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BLAZON

Blazon is a special terminology that is used to describe the colours and features of a coat of arms. It is a robust and consistent concept, which can be adopted to describe any coat of arms heraldically and accurately. The blazon generally describes the field first (the background colour / partitioning of the shield) followed by the charges, ordinaries, and subordinaries (features on the shield).

THE GRAMMAR
The "grammar" of blazon is a very rigid formula. First, the shield is described, beginning with the background colour (tincture).

Every blazon of a coat of arms begins by describing the field (background). In a majority of cases this is a single tincture; e.g. Azure (blue). If the field is complex, the variation is described, followed by the tinctures used; e.g. Chequy gules and argent (checkered red and white). If the shield is divided, the division is described, followed by the tinctures of the subfields, beginning with the dexter end (viewer's left) of the chief (upper) edge; e.g. Party per pale argent and vert (left half silver, right half green), or Quarterly argent and gules (clockwise from top left: white, red, white, red).

Next the principal charge(s) are named, with their tincture(s); e.g. a bend Or.

The principal charge is followed by any other charges placed around or on it. If a charge be a bird or beast, its attitude is described, followed by the animal's tincture, followed by anything that may be differently coloured; e.g. An eagle displayed gules, armed and wings charged with trefoils Or.

Any accessories present — such as crown/coronet, helmet, torse, mantling, crest, motto, supporters and compartment — are then described in turn, using the same terminology and syntax.


Blazon: Party per pale argent and vert, a tree eradicated counterchanged.	Blazon: Argent a lozenge vert.	Blazon: Azure a bend or.	Blazon: Quarterly argent and gules	Blazon: Argent, an eagle displayed gules, armed and wings charged with trefoils Or	Blazon: Argent a chief azure.