Elaboration
Beginner
The step where the tool reads the design description and builds its own picture of it.
Novice
The first step of synthesis. The tool reads the design code, fills in settings such as bus widths, connects the modules, and builds a generic circuit of adders, comparators, selectors and storage elements that isn’t tied to any library yet.
Expert
Resolving parameters and generate blocks, building the module hierarchy, and turning each always block into word-level operators, multiplexers and inferred flip-flops, latches or memories. The result is a technology-independent netlist. Unintended latches and width mismatches show up here first, so elaboration warnings get read before anything else.