A major challenge for some in learning to tie knots is the terminology. For our purposes, we will only concentrate on a few special words:

• Standing End - This portion of the rope (or line) is the long side. It carries the load of the object you may be hauling or dragging.
• Running End - This is end of the rope where you are actually tying the knot.
• Bight - Usually the middle of the rope. We sometimes tie a knot in the "bight" or middle of the rope when we don't have access to either end of the rope.
• Loop - A loop is a circle of rope in which a rope crosses itself.

Here is a more comprehensive article on knot terminology: Knot Terminology.