American Mahjong Glossary: 20 Terms Beginners Should Know

On this page

1. Equipment and fundamentals
2. The tiles
3. Groupings
4. Gameplay
5. A few more you will hear

Equipment and fundamentals

1. NMJL (National Mah Jongg League)

   The organization whose rules and annual card define American Mahjong. It publishes a new card every spring. MahjongKit is independent of the League.

2. The card

   The annual NMJL card listing every hand you can legally win with that year. Everyone at the table plays from the same card. Learn to read it here.

3. Rack and pusher

   The rack holds your tiles upright and hidden. The pusher is the arm attached to the rack that slides your section of wall into the middle of the table.

4. The wall

   The square of face-down tiles built at the start of each hand. Everyone draws from it in turn. In American Mahjong each side is 19 stacks long and two tiles high.

The tiles

1. Suits: Bams, Craks and Dots

   The three numbered suits, 1 through 9. Bams are bamboos, Craks are characters (the tile shows a red character), Dots are circles.

2. Honors

   The non-numbered tiles: the four Winds (North, East, West, South) and the three Dragons (Red, Green, White).

3. Joker

   The wildcard unique to American Mahjong, eight per set. A Joker can stand in for any tile in a group of three or more, and never in a pair or a single. Full Joker rules.

4. Soap

   The White Dragon. Its blank face looks like a bar of soap. On the card it also counts as a zero.

See every tile pictured in American Mahjong tiles explained.

Groupings

1. Pair

   Two identical tiles. Jokers can never be used in a pair.

2. Pung

   Three identical tiles.

3. Kong

   Four identical tiles.

4. Quint

   Five identical tiles. A set has only four of most tiles, so a quint needs at least one Joker (Flowers, with eight in a set, are the exception).

5. Sextet

   Six identical tiles. Needs at least two Jokers, except for Flowers.

Gameplay

1. The Charleston

   The tile-passing phase before play begins. Players pass three tiles at a time in a set sequence to shape their hands. Our Charleston guide covers every pass.

2. Blind pass

   On the last pass of either Charleston, you may take one, two or three of the tiles just handed to you and pass them straight on without looking at them.

3. Courtesy pass

   An optional final exchange of up to three tiles with the player across from you, once both Charlestons are done.

4. Call (or expose)

   Claiming a tile another player just discarded to complete a pung, kong, quint or sextet. You then place the finished group face up on top of your rack.

5. Concealed hand

   A hand marked C on the card. You may not call discards to build it, except for the last tile you need for Mahjong.

6. Joker exchange

   Swapping the natural tile a Joker is standing for, out of an exposed group, so that you can take the Joker into your own hand. Only on your turn.

7. Dead hand

   A hand that can no longer legally win because of a structural mistake, such as the wrong tile count or an impossible exposure. The player sits out the rest of the hand. Read the dead hand guide.

A few more you will hear

• Wash: shuffling the face-down tiles with both hands before building the wall.
• East: the dealer for the current hand. East starts with 14 tiles, everyone else with 13.
• Same tile, same time: when two players call the same discard. Generally a call for Mahjong beats a call for an exposure; otherwise the player next in turn order has priority. Ask your group how they handle it.
• Wall game: a hand that ends with no winner because the wall runs out.