Mahjong glossary
Short definitions for the tiles, calls and winning shapes used on this site.
Tiles and suits
What is Mahjong Tile?
A mahjong tile is one piece in the 144-tile set used to build melds and a pair.
What is Number Tiles?
Number tiles are the three suits — characters, bamboo and dots — each numbered 1 to 9.
What is Character Tiles?
Character tiles are the numbered suit marked 萬, running from 1 to 9.
What is Bamboo Tiles?
Bamboo tiles are the suit drawn as sticks, numbered 1 through 9.
What is Dot Tiles?
Dot tiles are the suit drawn as circles, numbered 1 through 9.
Honours
What is Honor Tiles?
Honour tiles are the winds and dragons. They do not form numbered sequences.
What is Wind Tiles?
Wind tiles are the four honour tiles: East, South, West and North.
What is Dragon Tiles?
Dragon tiles are the three honour tiles: Red, Green and White.
Calls and actions
What is Chow?
A chow is a sequence of three tiles in the same suit, usually called from the player on your left.
What is Pong?
A pung is three identical tiles, called from any player’s discard.
What is Kong?
A kong is four identical tiles. It is exposed or concealed, and it draws a replacement tile.
What is Exposed Kong?
An exposed kong is four identical tiles that include a discard or that were opened from a pung.
What is Concealed Kong?
A concealed kong is four identical tiles taken entirely from your own hand and draws.
What is Draw a Tile?
A draw is taking the next tile from the wall.
What is Discard a Tile?
A discard is the tile a player places face-up for others to call or ignore.
Winning hands
What is Win / Complete Hand?
A winning hand is a complete set of melds and a pair that also meets the ruleset’s minimum score.
What is Waiting Hand?
A waiting hand, or tenpai, is one tile away from a complete winning shape.
What is Self-Draw Win?
A self-draw win is a win on a tile you drew yourself, not a discard.
What is Deal-In Win?
A deal-in win is a win on another player’s discard. That player pays in most rulesets.
What is Rob the Kong Win?
Robbing a kong is winning on the tile someone just added to turn a pung into a kong.
What is Kong Bloom Win?
A kong-draw win is a win on the replacement tile taken after declaring a kong.
What is Last Tile Win?
A last-tile win is winning on the last drawable tile of the wall.
What is Single Tile Wait?
A single-tile wait is a ready hand that can win on only one tile.
Scoring patterns
What is Pure One Suit?
A pure one-suit hand uses only one numbered suit, with no honour tiles.
What is Mixed One Suit?
A mixed one-suit hand uses one numbered suit plus honour tiles.
What is Seven Pairs?
Seven pairs is a special winning shape made of seven pairs instead of four melds and a pair.
What is All Pungs Hand?
An all-pungs hand is built from triplets and a pair, with no sequences.
What is Four Concealed Triplets?
Four triplets is a high-value hand of four pungs or kongs plus a pair.
What is All Simple Tiles?
All simples is a hand with no terminals (1 or 9) and no honour tiles.
What is All Sequences Hand?
An all-sequences hand is four chows and a pair, with no pungs.
Table and setup
What is Player Hand?
A hand is the tiles in front of one player, usually 13 before the draw and 14 when that player may win.
What is Tile Wall?
The wall is the face-down stack of tiles players draw from.