Here is a list of Twitter feature and basic terminology which will help you understand Twitter better.

# sign
The hash sign is used to mark a word as a keyword, which denotes a “hashtag”. We’ll tell you what a hashtag means just down this article. So if your Tweet(a Twitter update) relates to a popular quote, you’ll add the #quote hashtag to denote it as a quote.

@ reply
The @ sign is used to indicate that you are replying to a specific username. For example, if you want to pass a message Barack Obama, you’ll send your message to @BarackObama. Remember that @replies are public, so will feature in the timeline as well as homepage and profile. If you want to send a private message, send a DM(direct message)

140 character limit
Twitter messages are meant to be short because it was designed to support mobile devices. However you can circumvent this limit by using services like URL shorteners(something we’ll cover later this week)

Block
This refers blocking a particular user name from following your tweets. You block someone by clicking on their profile and choosing “Block” on the right sidebar. This is usually done in case of spammers or bots following your profile. Or if you really dislike someone.

Direct Messages
Direct Messages are sent from twitter by entering d RECIPIENTUSERNAME Text of Message. You can read about sending a direct message here.

DM
This stands for Direct Message, which is the Twitter equivalent of E-mail. You may only send direct messages to those following you. Learn how to send a DM here. Keep in mind that you cannot send Direct Messages to people that are not following you, even if you are following them. This is Twitter’s built-in spam protection. Direct Messages are also limited upto 140 characters.

Failwhale
The whale logo that pops up when the Twitter service crashes. Twitter usually suffers a lot of downtime due to overcapacity, especially during product launches or breaking news. They are trying to overcome it but we still meet the failwhale a lot.

FAV
You can favourite a tweet by typing FAV in all caps plus their username. This will automatically favourite the last tweet from that user.

Feed
Your posts on Twitter are commonly referred to as your “Twitter feed”, or “timeline”. People can subscribe to your updates through the Twitter RSS feed.

Followers
People who follow your Twitter updates.

Hashtags
Hashtags denote popular topics or trends on Twitter. Suppose you want to share a popular quote on Twitter, then you mark your tweet with #quote. So that in real time trend, people looking for quotes can search it. This feature is used for trending and grouping.

You can visit Hashtags.org to know the popular hashtags and trends:

Locking Your Profile
You can “lock” your profile so that only friends can see your updates by scrolling down to the bottom of your “Settings” tab on the Twitter website and clicking the box beside “Protect My Updates”. This may deprive you of followers who would have otherwise followed you based on keywords in your posts and isn’t advised for general use. You would only want this if you wanted to use Twitter, but need to avoid public communication for a specific reason.

Microblog
Twitter is a microblogging platform. A microblog is a shorter and usually more immediate version of a blog.

NUDGE username
Reminds one of your friends to update.

Public Timeline
The timeline of all public Tweets. You can see the public timeline here.

RT/Retweeting:

This stands for retweeting, the process whereby you repost someone else’s Twitter post on your feed. This is done by typing RT @username/ RT #username and typing the message. This is done to share popular links, witty lines or news.

Search
Go to search.twitter.com to search tweets for a specific keyword. Also, http://twitter.com/invitations/find_on_twitter will allow you to search by name.

Tweet

An update on Twitter or a Twitter post is called a Tweet.

Tweeps/Tweeples
A cluster of friends on Twitter. Frequently used to address all of your followers at once, e.g.”Morning, Tweeples!”.

Tweeter
A Twitter user.

Twittering
To send a Twitter message or a Tweet.

Twitterstream
The Twitter timeline, both your own and the public one.

Twitosphere/Statusphere/Twitverse
The community or universe of Twitter users.

Twittworking
Networking with other Twitter users.

Twoops
Sending a private message to Twitter by accident.

Twoosh
A full 140 character Twitter message.

Twype
Typing a Twitter message.

Resources:

For a glossary of Twitter terminology(also called twerminology), check out the Twittonary:

Also check out the Twitter Help for Complete list of Twitter commands here.

Twitter Phone FAQ can be found here.

With this we come to an end of our Twitter Basics. So at the end of Day 1 you are largely familiar with Twitter and we hope you’ve made your twitter account(and are following us)

Do tell us if we’ve missed anything. Also read the Twittonary to know several words which originated from Twitter. Some of them are outright funny. We’ll be back with some twitter apps and more information tomorrow.