New to American mahjong? The vocabulary can feel like a secret language. Here are the terms you'll hear most, in plain English.
The tiles
- Bams, Craks and Dots: the three suits, each numbered 1 through 9. (Bams are bamboo, craks are characters, dots are circles.)
- Dragons: red, green and white. The white dragon is nicknamed "Soap." Each dragon is linked to a suit: green with bams, red with craks, soap with dots.
- Winds: North, East, West and South.
- Flowers: eight decorative tiles used in many hands on the card.
- Jokers: eight wild tiles. They can stand in for a tile in a group of three or more identical tiles, but not in a single tile or a pair.
The game
- The card: the official list of winning hands for the year. It changes annually, so players buy a new one each year.
- East: the dealer, who starts with 14 tiles while everyone else starts with 13.
- The Charleston: the tile-passing ritual before play begins. In the first Charleston, everyone passes three tiles to the right, then across, then to the left. A second Charleston (left, across, right) is optional and only happens if every player agrees. Jokers can never be passed.
- Courtesy pass: an optional final exchange of up to three tiles with the player across from you, if you both agree.
- Blind pass: on the last pass of a Charleston, you may pass along up to three tiles you've just received without looking at them. Some groups only allow it on the final pass of the second Charleston, so check your table's house rules.
Groups and calls
- Pung, kong, quint: three, four and five identical tiles. (A quint needs at least one joker, since there are only four of each tile.)
- Calling a tile: claiming another player's discard to complete a group, which you then place face up on your rack as an exposure.
- Mahjong! What you declare when your 14 tiles exactly match a hand on the card.
- Dead hand: a hand that can no longer win, for example after an incorrect exposure. That player stops playing for the rest of the game.
- Mahj: what everyone calls the game once they're hooked.
Once the words click, the game does too. And if you just survived your first Charleston, our Charleston sweatshirt was made for you.