Mahjong Glossary: Table Calls and Board Terms
Two different games answer to one name, and they do not share a vocabulary. At a table with four players you build a hand…
Read moreTwo vocabularies collide in this game. At a table you hear pung, kong, chow, riichi and dora; in front of a screen you hear free tile, layer, deadlock, shuffle and path. Neither set of words explains the other, and most guides pick one and leave you stranded in the second.
These pieces define both, with the part dictionaries skip: when you would actually use the term, and what it costs you to get it wrong.
Two different games answer to one name, and they do not share a vocabulary. At a table with four players you build a hand…
Read moreA pung is three identical tiles, a kong is four, and a chow is three consecutive numbers in one suit. All three are sets…
Read moreAll four spellings are in use and none of them is wrong. The plain seven-letter form, Mahjong, is the modern standard and the one…
Read moreA full set holds 144 tiles but only 42 distinct faces, and once you can name those 42 the game stops being a picture-matching…
Read more