Don't try to memorize this list. Skim it once, then come back when someone says a word you don't recognize. Within a few game nights, these terms will feel natural.
- Bam
- Short for Bamboo, one of the three suits, numbered 1 to 9. The 1 Bam is usually a bird rather than a bamboo stick. Bams go with the green dragon.
- Blind pass
- During the last pass of the first Charleston, and the last pass of the second, you may pass on one, two, or all three of the tiles you're receiving without looking at them, instead of tiles from your own hand. Also called "stealing."
- Breaking the wall
- After the walls are built, East rolls the dice and counts along the wall to find where dealing begins. That spot is where the wall is "broken."
- Calling
- Claiming a tile someone just discarded by saying "call." In American mahjong you can only call a discard to complete an exposure, such as a pung or kong, or to declare Mahjong.
- The card
- The official list of that year's winning hands, published annually by the National Mah Jongg League. We never reproduce it here; order it at nationalmahjonggleague.org. Learn how to read the card.
- Charleston
- The tile-passing round before play begins. Everyone passes three tiles right, across, and left, with an optional second round and a courtesy pass. See our Charleston rules and practice in the Charleston simulator.
- Concealed (C)
- A hand marked C on the card must be built entirely from tiles you pick from the wall. The only discard you can take is the one that gives you Mahjong.
- Consecutive run
- A family of hands built from numbers in a row, like 3, 4, 5, 6.
- Courtesy pass
- An optional final exchange of up to three tiles with the player across from you. Each of you says how many you want to trade, and you trade the lower number.
- Crak
- Short for Character, one of the three suits, numbered 1 to 9. Each tile shows the Chinese character 萬 (wàn, "ten thousand"). Craks go with the red dragon.
- Dead hand
- A hand that can no longer win, for example because of a wrong exposure or the wrong number of tiles. The player stops picking and discarding. At most tables, a dead hand still pays when someone else wins; house rules vary.
- Discard
- The tile you throw face up into the middle of the table at the end of your turn. Name it out loud as you do.
- Dot
- Also called Circles, one of the three suits, numbered 1 to 9. Dots go with the white dragon, or soap.
- Dragon
- There are three dragons, four of each: red, green, and white. Each is paired with a suit: red with Craks, green with Bams, white with Dots.
- East
- The dealer for the current game. East starts with 14 tiles and makes the first discard. The role moves to the right after each game.
- Exposed (X)
- A hand marked X on the card may be built partly from called discards that you expose on your rack.
- Exposure
- A group of tiles you've placed face up on your rack after calling a discard. Once exposed, it stays there for the rest of the game.
- Flower
- There are eight flower tiles. Their pictures vary from set to set, but in American mahjong all flowers count as the same tile, and they appear inside many hands.
- Hot tile
- A tile that might give another player Mahjong if you discard it.
- Joker
- One of eight wild tiles. A joker can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more identical tiles, but never in a pair or a single. Jokers can't be passed in the Charleston. More in our jokers guide.
- Joker exchange (redeeming a joker)
- On your turn, if any player's exposure includes a joker and you have the real tile it represents, you may swap your tile for the joker. Many tables also call this "redeeming" a joker.
- Jokerless
- Winning without any jokers in your hand. At many tables, a jokerless win doubles the payout, except for hands that can't use jokers anyway.
- Kitty (or pot)
- A shared pool of money some groups keep, paid out under the group's own rules. Not every table uses one; house rules vary.
- Kong
- A group of four identical tiles. Jokers can be used.
- Like numbers
- A family of hands built from the same number in different suits, such as 7 Bams, 7 Craks, and 7 Dots.
- Mahjong
- The name of the game, and what you say when you complete a winning 14-tile hand that matches the card.
- NEWS
- Shorthand for the four winds, North, East, West, and South, which often appear together in a hand.
- Pair
- Two identical tiles. Jokers can never be used in a pair.
- Pung
- A group of three identical tiles. Jokers can be used.
- Pusher
- The long arm attached to a rack that helps you push your section of the wall forward toward the center of the table.
- Quint
- A group of five identical tiles. Because there are only four of most tiles, a quint almost always uses at least one joker.
- Rack
- The long holder that keeps your tiles standing up and facing you. Exposures go on its front ledge.
- Second Charleston
- An optional second round of passing: left, across, then right. Any player may choose to stop it before it begins.
- Self-pick
- Winning with a tile you picked from the wall yourself, rather than a discard. Under common rules, everyone pays you double.
- Sextet
- A group of six identical tiles, which always needs jokers.
- Single
- One tile on its own within a hand. Jokers can never be used as singles.
- Soap
- The nickname for the white dragon. On the card, it can also stand for the number zero.
- Suit
- One of the three sets of numbered tiles: Bams, Craks, and Dots. Each suit has four copies of each number from 1 to 9.
- Wall
- The tiles stacked face down in front of each player before the deal. In a four-player game, each wall is 19 stacks of two tiles, pushed together into a square.
- Wall game
- A game that ends with no winner because the wall ran out. Usually nobody pays, the tiles are mixed, and a new game begins.
- Wind
- Four kinds of wind tiles, North, East, West, and South, with four of each.
- Year hand
- A hand built from the digits of the current year, with soap standing in for zero. The card typically includes a few each year.
Learn the words by playing
The fastest way to make these terms stick is to use them. Learn the tiles by name with the tile quiz, walk through a deal in the Charleston simulator, and read how to play American mahjong for the big picture. You've got this.
