American Mahjong Glossary: 40+ Terms in Plain English
American Mahjong has its own vocabulary, and most of it comes up in your first game. Here is every word you are likely to hear at the table, defined in a sentence or two. Each term has its own link, so you can send a friend straight to it.
If you are brand new, start with how to play and come back here when a word trips you up.
- 2468
- A family of hands on the card built only from the even numbers 2, 4, 6 and 8.
- 13579
- A family of hands built only from the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.
- 369
- A family of hands built from the numbers 3, 6 and 9.
- Bams
- The bamboo suit, numbered 1 to 9. The 1 bam usually shows a bird. The green dragon goes with bams.
- Blind pass
- On the last pass of a Charleston, passing one to three of the tiles you just received on to the next player without looking at them.
- Call
- Claiming another player's discard, out of turn, to complete an exposed group or to win. You say "call" before the next player draws and racks a tile or discards.
- Card
- The list of winning hands for the year, published each spring by the National Mah Jongg League. You can only win with a hand on the current card.
- Charleston
- The tile-passing round before play starts: three tiles right, across, then left, then an optional second round going the other way.
- Concealed hand
- A hand you must build entirely in your rack, with no exposures. You may only call a discard if it is your winning tile. The card marks these hands with a C.
- Consecutive run
- A family of hands made from numbers in a row, such as 5, 6 and 7.
- Courtesy pass
- An optional swap of zero to three tiles with the player across from you after the Charleston. Both players pass the same number.
- Cracks
- The character suit, numbered 1 to 9. Also spelled craks. The red dragon goes with cracks.
- Dead hand
- A hand that can no longer win, for example because its exposures fit no hand on the card. The player stops drawing and discarding but still pays the winner.
- Dead tile
- A discard that can no longer be called, because the next player has racked a tile or discarded. A discarded joker is dead too, with one exception: if the discarder names a joker as a real tile (say, "5 dot") and that tile is someone's winning tile, that player may claim it for Mahjong. This is a misnamed joker, and the discarder pays for the whole table.
- Discard
- The tile you place face up in the middle of the table at the end of your turn, saying its name out loud.
- Dots
- The circle suit, numbered 1 to 9. The white dragon, or Soap, goes with dots.
- Dragons
- Three honor tiles, green, red and white, four of each. Each dragon is linked to one suit.
- East
- The dealer for the current hand. East starts with 14 tiles and discards first. The deal passes to the right after each hand.
- Exposure
- A group of three or more tiles you completed by calling a discard and placed face up on top of your rack.
- Flowers
- Eight tiles showing flowers or seasons. All flowers are interchangeable, and many hands on the card use them.
- Hot tile
- A tile that looks likely to give another player Mahjong, judged from their exposures and the discards so far.
- Joker
- A wild tile. There are eight. A joker can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more, but never in a single or a pair.
- Joker exchange
- On your turn, swapping the real tile for a joker in any exposure on the table, including your own. Also called redeeming a joker.
- Jokerless
- A winning hand with no jokers in it. It pays double, except for singles and pairs hands.
- Kong
- Four identical tiles, such as four 5 dots. Jokers may be used.
- Like numbers
- A family of hands that uses the same number in more than one suit.
- Mahjong
- What you say when your 14 tiles match a hand on the card. It ends the hand. It is also the name of the game.
- NEWS
- The four winds, north, east, west and south, together. Several hands on the card use one of each.
- Pair
- Two identical tiles. A pair can never include a joker, and you can only call a discard to make a pair if it wins the game.
- Pung
- Three identical tiles, such as three north winds. Jokers may be used.
- Pusher
- The long arm that attaches to a rack, used to push your section of the wall toward the center.
- Quint
- Five identical tiles. A set only has four of each tile, so a quint needs at least one joker, unless it is made of flowers.
- Rack
- The stand that holds your tiles facing you. Exposures sit on top of it.
- Self-drawn
- Winning with a tile you drew from the wall rather than a discard. All three players pay double.
- Sextet
- Six identical tiles. Like a quint, it needs jokers unless it is made of flowers.
- Singles and pairs
- A family of hands made only of single tiles and pairs. They can't use jokers, are played concealed, and never get the jokerless bonus.
- Soap
- The white dragon. It goes with dots, and on the card it also stands for zero, as in the year.
- Suit
- One of the three numbered families: bams, cracks and dots. On the card, each color stands for a different suit.
- Wall
- The square of face-down tiles, two high, that players draw from. Each player builds one side, 19 stacks long.
- Wall game
- A hand that ends because the wall ran out with no winner. Nobody pays.
- Winds
- Four honor tiles, north, east, west and south, four of each. They do not belong to a suit.
- Year hand
- A family of hands built from the digits of the current year, using the Soap as zero.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a pung, a kong and a quint?
- A pung is three identical tiles, a kong is four, and a quint is five. Jokers may be used in all three.
- What does Soap mean in mahjong?
- Soap is the nickname for the white dragon. In American Mahjong it goes with the dots suit and also stands for zero on the card.
- What is an exposure in mahjong?
- An exposure is a group of three or more tiles you completed by calling another player's discard. You place it face up on your rack.
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