This is if you have emacs-based keybindings (which is the default). M-f/M-b (Meta, often the alt key or option key) will move forward/backward a full word. C-f/C-b moves forward/backward a character. C-w kills the previous word (if you're in the middle of a word it leaves everything from the cursor to the end intact).

C-r will search backward in your history allowing you to type partial matches (like, "I know I compiled foo.c, but what options did I use?" type `C-r foo.c` and repeatedly type C-r until I find the compiler command I used).

https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bindable-... - for a lot more options

You can switch to vi keybindings with `set -o vi`.

Aren't all terminal bindings emacs-based, since they inherit from libreadline?

By default, yes. (Well, its not the terminal but the shell that takes input) but readline has support for vi bindings configuration

zsh doesn't use readline

I use Ctrl+u if I think I might have added a typo in a password and have not yet typed enter

This also works in any native text input on macOS.

On macOS, I also use ctrl+x go to the beginning of the line.

TIL there are scenarios where ^X doesn't just cut text.

(Never used macOS. Welp. Guess I have a lot of relearning to do.)