Mahjong glossary
The words you'll hear at your first mahj night, each in one sentence, with a link to the lesson that explains it properly.
- Bam
- One of the three suits, drawn as bamboo sticks, numbered 1–9. The 1 Bam is usually a bird. Lesson →
- Blind pass
- Passing on tiles you just received without looking at them, allowed on the last pass of each Charleston. Lesson →
- Breaking the wall
- East rolls the dice and splits the wall to decide where dealing starts. Lesson →
- Call
- Claiming the latest discard to complete an exposure or to win. Lesson →
- Card
- The National Mah Jongg League's annual list of winning hands. Everyone plays from the current year's card. Lesson →
- Charleston
- The passing ritual before play: three tiles right, across and left, an optional second round, then an optional courtesy pass. Lesson →
- Concealed (C)
- A hand marked C must be built from your own picks, except the final tile. Lesson →
- Courtesy pass
- After the Charleston, an optional swap of zero to three tiles with the player across. Lesson →
- Crak
- One of the three suits, marked with a Chinese character and a number 1–9. Short for "character". Lesson →
- Dead hand
- A hand that can no longer match any hand on the card. That player keeps picking and discarding but can't win. Lesson →
- Discard
- The tile you throw face up in the middle at the end of your turn, naming it aloud. Lesson →
- Dot
- One of the three suits, drawn as circles, numbered 1–9. Lesson →
- Dragon
- Red, Green or White; four of each. Red goes with Craks, Green with Bams, White with Dots. Lesson →
- East
- The dealer. East starts with 14 tiles and discards first; the seat passes to the right after each game. Lesson →
- Exposed (X)
- A hand marked X may be built by calling discards and showing groups on your rack. Lesson →
- Exposure
- A group placed face up on top of your rack after a call. It can't be taken back. Lesson →
- Flower
- Eight interchangeable flower tiles. Any flower matches any other flower. Lesson →
- Joker
- One of eight wild tiles. Usable in groups of three or more, never in singles or pairs. Lesson →
- Jokerless
- A winning hand with no jokers. It pays double. Lesson →
- Kong
- Four identical tiles. Lesson →
- Mahj
- Players' nickname for the game: "mahj night". Lesson →
- Mahjong
- Declaring that your 14 tiles match a hand on the card. Also the name of the game. Lesson →
- NMJL
- The National Mah Jongg League, which publishes the card every spring. Lesson →
- Pair
- Two identical tiles. Jokers can't be used for pairs. Lesson →
- Pick
- Taking the next tile from the wall on your turn. Lesson →
- Pung
- Three identical tiles. Lesson →
- Pusher
- The arm attached to a rack, used to push your wall forward. Lesson →
- Quint
- Five identical tiles; always needs at least one joker. Lesson →
- Rack
- The tray that holds your tiles facing you. Exposed groups sit on top of it. Lesson →
- Redeem a joker
- Swapping the real tile for a joker in any exposure, on your turn. Lesson →
- Second Charleston
- The optional repeat of the passing, in reverse order: left, across, right. Any player may stop it. Lesson →
- Section
- A group of hands on the card that share a theme, such as even numbers or winds and dragons. Lesson →
- Self-pick
- Winning with a tile you drew from the wall yourself. All three players pay double. Lesson →
- Sextet
- Six identical tiles; always needs at least two jokers. Lesson →
- Single
- One tile on its own in a hand. Jokers can't be used for singles. Lesson →
- Soap
- Nickname for the White Dragon. It also stands for zero in hands that spell a year. Lesson →
- Suit
- Bams, Craks or Dots. Each suit has tiles numbered 1–9, four of each. Lesson →
- Wall
- The rows of face-down tiles, 19 long and 2 high, that players pick from. Lesson →
- Wall game
- A game in which the wall runs out before anyone wins. Nobody pays. Lesson →
- Wind
- North, East, West or South; four of each, 16 in all. Often written NEWS. Lesson →