American Mahjong Terminology: 40+ Terms Beginners Must Know
American mahjong has its own vocabulary, and your first game night will be full of words you have never heard. Bookmark this glossary — every term you will hear at the table is here.
Tiles and Equipment
- Bam — the bamboo suit; the 1-bam is usually a bird.
- Crak — the character suit (Chinese numerals).
- Dot — the circle suit.
- Soap — the white dragon; often acts as zero in year hands.
- Flower — one of 8 flower/season tiles used inside hands.
- Joker — wild tile, valid only in pungs, kongs and quints.
- Rack — the tile holder in front of each player, with an exposed top ledge.
- Wall — the double-row of face-down tiles you draw from.
Hand Combinations
- Pair — 2 identical tiles. Never callable, never jokered.
- Pung — 3 identical tiles.
- Kong — 4 identical tiles.
- Quint — 5 of a kind; always requires a joker.
- Single — a lone tile required by a hand; never callable except to win.
- Concealed hand — built without calling any discards (except the winner).
- Exposed hand — pungs/kongs/quints displayed on top of your rack after calling.
Gameplay Terms
- The Charleston — the opening passing ritual: right, across, left (optionally repeated).
- Courtesy pass — the final optional exchange of 0–3 tiles across the table.
- Blind pass — passing tiles you received without looking, allowed on the last Charleston pass.
- Call / take — claiming a fresh discard for a pung, kong, quint or win.
- Self-pick — drawing your own winning tile; everyone pays double.
- Dead hand — a hand ruled invalid (wrong tile count, bad exposure, false mahjong).
- Wall game — a draw; the wall ran out with no winner.
- East — the dealer; rotates after each game.
- Hot wall / cold wall — table slang for risky late-game discards vs safe ones.
- Mamajong — affectionate slang for social mahjong nights.
Card Terms
- The card — the annual NMJL card listing all legal hands.
- X hand — an exposable hand on the card.
- C hand — a concealed hand on the card.
- Value — the printed point price of a hand (25–75).
- Year hand — a hand built from the digits of the current year.
Sound Like a Regular
Learn these and the table banter makes sense. For the rules behind the words, head to American mahjong rules basics or the full beginner’s guide to American mahjong.