A term which came from the Virtua Fighter community, but, for various reasons, including
David Sirlin's Web Articles/
Book on Playing to Win, it has
spread to all fighting games.
Yomi is a
Japanese term meaning "Knowing the mind of the opponent", and is essentially an intangible asset required in fighting games. It's the ability to know what your opponent is going to do, and act appropriately. Whether you achieve this by "conditioning" the opponent to act one way, and then acting in another way, or simply work your way into the head of your opponent, yomi is just that: the ability to know what your opponent is going to do.
I
got owned by an insane
Akuma rushdown. He kept hitting me with flip throws and flip
kicks, so I decided to shut him up with a wake up Shoryuken. He parried it and punished with a Raging Demon! Talk about yomi.