Mahjong Terminology: 40 Essential Terms
Use this mahjong terminology guide to learn 40 essential tile, hand, call, scoring, riichi, and American terms with clear variant labels and examples.
Quick answer
This mahjong terminology guide labels every term by ruleset. Similar shapes may be called chow/chii, pung/pon, and kong/kan, but a shared translation does not make claim timing or scoring universal.
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This mahjong terminology guide labels every term by ruleset. Similar shapes may be called chow/chii, pung/pon, and kong/kan, but a shared translation does not make claim timing or scoring universal.
Core table terms
| Term | Plain-English meaning |
|---|---|
| Wall | Face-down stacks from which players draw |
| Hand | A player’s concealed tiles plus any exposed sets |
| Draw | Take the next legal tile |
| Discard | Place one tile face up and end the normal turn |
| Call / claim | Interrupt normal order to use the latest discard legally |
| Dealer / East | The player who begins the hand and has dealer status |
| Round | A larger unit containing several hands |
Live wall means the normal draw portion. A dead wall or replacement area is reserved under variants such as riichi or some Chinese rules. American play builds walls but uses its own serving and draw procedure.
Tile terms
Suit — One of the 3 numbered families: Dots, Bamboo, and Characters. Each runs from 1 through 9.
Honor tile — A wind or dragon. Honors have no numeric sequence.
Terminal — A 1 or 9 tile in a numbered suit.
Simple — A suited tile numbered 2 through 8. The term is especially common in riichi analysis.
Wind — East, South, West, or North. A wind may also identify a player’s seat or the current round.
Dragon — Red, green, or white honor tile.
Flower / season — A variant-specific bonus tile. American flowers function as hand tiles on the annual card; many Chinese rules expose and replace them.
Joker — A restricted wild tile in American and some regional games. Joker rules are not universal.
Set and hand-shape terms
| English / Chinese-style | Japanese riichi | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Chow | Chii | 3 consecutive tiles in 1 suit |
| Pung / pong | Pon | 3 identical tiles |
| Kong | Kan | 4 identical tiles |
| Pair / eyes | Toitsu | 2 identical tiles |
| Set / meld | Mentsu | A sequence, triplet, or quad used in the hand |
A chow cannot mix suits, include honors, or wrap from 9 back to 1. A kong normally requires a replacement draw because it uses 4 physical tiles while filling one set position.
Four sets and a pair — The common 14-tile winning structure in many Chinese and Japanese games. Special hands and American card lines can use different structures.
Wait — The tile or tiles that complete a hand. A single wait in casual English means only one tile identity wins, but named wait shapes and scoring differ.
Open, exposed, and concealed
Concealed / closed hand — The player has not opened ordinary groups by claiming discards. A concealed kong may be treated separately.
Open hand — Common riichi and Chinese term for a hand with a called group.
Exposure — American term for a called group displayed on top of the rack.
Natural tile — In American play, the actual tile identity rather than a joker substituting for it.
Dead hand — A hand no longer eligible to win because of a rules error or impossible exposed pattern. American rules use this phrase formally; other variants use their own penalty terms.
Do not assume “concealed” has one scoring value. It may preserve yaku in riichi, affect fan in Chinese rules, or be an explicit annual-card requirement in American play.
Common win and scoring terms
Mahjong / Mah Jongg — A complete legal winning hand and the declaration of that win.
Self-draw — Win on a tile drawn from the wall. Riichi calls this tsumo.
Discard win — Win by claiming another player’s discard. Riichi calls this ron.
Fan / faan — A unit or category of hand value in several Chinese scoring systems. The calculation is not identical across MCR and Hong Kong rules.
Points — The final numeric result or a scoring-unit label. Ask which table is being referenced.
Limit hand — A hand capped or assigned a maximum-tier value. Names and thresholds vary.
Payment — The transfer after a win. Self-draw, dealer status, and discarder responsibility can change who pays.
Japanese riichi terms
Riichi — A declaration made by an eligible closed hand in tenpai, normally with a 1,000-point deposit.
Tenpai — One tile away from a legal complete shape.
Yaku — A qualifying condition needed to win. A complete shape without yaku cannot win.
Han — A doubling-based unit used to value yaku and dora.
Fu — Minipoints based on hand composition and wait details.
Dora — Bonus tiles determined by indicators. Dora add value but are not yaku by themselves.
Furiten — A restriction that can prevent a player from winning by ron. It does not prevent a legal self-draw win.
Ippatsu — A conditional bonus yaku after declaring riichi, subject to interruption rules.
Yakuman — The highest class of rare riichi hands; not simply “a lot of han” under every rulebook.
Use the World Riichi Championship rules when these terms affect a formal ruling.
American Mah Jongg terms
Annual card — The current publisher’s list of legal 14-tile winning hands and values.
Charleston — The structured pre-play exchange of 3 tiles in prescribed directions.
Courtesy pass — An optional exchange with the player across after the Charleston.
Pung, kong, quint, sextet — American groups of 3, 4, 5, or 6 identical tiles. Large groups normally require jokers because a natural set has only 4 copies.
Rack / pusher — Equipment used to hold tiles and move walls or passes.
Soap — American nickname for the white dragon. It can represent zero on year patterns.
Bams, Craks, Dots — American names for Bamboo, Characters, and Circles.
The American Mah Jongg Association glossary and our American rules guide provide the procedure behind these terms.
Spelling and romanization
Mahjong, mah jong, mah-jong, and Mah-Jongg all appear in English. The National Mah Jongg League uses “Mah Jongg.” Japanese sources use chii, pon, and kan where many English-language Chinese guides use chow, pung, and kong.
Use the vocabulary of the active table, but define it without implying that other regional words are incorrect. The safest glossary entry always answers 2 questions: what shape or action does this mean, and under which rules?
Frequently asked questions
What are the basic mahjong terms?
Start with wall, hand, draw, discard, chow, pung, kong, pair, concealed, exposed, and Mah Jongg. Then add the scoring vocabulary for your exact variant.
Are pung, pon, and pong the same?
They describe the same basic shape: 3 identical tiles. Pung and pong appear in Chinese and English sources; pon is standard Japanese riichi terminology. Claim procedure still depends on the variant.
What is the difference between chow and chii?
Both mean a 3-tile consecutive sequence in one numbered suit. Chow is common English terminology; chii is the Japanese call, normally allowed only from the player to your left.
Why does mahjong have different spellings?
Mahjong vocabulary passed through several Chinese languages, Japanese, and commercial English spellings. Mahjong, mah jong, and Mah-Jongg can signal communities or brands, but context matters more than punctuation.