List of inclusive language terms in coding + software engineering

Photo by Fredrik Solli Wandem on Unsplash.

When it comes to adhering to best DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion — principles, the need to adjust certain terms in the field of programming and software engineering is a simple reality of the 21st century.

The following list is a guide of terms and language along with their more appropriate replacements. Going forward, individuals, organizations, and companies can generally follow these suggestions.

Note that the list below is by no means comprehensive, and replacement words should certainly be chosen carefully to convey accurate meanings.

This list also includes words and phrases that are not necessarily explicitly related to software but can come up in software engineering day-to-day interactions with others.

• master => main, primary, controller, leader, control plane, leader, original, source
• slave => replica, secondary, subordinate, worker, control plane node, doer, follower
• blacklist => blocklist, denylist, exemptlist, exclusionlist, excludelist
• whitelist => allowlist, passlist, permitlist, inclusionlist, safelist, oklist
• blackout days => blocked off days, restricted days, no change days, no-change days