Mahjong has its own language, and the first few games can feel like everyone at the table is fluent except you. Someone says "soap," someone else calls a "pung," and you're quietly wondering whether you missed a memo.
This glossary covers the 35 terms you'll hear most often at an American mahjong table, in plain English. Bookmark it and come back whenever a new word pops up.
Bam: Short for bamboo, one of the three suits. The 1 bam is usually drawn as a bird.
Blind pass: Passing along tiles you just received during the Charleston without looking at them. Allowed on the first left and the last right. Also called "stealing."
Call: Claiming another player's discard to complete an exposure or to declare mahjong.
Card: The official list of winning hands, published every year by the National Mah Jongg League (NMJL).
Charleston: The series of tile passes before play begins: right, across, left, then an optional second round of left, across, right.
Concealed (C): A hand marked C on the card must be built without calling discards, except for the tile that gives you mahjong.
Courtesy pass: The optional final pass of zero to three tiles between you and the player across from you.
Crak: Short for character, one of the three suits. Craks pair with the red dragon.
Dead hand: A hand that can no longer win, usually because of a mistaken exposure or a wrong call. A player with a dead hand stops playing but still pays.
Dot: One of the three suits, drawn as circles. Dots pair with the white dragon (soap).
Dragons: Three kinds of honor tiles: red, green, and white. Four of each.
East: The dealer's seat. East starts with 14 tiles and makes the first discard.
Exposed (X): A hand marked X on the card can be built by calling discards and placing groups face up.
Exposure: A group of tiles you've placed face up on your rack after calling a discard.
Flower: Eight interchangeable tiles used in many hands on the card.
Hot tile: A tile that's likely to give another player mahjong if you discard it. Late in the game, these deserve extra care.
Joker: Eight wild tiles that can replace any tile in a pung, kong, quint, or sextet, but never a single or a pair.
Jokerless: A winning hand made with no jokers. It pays double, except for singles-and-pairs hands.
Joker swap: Replacing a joker in any player's exposure with the real tile it stands for, on your turn. Also called redeeming a joker.
Kong: Four identical tiles.
Mahjong: Declaring a win. You call it when your rack exactly matches a hand on the card.
NEWS: North, East, West, South: the four winds, as they're usually printed on the card.
NMJL: The National Mah Jongg League, which publishes the card each spring.
Pair: Two identical tiles. Pairs can't include jokers.
Pung: Three identical tiles.
Quint: Five identical tiles. Since there are only four of each tile, a quint needs at least one joker. Flowers are the exception, with eight in the set.
Rack: The stand that holds your tiles. Most racks have a pusher arm for moving the wall forward.
Self-pick: Winning with a tile you drew from the wall. Every player pays double.
Sextet: Six identical tiles. Like quints, sextets need jokers unless they're made of flowers.
Singles and pairs: A category of hands made only of single tiles and pairs, so no jokers can be used.
Soap: Nickname for the white dragon. It also works as a zero in year hands.
Suit: Bams, craks, or dots. On the card, colors show whether a hand uses one, two, or three suits.
Wall: The rows of face-down tiles built at the start of each game, which players draw from.
Wall game: A game where the wall runs out and nobody wins. No one pays.
Winds: North, East, West, and South tiles. Four of each.
Knowing the words makes the rules click faster. Next, try American Mahjong Rules Explained and American Mahjong Tiles Explained. If the Charleston is still a blur, our step-by-step Charleston guide walks through every pass.
And if you'd like to hear these terms in context while you practice, Bird Bam has AI coaching that explains what's happening as you play.