List of terminology by usage category

Given the multitude of Japanese terminology in the game, many terms are used in association with each other. For example, a separate set of terms are dedicated to the yaku, as names for each pattern.

Game rounds

Kyoku 「局」 Round, Hand session

A portion of the game, starting from the dealing of tiles and ends with the declaration of a win, aborted hand, or draw. Examples: East Round 1. South Round 2.

Hanchan 「半荘」 Full East-South game

A game consisting of an East and South round.

Honba 「本場」

A counter to indicate the number of hands in-between winning hands, usually indicated by 100-point sticks.

Oorasu 「オーラス」 All last, Last hand

The final regular hand of a game.

Tonpuusen 「東風戦」 East only round

A game consisting of an East only round.

Melds

Ankan 「暗槓」 Concealed kan

Four self-drawn identical tiles set aside as a kantsu. Declaring an ankan does not open the hand if it was previously closed.

Anjun 「暗順」 Concealed sequence

Three self-drawn consecutive tiles of the same suit, used as one of the four melds in a regular hand. An open sequence would be a minjun, the general term for a sequence is shuntsu.

Ankan 「暗槓」 Concealed kan

Four self-drawn identical tiles set aside as a kantsu. Declaring an ankan does not open the hand if it was previously closed.

Ankou 「暗刻」 Concealed triplet

Three self-drawn identical tiles, used as one of the four melds in a regular hand. Compare with the yaku names san ankou and suu ankou. An open triplet would be a minkou, and the general term for any triplet is koutsu.

Chakan 「加槓」 Added kan

A kantsu that was upgraded from a minkou.

Daiminkan 「大明槓」 Open kan

A kan formed with possession of three tile types, and calling on the discarded fourth tile.

Kantsu 「槓子」 Quad

A meld of four identical tiles, which must be declared as kan to be counted as such.

Minjun 「」 Open sequence

An open shuntsu, or a sequence of three consecutive tiles, formed by calling chii on the previously missing tile. A concealed shuntsu would be an anjun.

Minkou 「明刻」 Open triplet

An open koutsu made by calling a discarded tile.

Shuntsu 「順子」 Sequence

This is the generic term for, three consecutive tiles of the same suit, whether open or closed. Chii is used to call a tile to complete a shuntsu and set it aside as a minjun (open). A concealed (closed) shuntsu is an anjun.

Rule specific

Ari 「あり,アリ,有り」 In effect, on

States that the preceding rule is used, as in akadora ari for playing with red fives. Opposite of nashi.

Ari ari 「アリアリ」

Ruleset which allows kuitan and atozuke. Most common basic set of rules in Japan.

Atozuke 「先付け」 After-attach

Allows a hand to win despite having no guaranteed yaku while in tenpai, as long as the winning tile generates a yaku. Opposite of sakizuke.

Chombo 「冲合」

A penalty that results in a mangan payment and restarts the current round.

Furiten 「振聴」 Sacred discard

A rule that disables a player's ability to win by discard, due to the presence of a winning tile in the discard and/or the declining of a win during riichi.

Kuikae 「喰い替え」

A rule that allows you to call a tile, then discard another tile that could have completed the meld. For example, to chi 123 and discard a 4.

Kuitan 「喰い断」 Open tanyao

A rule that allows tanyao to be open.

Nashi 「なし,ナシ,無し」 Invalid, off

States that the preceding rule is not in effect. For example, as in kuikae nashi for disallowing players to call a tile and immediately discard another tile which would have also completed the called meld.

Scoring

Aka dora 「」 Red dora tiles

Tiles marked red to indicate as dora, regardless of the dora indicator. Typically used for the 5's of the three suits.

Aotenjou 「青天井」 No capping

A rarely used rule, which eliminates the score cappings mangan, haneman, etc., and scores all hands as directly with the scoring formula.

Baiman 「倍満」

A hand of value 8, 9, or 10 han.

Dora 「ドラ」 Bonus tiles

A specific tile type, that is assigned 1 han per tile as indicated by the dora indicator(s).

Fu 「符」 Minipoints

A set of points associated to tile composition: melds, wait patterns, and winning conditions.

Han 「飜」

A value counter associated with values assigned to yaku and dora (if in possession).

Haneman 「跳満」

A hand of value 6 or 7 han.

Honba 「本場」

A counter indicating the number of consecutive hands played without a winning hand by any player.

Mangan 「満貫」

A point cap applied to the regular scoring scale. A hand value of 3 han 70 fu, 4 han 40 fu, or 5 han.

Nomi 「ノミ」

A term to indicate a hand won with just one particular yaku, without combination with another or any dora.

Sanbaiman 「三倍満」

A hand value of 11 or 12 han.

Ura dora 「裏ドラ」 Underneath dora

Additional dora located underneath previously revealed dora indicators, which can be earned by winning with riichi.

Yaku 「役」 Pattern

Specific patterns that validates hands as winnable.

Yakuman 「役満」 Limit

The limit point value for a hand. A set of patterns whose value is set at this limit.

Seating

Kamicha 「」 Left player

Player seated to the left.

Oya 「」 Dealer

Dealer seat, who is designated as East.

Shimocha 「」 Right player

Player seated to the right.

Toimen 「」 Player across

Player seated across.

Strategic and tactical terms

Damaten 「黙聴」 Hidden tenpai

A tactic of holding tenpai without calling riichi.

Genbutsu 「現物」 Safe tile

A 100% safe tile.

Kabe 「壁」

A tile-counting technique that measures the possibility of someone making shuntsu based on how many instances of a tile are visible.

Suji 「筋」 Tile interval

The tiles that complete ryanmen (open waits). Means “muscle”.

Tiles

Main article: Mahjong equipment

Manzu

Ii wan	Ryan wan	San wan	Suu wan	Uu wan	Ro wan	Chii wan	Pa wan	Chuu man

Souzu

Ii sou	Ryan sou	San sou	Suu sou	Uu sou	Ro sou	Chii sou	Pa sou	Chuu sou

Pinzu

Ii pin	Ryan pin	San pin	Suu pin	Uu pin	Ro pin	Chii pin	Pa pin	Chuu pin

Jihai

Kazehai

Ton	Nan	Shaa	Pei

Sangenpai

Haku	Hatsu	Chun

Tile categories

Jihai 「字牌」 Honor tiles

Character tiles (sangenpai and kazehai).

Routouhai 「老頭牌」 Terminals

The tiles numbered 1 and 9.

Tanyaohai 「断幺牌」 Simples

The tiles numbered 2 through 8. Also “chunchan”.

Yaochuuhai 「幺九牌」

All tiles numbered 1 and 9 (routouhai) plus characters (jihai).

Tile calls

Agari 「和がり」 Win

Generic call for winning a hand.

Pon 「チイ」

A call making a claim to upgrade a pair of consecutive tiles, to a minjun (open sequence).

Naki 「鳴き」

Calling a discarded tile.

Kan 「カン」

A call declaring possesion of four identical tiles.

Pon 「ポン」

A call making a claim to upgrade a pair of identical tiles to an open set of three identical tiles (minkou).

Ron 「ロン」

A call to indicate a winning hand by discard

Tsumo 「ツモ」

A call to indicate a winning hand by self-draw

Wait patterns

Main article: Machi

Machi 「待ち」 Wait pattern

The tiles waiting for with a tenpai hand.

Noten 「ノーテン」

When your hand is not in tenpai at the end of the round.

Tenpai 「聴牌」 Ready

A hand that needs only one tile to win.

Named patterns

Kanchan 「」

Nobetan 「」

Penchan 「」

Ryanmen 「」

Ryanmenten 「」

Sanmentan 「」

Shanpon 「」

Tanki 「」

Yaku

Main article: List of yaku

Yaku 「役」 Hand pattern

A required scoring pattern or condition in the hand that awards han, such as Tanyao or Toitoi.

Yaku

Chankan 「搶槓」

The winning tile for a hand is called on another player's Kan. Essentially, the tile needed to complete a Kan is stolen to complete a winning hand.

Chanta 「全帯幺九」

All melds contain at least 1 terminals or honor.

Chiitoitsu 「七対子」

This hand is composed of seven pairs. It is one of two exceptions to the standard 4 melds and a pair pattern.

Chinitsu 「清一色」

This hand is composed entirely of tiles from only one of the three suits. It is the only yaku set at 6 han, where the number drops to 5 han when opened.

Double riichi 「ダブルリーチ」

Riichi is declared with a dealt hand before the first discard.

Haitei raoyue 「海底撈月」

The hand is completed with the last tile on the wall.

Honitsu 「混一色」

This is a single suit hand mixed with some honor tiles.

Honroutou 「混老頭」

The hand is composed of nothing but all terminals and honors. † This hand may be considered as 4 han, because it is impossible to score this hand without either chii toitsu or toi toi.

Houtei raoyui 「河底撈魚」

The hand is completed with the very last discarded tile.

Iipeikou 「一盃口」

This hand includes two identical sequences.

Ittsu 「一通貫」

This hand has a complete sequence of 1 through 9 of a single suit. As a note, the sequence of 1-9 are actually three groups of sequences numbered 123, 456, and 789.

Junchan 「純全帯么」

All sets contain at least one terminal.

Menzen tsumo 「門前清自摸和」

This yaku may apply to any closed hand. Any player who draws a winning tile with a closed hand is awarded this yaku.

Nagashi mangan 「流し満貫」

All the discards are terminals and/or honors. In addition, none of these discards were called by other players.

Pinfu 「平和」

Typically known as "all sequences", this is a hand that does not gain fu based on composition, other than that of a closed ron.

Riichi 「立直」

This is a special yaku applied to closed tenpai hands, which requires the player to make a declaration and "wager".

Ippatsu 「一発」

This is applied when the player calling riichi wins within 4 tile draws/discards. In addition, the cycle must not be interrupted by tile calls.

Rinshan kaihou 「嶺上開花」

This yaku is awarded upon winning with a tile from the dead wall.

Ryanpeikou 「二盃口」

This hand has two sets of "iipeikou". This hand does not combine with chii toitsu, even though the hand can be interpreted as one.

Sanankou 「三暗刻」

The hand includes three sets of triplets that have been formed without calling any tiles. The fourth set can be an open triplet or sequence.

Sanshoku 「三色同順」

Three sequences have the same number across the three different suits.

Sankantsu 「三槓子」

Three kans are called for this hand.

Sanshoku doukou 「三色同刻」

The hand includes three groups of triplets with the same number.

Shousangen 「小三元」

The hand contains two sets of 3 dragon tiles and a pair of the third dragon tiles. † This hand may be considered as 4 han, because it is impossible to score this hand without two sets of yakuhai, from the two sets of dragons.

Tanyao 「断幺九」

A hand composed of only inside (numbers 2-8) tiles

Toitoi 「対々」

The entire hand is composed of triplets.

Yakuhai 「役牌」

A hand with at least one group of dragon tiles, seat wind, or round wind tiles. This hand can be valued at 1 han for each group.

Yakuman

Main article: Yakuman

This is a specific set of "yaku", known as yakuman.

Kazoe yakuman 「数え役満」

This is a special class of yakuman, where a hand is composed of 13+ han based on the combination of above regular yaku and/or dora.

Kokushi musou 「国士無双 国士無双１３面待ち」

This hand has one of each of the 13 different terminal and honor tiles plus one extra terminal or honour tile. Some rules may allow double yakuman for a 13-wait set.

Suuankou 「四暗刻 四暗刻単騎」

This hand is composed of four sets of closed triplets. When this hand has a shanpon pattern and the win is via ron, then it would not be counted as suu ankou.

Daisangen 「大三元」

This has possesses three groups of all the dragons.

Shousuushi 「小四喜」

This hand has three groups of the wind tiles plus a pair of the fourth kind.

Daisuushi 「大四喜」

This hand has four groups of all four wind tiles.

Tsuuiisou 「字一色」

Every group of tiles are composed of honor tiles.

Chinroutou 「清老頭」

Every group of tiles are composed of terminal tiles.

Ryuuiisou 「緑一色」

A hand composed entirely of green tiles: 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 Sou and/or Hatsu.

Chuuren poutou 「九連宝燈 純正九蓮宝燈」

A hand consisting of the tiles 1112345678999 in the same suit plus any one extra tile of the same suit.

Suukantsu 「四槓子」

This hand with four Kan's.

Tenhou 「天和」

The dealer hand is a winning hand even before discarding a tile.

Chiihou 「地和」

The non-dealer hand is a winning hand after the first draw.

External links

Terminology list at Osamuko