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When I read this question I remember to regularly ask myself what the features of bricks are called. At the top are there nibbles, knobs, or studs? At the bottom are there tubes? New bricks also have little "support walls" (?) at the bottom, known from DUPLO, how do you call these? Is there an official LEGO terminology at least for the most common types of features shown in this image?

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    See this question: bricks.stackexchange.com/questions/214/…
    – pcantin
    Oct 31, 2012 at 16:42
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    @pcantin I agree, this questions title is very similar but Jakob seems to be asking about the specific parts of a standard brick and not the names of individual bricks.
    – Ambo100
    Oct 31, 2012 at 22:35
  • Has the answer changed over the years? Because it looks like "stud" is always on top, "knob" is always on the side (and always a donut shape? See doors with a knob...) If you search the LEGO pick a brick store for "knob" you find SNOT pieces with a knob on the side. If you search for "stud" I get one result and it's on top. shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-a-Brick
    – Seth
    May 6, 2019 at 15:27

3 Answers 3

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For an official position, you may want to check older LEGO catalogues or instructions to see if they're naming things, and how. While you can find some names for complete elements in, for example, service parts catalogues, I don't think you'll find much for specific subparts.

Given the 1958 patent illustration, it's likely the patent itself named subparts, and more specifically studs and tubes. The original Kiddicraft patent called studs "bosses", by the way.

Keep in mind LEGO has, until recently, be very protective of what it's been doing internally; as such, the community as a whole didn't have much info, so that a lot of current nowadays terminology isn't official, but rather derived from public habit.

However, that's changed a lot recently, and LEGO isn't as shy as it was when it comes to publish internal data such as colour names and numrical IDs, design IDs, parts IDs, and even part names. The only problem is that they never bothered to have a truly consistent naming scheme, and the fact that English isn't the main language of Denmark doesn't help.

Yet it does help us find official subpart names, which we can hunt through the online pick-a-brick selection.

The first one is a shocker: the "stud" is, in fact, called "knob" (the fan-nicknamed "jumper plate", or LDraw's "Plate 1 x 2 with 1 Stud", being officially a "Plate 1X2 W. 1 Knob", and there are numerous other examples).

The small pins inside 1xn bricks are "pins" (LDraw's "Brick 1 x 2 without Centre Stud" is a "Brick 1X2 Without Pin"). But as connection point on some elements, they are called "Shaft Ø 3.2" (LDraw's "Minifig Accessory Helmet Viking Horn" is "Horn W. Shaft Ø 3.2")

The clip is a "holder" (LDraw's "Brick 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical" is "Brick 1X1 W. Holder, H0rizontal" (sic) or sometimes a "snap" (LDraw's "Bar 7 x 3 with Double Clips" is "Lattice 1X4x6 W. Snap").

I suppose you could find more, but it's rather time-consuming :-)

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  • Ok, stud (or knob), tube, pin and wall should name the basic features of a simple brick. The little support walls at the bottom could be called splines.
    – Jakob
    Nov 6, 2012 at 8:11
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The bumpy-things on the top of a brick are called studs.

At the bottom of the brick, the holes that the studs go into are called tubes.

As far as I know, there are no parts of a brick called nibbles or knobs.

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  • Thanks, I also read "nibbles" and "knobs" but "studs" seems more common. By the way the studs go between a tube and a wall (or this little additional wall thing for new bricks). I extended my question for more features.
    – Jakob
    Nov 5, 2012 at 8:47
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Yes, here is the basic terminology Lego bricks names list. enter image description here

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