Mahjong Glossary
Mahjong tables love their jargon — and every variant adds its own dialect. Here are the 42 terms you'll actually hear, decoded in plain English.
B
- BambooSets & Tiles
- The second number suit, drawn as sticks of bamboo (1–9). Its 1-tile is traditionally a bird.
- Blood BattleGameplay
- Sichuan ruleset where play continues after the first win until three players have won or the wall runs dry.
C
- Call / ClaimGameplay
- Interrupting the flow to take a discarded tile for a chow, pung, kong or a winning hand.
- CharactersSets & Tiles
- The number suit marked with Chinese numerals over a 万 (wan) label (1–9). Also called cracks or wan.
- CharlestonAmerican
- The pre-play passing ritual in American mahjong: three rounds of passing tiles right, across and left.
- ChomboEtiquette
- A rule-breaking penalty in riichi (e.g. an invalid win declaration) — typically a fixed point payment to the table.
- ChowGameplay
- A run of three consecutive tiles in one suit (e.g. 4-5-6 circles). Claimed only from the discard of the player to your left.
- CirclesSets & Tiles
- The number suit drawn as stacked coins or dots (1–9). Also called dots or tong.
- ConcealedGameplay
- Hand state with no exposed called sets — usually required for the biggest scoring patterns.
D
- Dead WallGameplay
- The reserved section of the wall (14 tiles classically) that kongs draw replacement tiles from.
- Deal-inGameplay
- Discarding the tile another player needs to win. The discarder (alone) pays the winner's full hand value.
- DealerGameplay
- The East player for the current hand — starts play, scores extra when winning and pays extra when discarding a losing tile.
- Discard pondGameplay
- A player's row of discarded tiles in front of them — public information used for defense and tile counting.
- DoraRiichi
- Riichi bonus tiles that add han when held. Indicators are revealed publicly; the actual dora is the next tile in sequence.
- DoubleScoring
- A scoring pattern that multiplies a hand's value — the backbone of Classical and Hong Kong scoring charts.
- Draw / Wall gameGameplay
- The hand ends with no winner because the wall ran out; resolved by ready-hand payouts or a simple push depending on variant.
E
- EyeGameplay
- The mandatory pair every standard winning hand contains — also called the winning pair.
F
- FanScoring
- The pattern unit in Hong Kong-style play. Hands need a minimum (usually 3) and payments grow with fan.
- Flowers & SeasonsSets & Tiles
- Eight bonus tiles in 144-tile sets. Set aside for instant payouts; never part of a winning hand in most variants.
- FuScoring
- Riichi minipoints derived from waits, pairs and calls. Combined with han, they index the final payment table.
- FuritenRiichi
- A blocked-win state: your winning tile is in your own discard pond (or you passed on it after declaring riichi). You cannot ron until the state clears.
J
- JokerAmerican
- One of eight wild tiles in American sets. Substitutes in pungs/kongs/quints/sextets but never for a pair-only tile or a lone needed tile.
K
- KongGameplay
- Four of a kind, declared aloud and paid as a special set. Draws a replacement tile from the dead wall.
L
- Limit handScoring
- A named special hand (e.g. Thirteen Orphans) that pays a fixed maximum, capping the normal score calculation.
M
- Mahjong (win call)Gameplay
- The declaration made when completing a legal hand — claimed on a discard (ron) or on your own draw (zimo/tsumo).
N
- NMJL CardAmerican
- The National Mah Jongg League's annually published list of legal American winning hands — the rulebook of the variant.
P
- PungGameplay
- Three identical tiles, the most common exposed set. Claimable from any opponent's discard.
Q
- QuintAmerican
- Five of a kind — possible only with jokers — and a staple group type on the NMJL card.
R
- Ready hand / TenpaiGameplay
- A hand one tile short of winning. Tenpai status matters at draws (riichi payouts, Classical checks) and for defense reads.
- Replacement tileGameplay
- The extra tile drawn after declaring a kong or setting aside a flower — taken from the dead wall.
- RiichiRiichi
- The Japanese declaration that locks a closed tenpai hand, pays a 1,000-point deposit and grants bonus dora chances.
- Robbing a KongGameplay
- Claiming the tile another player uses to extend or declare a kong, in the narrow cases where rules allow it (usually to win).
- RonRiichi
- Winning off an opponent's discard in riichi — the discarder pays the full hand value alone.
- Round WindGameplay
- The prevailing wind of the current round (East Round, then South…). Wind sets matching it score bonuses.
S
- Seat WindGameplay
- The wind assigned to your seat (dealer = East, right = South, across = West, left = North). Matching pungs score.
- Self-draw / ZimoGameplay
- Winning on a tile you drew yourself. Typically paid by all opponents and often scores a small bonus.
- SujiRiichi
- A defensive heuristic in riichi: tiles whose neighbors have been discarded early are statistically safe against runs.
T
- TaiScoring
- The scoring unit of Taiwanese mahjong — a fan-like catalogue with bigger numbers and higher caps.
- TanyaoRiichi
- A common yaku: all simples — a hand containing no terminals (1s/9s) and no honors.
- Thirteen OrphansScoring
- The classic limit hand: one of each terminal and honor tile plus a pair of any of them. Also called kokushi in riichi.
W
- WallGameplay
- The double-row line of face-down tiles players build at the start; drawing from it is how tiles enter your hand.
Y
- YakuRiichi
- A defined scoring pattern that doubles as a win-eligibility requirement — every riichi hand must contain at least one.
Want the terms in context? Read the variant guides — every term here appears there in real play situations.