Quick reference
American Mahjong Glossary
Plain-English meanings for the words you will hear around the table.
B
Bams: One of the three numbered suits, also called bamboos.
Blind pass: Passing one or more received tiles onward without looking at them, where permitted during the Charleston.
C
Call: Announcing that you want the most recent discard to complete a legal exposure or Mahjong.
Charleston: The structured pre-play sequence in which players pass three tiles at a time.
Concealed hand: A hand marked C on the card that cannot be exposed through ordinary calls.
Craks: The numbered character suit, one through nine.
Courtesy pass: The optional final exchange between players seated across from each other.
D–E
Dead hand: A hand that cannot legally win because an exposure or tile count makes it impossible.
Dots: The numbered circle suit, one through nine.
East: The dealer position that begins with 14 tiles and makes the first discard.
Exposure: A completed group placed on top of the rack after calling a discard.
F–J
Flowers: Interchangeable bonus tiles used wherever F appears on the card.
Honors: Winds and dragons.
Joker: A wild tile allowed in groups of three or more identical tiles, but not in singles or pairs.
K–P
Kong: Four identical tiles.
Mahjong: A complete legal hand matching the current card; also the declaration made when completing it.
Natural: The actual tile represented in a group, as opposed to a joker.
Pair: Two identical tiles.
Pung: Three identical tiles.
Q–W
Quint: Five identical tiles; at least one joker is required because sets contain only four natural copies of a tile.
Rack: The stand that holds a player’s concealed tiles.
Soap: A common nickname for the white dragon, also used as zero where the card specifies.
Wall: The face-down rows of tiles built before dealing.
Winds: East, South, West, and North honor tiles.