Severance has built an intricate corporate dystopia with its own vocabulary. Understanding these terms enhances the show immensely—and reveals just how thoroughly Lumon has constructed an alternate reality for its severed employees.
A-Z Glossary
Break Room - Punishment area where employees must recite an apology until deemed "sincere." Can last hours or days.
Clean Slate - Protocol to completely wipe an innie's memories. Effectively kills the work personality.
Code Detectors - Sensors that track severed employees via their implants. Prevent innies from leaving the severed floor.
Defiant Jazz - Music considered inappropriate for the severed floor. Represents forbidden free expression.
Egg Bar - Cafeteria offering that rewards good performance. Innies get excited about small privileges.
Handbook - Kier Eagan's writings, treated as corporate scripture at Lumon.
Innie - The work personality created by severance. Knows only Lumon, has no outside memories.
Lumon - The mysterious corporation founded by Kier Eagan. Its full purpose remains unclear.
MDR - Macrodata Refinement. The department where main characters work.
Music Dance Experience (MDE) - Reward for meeting quota. A sad five minutes of dancing alone.
O&D - Optics and Design. Another severed department, handles visual materials.
Outie - The outside personality. Maintains normal life, has no work memories.
Overtime Contingency - Emergency protocol to wake an innie in the outside world.
Perpetuity Wing - Museum dedicated to Kier Eagan's legacy. Treated with religious reverence.
Revolving - Reversing the severance procedure. Supposedly dangerous, possibly impossible.
Severance - The procedure that splits work and personal memories via brain implant.
Tempers - The five emotional categories (Woe, Frolic, Dread, Malice, Bliss) used in MDR work.
Waffle Party - The ultimate reward for exceptional performance. [Disturbing implications revealed in show]
Wellness Session - Psychological check-ins with Ms. Casey. Use scripted affirmations.
Test Your Lumon Vocabulary
Think you know your Severance terminology? Our Lexicon Refinement game tests your knowledge with Wordle-style challenges using Lumon vocabulary.
Play Lexicon Refinement
Experience this game yourself - can you survive?