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American Mahjong Terms, Defined

This page is a mahjong glossary of the words you hear at the table. It covers spoken player vocabulary, not card notation. For how a line is written, read how to read the American Mahjong card. For the full game path, start at the American Mahjong hub.

Jump by cluster so related words sit together:

Table flow

Charleston

The Charleston is the tile-passing round that follows the deal and comes before regular play. Each of the six passes moves exactly three tiles per player. The first Charleston runs right, across, left and nobody may skip it. A second Charleston may follow in reverse order if no player declines it. Jokers never pass. Pass with a target hand in mind, or you send tiles you will want back. Full pass order is on the Charleston guide.

Courtesy pass

The courtesy pass is the optional across-the-table exchange that closes the Charleston. Each player offers zero to three tiles. Each across pair trades the lower of its two offers. There is no blind option, and jokers stay out. A pair that settles on zero sends nothing and does not block the other pair.

Wall

The wall is the face-down supply every draw comes from. The full set is 152 tiles. After the deal, 99 remain. When the next player to pick finds the wall empty and nobody has declared Mah Jongg, the hand ends as a wall game with no winner. The last tile is still picked and discarded, and that discard can still be called.

Call

A call, also called a claim, takes the most recent discard for an exposure or for Mah Jongg. Only that discard is live; earlier discards are gone. A discarded joker can never be called. Between two calls of the same kind, the player next in turn after the discarder wins the tile. A Mah Jongg call beats an exposure call. Timing and ranking are in calling, exposing, and melds.

East

East is the dealer for the hand. East is dealt 14 tiles; every other player is dealt 13. After the Charleston, East opens by discarding without picking. Play then passes to the right. If East’s fourteen tiles complete a hand after the Charleston, East may declare before that first discard.

Tile names players say

Soap

Soap is the table name for the white dragon. Players say Soap when they discard it. Used as a dragon, it pairs with Dots. Used as a zero on hands that ask for one, it has no suit. The tiles guide covers how Soap sits with the set.

Joker

A joker is a wild tile. It may stand in a pung, kong, quint, or sextet. It can never stand in a single or a pair, and it can never fill a run, a like-numbers group, or NEWS. A discarded joker is dead and cannot be called. On your turn, after you pick or call and before you discard, you may give the natural tile an exposure is made of and take a joker from that exposure, yours or another player’s. Jokers in American Mahjong covers the same limits with more examples.

Natural

A natural tile is any tile that is not a joker. An exposure always holds at least one natural tile, and a joker exchange gives a natural tile to take a joker out. Hands built only from singles and pairs take no joker, so every tile in them is natural.

Flower

A flower is one of eight interchangeable tiles outside the suits, winds, and dragons. Flowers and seasons count as the same tile. Eight copies exist, so a quint or sextet of flowers can be all natural. Flowers are not jokers; they do not stand in for other tiles.

Dragons

The three dragons are red, green, and white. Each appears four times. At the table you hear red dragon, green dragon, and Soap for white. Where a hand calls for the dragon that matches a suit, white pairs with Dots, green with Bams, and red with Craks. That matching rule is separate from Soap used as a zero.

Hand-building American Mahjong terms

Pung

A pung is three identical tiles. Jokers may fill part of the count, so two natural 4-Craks and a joker make a pung of 4-Craks. A pung is the smallest group you may expose. Call a discard for a pung only when that discard completes the three.

Kong

A kong is four identical tiles. It may hold jokers. A set holds four copies of each suit tile, wind, or dragon, so a kong of those can be all natural. Call a discard for a kong when you hold the other three, jokers included.

Quint

A quint is five identical tiles. A suit tile, wind, or dragon has only four natural copies, so a quint of those needs at least one joker. Flowers are the exception: eight copies exist, so five natural flowers form a quint with no joker. A sextet is six and follows the same arithmetic.

Exposure

An exposure is a pung, kong, quint, or sextet laid face up after you call a discard. Pairs, singles, and runs are never exposed. You do not pick from the wall on the turn you call; the called tile is your fourteenth, and you end with a discard. Invented four-tile pattern, not from any real card: three 5-Bams face up and one 5-Bam in the rack. The face-up three are the exposure; the racked tile stays concealed.

Concealed

Concealed tiles are the ones still hidden in your rack. A hand marked to stay concealed is won with no exposure laid before the win. Calling the final discard for Mah Jongg is allowed on a concealed hand; that call is not an exposure. Beginners expose early on a hand that needed to stay down, and that hand can no longer be won.

Pair

A pair is two identical tiles. A joker can never complete one. You cannot call a discard to make a pair unless that call wins the hand. Because pairs take no joker, once three natural copies of a four-copy tile sit in discards or exposures, that pair cannot be finished.

Mah Jongg

Mah Jongg is the declaration that your fourteen tiles complete a hand on the card. You declare on a called discard or on your turn after you pick or call. A false declaration kills your hand for the rest of that deal. Thirteen tiles never win, and fifteen never win. The win is checked against the hands on the card as whole groups, exposures included.

Card language without the card

This cluster names marks and table talk you will hear. Buy the card from the League when you need the hands. How those hands are written is covered in how to read the card.

C and X

C and X are the marks printed beside hands on the card. X means you may call discards and lay exposures before you win. C means the hand must stay concealed: no exposure before the declaration, though you may still call the tile that completes the hand for Mah Jongg. Read the mark before you call, not after the tiles are down.

Zero

A zero on the card is played with a white dragon (Soap). In that role Soap has no suit and can sit with Dots, Bams, or Craks alike. A zero cannot begin or extend a run of consecutive numbers. When Soap is used as a dragon, it matches Dots again under the suit-dragon rule.

Hot wall and cold wall

Hot wall and cold wall are names some tables give extra rules for the last part of the wall. The League has no hot-wall or cold-wall rule; each table defines its own version or uses none. Ask before the first deal.

Put the words to work

Name the tile when you discard it. Name the call when you take one. Use pung, kong, exposure, and concealed the way the table uses them, and the rules stay attachable to what you just said.

When a word is about how a line is written, go back to how to read the American Mahjong card. When the gap is pace at a real table, what to expect at your first mahjong group sets the room, and beginner mistakes names the usual traps.

Fluency comes from repetition with the terms in your mouth. How to practice is the method. The Stoa Games app teaches American Mahjong, so you can practice against the same vocabulary this page defines.

American Mahjong Terms, Defined in the app

American Mahjong Terms, Defined lessons are not built yet.

American Mahjong is the game we teach in full today. The American Mahjong Terms, Defined guides on this site are free to read now, and the drills follow when the app reaches it.

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