an asymmetric grid layout of mixed-size panels, named after Japanese bento boxes; used for feature showcases.
Compound component — a component made of several cooperating sub-parts (e.g. Animated Modal) rather than one self-contained unit.
cn helper — the shared Tailwind class-merge utility (clsx + tailwind-merge) most Aceternity components import; installed via add-utilities.
Copy-paste distribution — the model where component source is copied directly into your project (via the shadcn CLI) instead of imported from an npm package; you own and can edit the code, but get no automatic updates.
Marquee — content that scrolls continuously in a loop (e.g. Infinite Moving Cards, 3D Marquee).
Micro-interaction — a small, localized animated response to user input (hover, click, drag) rather than a page-level effect.
Parallax — layers that move at different speeds relative to scroll or mouse position, creating a sense of depth.
Perspective / tilt — CSS 3D transforms that rotate an element toward the viewer based on cursor position, simulating physical depth (3D Card Effect, Comet Card).
Shader — a GPU-rendered procedural visual effect (Cloud Shader, Dither Shader), heavier than CSS/SVG-based effects.
Slug — the URL-safe identifier used both in a component's docs URL and its install command (@aceternity/<slug>).
Spotlight — a radial light/gradient effect that follows the cursor or highlights a fixed area, used to draw attention.