Games Home - Yahoo!

MAHJONG RULES

MahJong Home

History		Basics		Object		Game Play		Scoring		Glossary

	ball another name for circle bam another name for bamboo bamboo one of the three suits; also called bams, boos, or sticks bonus tiles the flower tiles and the season tiles breaking the wall a procedure used to determine the area of the wall from which players are dealt tiles, as well as the area that will be used for replacement tiles character one of the three suits; also called characks, cracks, or wan  Back to Top chow a sequence of three tiles of consecutive ranks in one suit circles one of the three suits; also called balls or dots concealed meld a meld of pongs or kongs that is dealt to a player or that is obtained by drawing a tile from the wall; compare exposed meld crack one of the three suits dead wall the portion of the wall used to deal players replacement tiles  Back to Top discard a tile played faceup, not as part of a meld, to end a player's turn; or the act of playing such a tile dot another name for circle double wind a situation in which a player's wind position corresponds to the prevailing wind dragon one of the honor tiles showing a red, white, or green dragon exposed meld a meld of pongs or kongs that is obtained by claiming a discard; compare concealed meld  Back to Top flower any of the four bonus tiles showing a flower going MahJong ending a hand by obtaining a MahJong hand going out another name for going MahJong honor tiles winds and dragons, as distinguished from suit tiles and bonus tiles kong a set of four identical tiles  Back to Top kong box another name for the dead wall limit a maximum point total that a hand may be worth, to which any higher-scoring hand is automatically reduced live wall the portion of the wall from which tiles are dealt to the players; compare dead wall loose tiles another name for replacement tiles MahJong a hand in which all the tiles have been matched, usually into four sets (pongs, kongs, or chows) and a pair  Back to Top meld a matched set of at least three tiles, either a pong, kong, or chow; see concealed meld and exposed meld mixed hand scoring the form of scoring used at Yahoo!, in which each player settles up with every other player after each hand by comparing the relative values of their hands pair a set of two identical tiles, usually needed along with four sets to go MahJong pong a set of three identical tiles prevailing wind the designated wind for the round, which affects scoring of some hands  Back to Top pung another name for pong replacement tiles tiles dealt to a player to replace the fourth tile of a kong or to replace a bonus tile robbing the kong taking the fourth tile of an exposed kong from another player to complete a MahJong hand round a series of four hands, one dealt by each player, played with a particular prevailing wind sacred discard a tile previously discarded by a player which would allow that player to go out at a later point in the game; player must declare the sacred discard and may not use that tile (or any identical ones discarded by other players) until after drawing from the wall at least once season any of the four bonus tiles showing a season of the year  Back to Top sequence another name for a chow set of four another name for a kong set of three another name for a pong settling the act of comparing scores between pairs of players and transferring points between them accordingly simple any suit tile with a rank of 2 through 8; compare terminal  Back to Top suit one of three symbols found on most MahJong tiles, either bamboos, characters, or circles suit tile any of the 108 tiles showing a number (from 1 through 9) and a either bamboos, characters, or circles); compare bonus tiles, honor tiles terminal a suit tile with a rank of 1 or 9 tile any of the objects that make up a MahJong hand; similar in function to playing cards wall a structure made of all the tiles at the start of the game, from which tiles are distributed to the players wind one of the honor tiles showing a compass direction; see also prevailing wind  Back to Top