Last updated: October 2026
Sit down at an American mahjong table for the first time and you will hear a language of its own: someone calls a pung, someone else passes blind in the Charleston, and a player across the table declares a hand dead. This glossary explains the mahjong terms you will hear most, in plain English, grouped the way you meet them during a game.
Quick answer
The most important mahjong terms are the tile groups: a pair is two identical tiles, a pung is three, a kong is four and a quint is five. Other words you need early are Charleston (the tile passing before play), exposure (a group you call and show on your rack), Joker exchange (swapping a real tile for an exposed Joker) and Mahjong (completing a hand from the card).
Tile groups: pair, pung, kong, quint
Every hand on the card is built from groups of matching tiles. These are the words you will use most:
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Single: one tile on its own. Singles appear in a few hands, mostly in the Singles and Pairs section of the card.
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Pair: two identical tiles. Jokers can never be used in a pair.
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Pung: three identical tiles, for example three 5 Dots. Rhymes with "lung". You can call a discard to finish a pung.
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Kong: four identical tiles. In American mahjong a kong is simply a bigger group in your hand; unlike Chinese mahjong, you do not draw a replacement tile after making one.
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Quint: five identical tiles. Since a set only has four of each tile, every quint needs at least one Joker.
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Sextet: six identical tiles, which always needs Jokers. Sextets show up on some years' cards.
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Like numbers: the same number in different suits, such as a pung of 3 Bams and a pung of 3 Craks.
Jokers can stand in for any tile in a pung, kong, quint or sextet, but never in a single or a pair. Read more in mahjong Jokers explained.
Tile terms
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Suits: the three numbered suits: Bams (bamboo), Craks (characters) and Dots (circles), each numbered 1 to 9.
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Dragons: three kinds of honor tile. Each one goes with a suit: Red Dragon with Craks, Green Dragon with Bams and White Dragon with Dots.
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Soap: the White Dragon. On the card it also stands for zero, for example in the year hand.
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Winds: North, East, West and South, four of each.
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Flowers: eight decorative tiles. On the card they are marked with an F and are used like any other tile group.
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Joker: one of eight wild tiles that make American mahjong different from most other versions.
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Blanks: spare tiles included in some sets to replace a lost tile. They are set aside and not used in standard play.
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Bird: a nickname for the 1 Bam, which is often drawn as a bird instead of a bamboo stick.
A standard American set has 152 playing tiles. For pictures and meanings of every tile, see our guide to mahjong tile names and meanings and what's in an American mahjong set.
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Setting up the game
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Wall: the row of face-down tiles each player builds in front of their rack, 19 tiles long and 2 tiles high.
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Rack: the stand that holds your tiles facing you. Most racks have a pusher, an arm that slides your wall toward the center of the table.
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East: the dealer. East starts with 14 tiles and discards first; everyone else starts with 13.
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Breaking the wall: East rolls the dice and counts tiles along their wall to find where the deal begins.
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The card: the yearly list of winning hands published by the National Mah Jongg League. Every player at the table should use the same year's card.
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Charleston terms
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Charleston: the series of three-tile passes before play begins: right, across, then left. It is unique to American mahjong.
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Second Charleston: an optional second round of passes (left, across, right). Any player can stop it.
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Courtesy pass: an optional final swap of up to three tiles with the player across from you.
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Blind pass: on the last pass of a Charleston, passing on tiles you just received without looking at them.
Jokers can never be passed in the Charleston. Our Charleston guide covers the order and what to pass.
Gameplay terms
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Discard: the tile you throw face up into the center at the end of your turn, naming it out loud.
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Call: claiming another player's discard to finish a group (or to win). The player who calls places the group face up and discards.
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Exposure: a group you completed with a called discard, displayed face up on top of your rack.
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Concealed hand: a hand marked C on the card. You cannot call discards to make exposures, except the last tile for Mahjong.
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Exposed hand: a hand marked X on the card. You may call discards and expose groups as you build it.
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Joker exchange: on your turn, swapping a real tile from your hand for a Joker in any player's exposure. Some players call it redeeming a Joker.
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Hot tile: a tile that is likely to give another player Mahjong, judged from their exposures and what has been discarded. Careful players hold hot tiles late in the game.
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Dead hand: a hand that can no longer win, for example because a player has the wrong number of tiles or exposures that do not fit any hand on the card. That player stops playing for the rest of the game.
Card and hand terms
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Section: a family of hands on the card, such as 2468, Like Numbers, Consecutive Run, 13579, Winds and Dragons, 369, Singles and Pairs, and a year hand.
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Colors: on the card, one color means one suit; two or three colors mean two or three different suits.
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Year hand: a hand built from the digits of the current year, using Soap for zero.
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Value: the number printed next to each hand, used to decide how much the winner is paid.
New to reading the card? Start with how to read a mahjong card.
Winning and scoring terms
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Mahjong: calling out that your 14 tiles match a hand on the card exactly. Players also write it Mah Jongg or shorten it to mahj.
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Self-pick: winning with a tile you drew from the wall yourself. Under the standard rules every player pays double.
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Jokerless: a winning hand with no Jokers, which usually pays double. Singles and Pairs hands are the usual exception, since they can't use Jokers anyway.
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Wall game: a game that ends with no winner because the wall ran out. Tiles are reshuffled and the next deal begins.
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Mahjong in error: declaring Mahjong when the hand is not actually complete. Groups handle it in different ways, so agree on house rules before you play.
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Siamese mahjong: a two-player variation. See how to play with 2 or 3 players.
For the full payout chart, read American mahjong scoring.
Learn the words by playing
The fastest way to learn mahjong terms is a relaxed game with friends. Our step-by-step guide to how to play American mahjong walks through a full game, and if you are hosting, our guide to hosting a mahjong night covers setup, snacks and timing. A quiet mat helps everyone hear the calls:
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FAQ
What is a pung in mahjong?
A pung is a group of three identical tiles, such as three 7 Bams or three North Winds. Jokers can be used in a pung.
What is a kong in mahjong?
A kong is a group of four identical tiles. In American mahjong you do not draw a replacement tile after a kong.
What is the difference between a pung and a kong?
A pung has three identical tiles and a kong has four. Both can include Jokers.
What does "soap" mean in mahjong?
Soap is the White Dragon tile. On the American mahjong card it also stands for zero.
What is a dead hand in mahjong?
A hand that can no longer win, for example because the player has too many or too few tiles or exposures that do not match any hand on the card. That player stops playing for the rest of the game.
Why do players say "Mah Jongg"?
Mah Jongg is the spelling used by the National Mah Jongg League, which publishes the American card. Mahjong and mah-jongg mean the same game.
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