Mah Jongg glossary

Last updated October 25, 2026

American Mah Jongg is a four-player tile game that has its own vocabulary, from craks and soap to pungs and joker swaps. Short definitions, written to be read standing at a table with a rack in front of you.

Every term below is also searchable inside Mahj Trainer, one tap from the home screen, including the nicknames (soap, NEWS, wild) people actually say at the table.

What are the tiles in American Mah Jongg called?

An American set has three number suits (craks, bams and dots), winds, dragons, flowers and jokers, 152 tiles in all.

Crak

Also: character, wan, craks

One of the three number suits, marked with Chinese characters and usually printed in red. Nine numbers, four of each, and the Red Dragon is the crak family's dragon.

Bam

Also: bamboo, sticks, bams

The bamboo suit, drawn as sticks. The 1 Bam is usually a bird rather than a single stick, which surprises new players. The Green Dragon is the bam family's dragon.

Dot

Also: circle, dots, balls

The circle suit, drawn as rings of dots. The White Dragon, called the soap, is the dot family's dragon.

Soap

Also: white dragon, zero, blank

The White Dragon, so called because the plain-faced version looks like a bar of soap. It is the dot suit's dragon, and it also stands in for a zero in year hands, which makes it one of the most contested tiles on the table.

Red Dragon

Also: chung, rd

The dragon paired with the crak suit. Any hand asking for a suit plus its dragon wants Red with craks.

Green Dragon

Also: fa, gd

The dragon paired with the bam suit. Any hand asking for a suit plus its dragon wants Green with bams.

Winds

Also: north, east, west, south, news

North, East, West and South, four of each. They are honors, not numbers, so they never belong to a suit and never join a numeric run.

Flower

Also: flowers, season

Eight flower tiles come in the set, and for card purposes they are interchangeable: a flower is a flower. They are never part of a numbered run, and many hands ask for two, three or four of them.

Joker

Also: jokers, wild

Eight wild tiles. A joker can stand in for a tile inside a group of three or more (a pung, kong, quint or sextet). It can NEVER be a pair, a single, or part of a Singles and Pairs hand, and it can never be passed in the Charleston.

Honors

Also: honor tiles

The winds and dragons together. They carry no number, so a rack full of honors is almost always looking at the Winds and Dragons section.

The 152 tiles

Also: how many tiles, tile count

An American set is 152 tiles: 108 numbers (three suits, nine numbers, four each), 16 winds, 12 dragons, 8 flowers and 8 jokers. Knowing four of each number exist is the whole basis of counting what is still live.

What are pungs, kongs and the other groups?

A group is a set of identical tiles: a pair is two, a pung three, a kong four and a quint five.

Pair

Two identical tiles. A pair can never be completed by calling a discard, except as the winning tile, and it can never contain a joker.

Pung

Also: three of a kind

Three identical tiles. This is the smallest group you may call a discard for, and calling it means exposing the whole group on your rack.

Kong

Also: four of a kind

Four identical tiles. Jokers are allowed inside one, so a kong is often two naturals and two jokers.

Quint

Also: five of a kind

Five identical tiles, which is impossible without jokers because only four of any tile exist. Never plan a quint hand unless you are already holding jokers.

Single

One lone tile the hand actually requires. Like a pair, it cannot hold a joker and cannot be called for, except as the tile that finishes your hand.

Exposure

Also: expose, exposed

A called group laid face up on the front of your rack for everyone to see. It is the single biggest piece of information you give away, and the best information you get from other players.

Concealed hand

Also: closed hand

A hand the card requires you to complete without exposing anything. You may still pick up the winning tile from a discard, but you may not call to expose a group along the way.

Section

Also: category, family, line

One family of hands on the card, such as the evens family or the consecutive runs. Reading which section a rack is chasing is the core skill this app drills.

What do the Charleston terms mean?

The Charleston is the tile-passing ritual before play begins, and its terms name each kind of pass.

Charleston

The tile-passing ritual before play begins. The first Charleston is required and goes right, then across, then left. A second Charleston, left then across then right, happens only if every player agrees to it.

First right

Also: first pass

The opening pass of three tiles to the player on your right. Like every pass except the last one of each Charleston, it must come from tiles you have looked at, so it is the moment to dump your most isolated junk.

Courtesy pass

Also: optional pass, across

The last exchange, across the table only, of anywhere from zero to three tiles by mutual agreement. Both players have to pass the same number, so ask before you count on it.

Stealing the pass

Also: steal

Another name for the blind pass: sending on some or all of the tiles you were just handed without looking at them. Allowed only on the last pass of each Charleston (the first Left and the second Right).

Jokers are never passed

Also: passing jokers

A joker may not leave your rack in any Charleston pass, blind or otherwise, or in the courtesy pass.

What terms come up during play?

During play you call discards, expose groups, swap jokers and declare mah jongg, and the terms below cover each one.

Call

Also: calling, take the discard

Claiming the tile just discarded to complete a pung, kong or quint that you then expose, or to win. You can call until the next player racks the tile they drew (or discards, or starts a joker swap). You cannot call a discard for a pair or a single unless it wins the hand for you.

Dead hand

A hand that can no longer legally win, usually because of an exposure that no card hand can match or a wrong mah jongg laid down. Once another player calls it dead and the tiles prove it, you stop drawing and discarding for the rest of the hand, but you still pay the winner. Nobody calls their own hand dead: until someone does, keep playing and discard defensively.

Wall game

Also: draw, no winner

Nobody declares mah jongg before the tiles run out. It happens more often than beginners expect, and it is why chasing a hopeless hand to the end costs you nothing but also earns you nothing.

Joker swap

Also: redemption, redeem

Trading a natural tile from your own rack for a joker sitting in somebody's exposed group. You need the exact matching tile, and the joker becomes yours to use.

Hot tile

Also: dangerous discard

A tile that plainly helps somebody at the table, usually because their exposures point at it. Late in a hand, throwing a hot tile is how a good rack still loses.

Safe tile

Also: safe discard

A tile no live hand seems to want: one already discarded twice with no reaction, or one that clashes with every exposure on the table. Keeping one in reserve for the endgame is a habit worth building.

Mah Jongg

Also: declaring, win

The call you make when your fourteenth tile completes a hand on the card. Say it before you expose your rack, and be sure: laying down a wrong hand kills it.

Rack

The stand holding your tiles. Your concealed tiles rest on the sloped front; exposures sit on top of the rack where everyone can see them. Racked means in your hand, exposed means on top of the rack.

Wall

The face-down tiles everyone draws from. As it shrinks, the odds of anybody finishing shrink with it, which is when defense starts to matter more than your own hand.

East

Also: dealer

The dealer's seat. East deals, starts with an extra tile, and throws the first discard. The seat rotates after each hand.