The chromatic number of a graph. The minimal number of colors needed to color the vertices of the graph such that no two vertices which share an edge have the same color.

The Alon-Tarsi number of a graph. Let $G$ be a graph with vertices $\{1,\dots,n\}$ and edge set $E$. Let $P_G=\prod_{i < j, (i,j)\in E} x_i-x_j$ be its graph polynomial. Then the Alon-Tarsi number is the smallest number $k$ such that $P_G$ contains a monomial with exponents strictly less than $k$.

The Grundy number of a graph. The Grundy number $\Gamma(G)$ is defined to be the largest $k$ such that $G$ admits a greedy $k$-coloring. Any order of the vertices of $G$ induces a greedy coloring by assigning to the $i$-th vertex in this order the smallest positive integer such that the partial coloring remains a proper coloring. In particular, we have that $\chi(G) \leq \Gamma(G) \leq \Delta(G) + 1$, where $\chi(G)$ is the chromatic number of $G$ ([[St000098]]), and where $\Delta(G)$ is the maximal degree of a vertex of $G$ ([[St000171]]).

The distinguishing number of a graph. This is the minimal number of colours needed to colour the vertices of a graph, such that only the trivial automorphism of the graph preserves the colouring. For connected graphs, this statistic is at most one plus the maximal degree of the graph, with equality attained for complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs and the cycle with five vertices, see Theorem 4.2 of [2].

The hull number of a graph. The convex hull of a set of vertices $S$ of a graph is the smallest set $h(S)$ such that for any pair $u,v\in h(S)$ all vertices on a shortest path from $u$ to $v$ are also in $h(S)$. The hull number is the size of the smallest set $S$ such that $h(S)$ is the set of all vertices.

The Hadwiger number of the graph. Also known as clique contraction number, this is the size of the largest complete minor.

The game chromatic number of a graph. Two players, Alice and Bob, take turns colouring properly any uncolored vertex of the graph. Alice begins. If it is not possible for either player to colour a vertex, then Bob wins. If the graph is completely colored, Alice wins. The game chromatic number is the smallest number of colours such that Alice has a winning strategy.

The acyclic chromatic number of a graph. This is the smallest size of a vertex partition $\{V_1,\dots,V_k\}$ such that each $V_i$ is an independent set and for all $i,j$ the subgraph inducted by $V_i\cup V_j$ does not contain a cycle.

The achromatic number of a graph. This is the maximal number of colours of a proper colouring, such that for any pair of colours there are two adjacent vertices with these colours.

The general position number of a graph. A set $S$ of vertices in a graph $G$ is a general position set if no three vertices of $S$ lie on a shortest path between any two of them.