Hate List (WoW)
Hate is another term for threat, which is also occasionally called aggro. The terms are interchangeable. However, players generally always use the word Hate when talking about the listing of how ticked off an NPC opponent is toward players.
In simple terms, everything you do to a mob will make it angry and generate hate toward you. If you have more hate than anyone else, the mob should turn and attack you. 1 point of damage creates 1 point of hate, and so does 2 points of healing toward any target that is on the mob's hate list already. (This is why healers need to be careful on pulls.) However, a few abilities generate more or less hate than they should. Sunder Armor, for instance, doesn't deal any damage, but it generates a significant amount of hate; warriors use this skill to help maintain enough hate against a target to tank it.
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Tanking
Each tanking class has a few abilities that help them maintain hate. Taunt, for instance, makes the warrior (or druid or paladin) simply have an equal amount of hate to the highest target on the list, as well as automatically having the attention of the mob for a few seconds so they can surpass the other person. The main job of a tank is to "threat up" each of the targets they are trying to keep focused on attacking them so the DPS can damage them safely.
Other classes
Whether or not the tank is doing an effective job of generating aggro on the enemies, it is still the job of the other players to try to stay below the tank. Healers might not have much they can do about this, since refusing to heal will get someone else killed. However, most DPS classes can simply hold back and not deal damage until the tank's level of hate goes up further. Many classes have abilities that will reduce or eliminate their threat levels so they can continue to deal damage. One such example is Vanish.
The 10% rule
Although it has been stated above that the person with the highest threat level becomes the target, this is not completely true. If one player has aggro, for another player to take aggro, they must exceed the first player's threat level by 10% or more. This means that if a rogue pulls hate from a tank, the tank effectively has to generate about 20% more threat than he already has, plus whatever the rogue continues to do.
Example:
WarriorJoe has 10000 points of hate and the attention of the mob.
RogueBob would need to have 11000 (10% more than Joe) to pull hate.
Once Bob hits that 11000 mark, even if he sits and does nothing, Joe still needs to reach an extra 10% above Bob to get the mob back, which is 12100.
This is why abilities like Taunt and Vanish are important, but also important that players are considering the damage they deal. A "lucky" string of crits, especially early in a fight, could pull the attention of the target away.
The 30% rule
The 10% rule applies to targets in melee range. For a mob to be bothered to stop what they are doing and march over to a mage or hunter to whack them, they have to bother him considerably more. Of course, this means if they DO pull aggro, it will be even harder for the tank to get hate back.
Example:
WarriorJoe has 10000 points of hate and the attention of the mob.
HunterHank has to get to 13000 (30% more than Joe) to pull hate.
Once Hank reaches 13000 hate, the mob will take off toward him. Not only will Joe need to run over to the mob, but he will then need to exceed Hank's hate by 10%, or 14300.
Dropping Aggro
Abilities like Vanish, Feign Death, Invisibility, and Divine Shield all remove the target from the hate list completely. (Temporarily, in Divine Shield's case.) One must be very careful in situations like this, since other players who are pushing the limits but not breaking them can get harmed when someone else pulls hate and uses one of these.
Example:
JoeWarrior has 10000 points of hate and the attention of the mob.
MageMike has 11000 points of hate.
HunterHank has 12500 points of hate.
Hank does not have aggro...yet. But with another 500 points, he will. One Aimed Shot crit later, the mob is running over to Hank. Hank realizes this and drops to the ground by feigning death. This takes Hank off the list completely and he will start from zero if he enters combat again. However, the mob has no frame of reference, so it looks for the person who has bothered it the most, which is Mike. Mike was minding his own business, and well within his limits, but the mob runs over and makes Mike go squish before Joe can reach it and taunt.
Mods for Threat Levels
There are several different mods that monitor hate levels. Collectively, these are usually called Threat Meters. The original mod that met with some level of success was KLHTM. A few months later, Omen was developed, which is typically considered the current standard. In order for a player to know about your threat level, you typically need to be running the mod yourself as well. Most raiding guilds consider it a responsibility for each member to have a particular threat meter installed.