Mahjong glossary
Every term from the learning system, defined plainly. 46 entries.
- Bam
- Bamboo suit tile, 1–9; 1 Bam usually shows a bird.
- Bettor
- Fifth player who sits out and bets on a player.
- Blind pass
- Passing received tiles unseen; first left and last right only.
- Call
- Claiming the most recent discard.
- Card
- The annual NMJL list of winning hands.
- Charleston
- The required pre-play tile passing (first round) plus optional second round and courtesy pass.
- Cold wall / hot wall
- House rules, not NMJL rules.
- Concealed (C)
- A hand with no exposures; only the winning tile may be called.
- Courtesy pass
- Optional 0–3 tile exchange across the table after the Charleston.
- Crak
- Character suit tile, 1–9; pairs with Red Dragon.
- Dead hand
- A hand declared unplayable by an opponent; the player stops play but still pays.
- Discard
- A tile put face up in the center.
- Dogging
- Defensive play that sacrifices your own hand.
- Dot
- Circle suit tile, 1–9; pairs with White Dragon.
- Down
- A discard that has touched the table or been named.
- Dragon
- Red, Green, or White; four each.
- East
- The dealer; starts with 14 tiles and discards first.
- Exposure
- A called group placed face up on the rack.
- Flower (F)
- One of 8 interchangeable tiles.
- Floor
- The discard area.
- Heavenly Hand
- East declaring Mahjong before the Charleston.
- Hot tile
- A tile likely to complete an opponent's hand.
- Joker
- One of 8 wild tiles; groups of 3+ only.
- Joker exchange
- Swapping a natural tile for a joker in an exposure, on your turn, after picking.
- Kong
- 4 identical tiles.
- Like numbers
- The same number across groups.
- Line
- One hand on the card.
- Line finder
- An accessory that highlights one line of the card.
- Mahjong
- The declaration of a completed hand; also the game's name.
- Natural
- Any non-joker tile.
- NEWS
- One each of North, East, West, South; no jokers.
- NMJL
- National Mah Jongg League, founded 1937.
- Pair
- 2 identical tiles; no jokers.
- Pung
- 3 identical tiles.
- Pusher
- Rack arm used to push the wall forward.
- Quint
- 5 identical tiles.
- Rack
- Tile holder; “racking” a tile closes the window to call the prior discard.
- Self-pick
- Drawing your own winning tile (includes winning via joker exchange).
- Sextet
- 6 identical tiles.
- Shuffler
- Flat paddle used in pairs to mix tiles.
- Singles & Pairs
- Concealed, jokerless section; highest values.
- Soap
- White Dragon; zero in year hands.
- Wall
- The 19-long, 2-high rows of face-down tiles.
- Wall game
- A game with no winner; no one pays.
- Window of opportunity
- The time during which a discard may be called.
- Year hand
- A hand built on the current year's digits, using Soap as zero.
New to the game? Start with Phase 1: Watch.