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The hand guide that shows the legal patterns for the year.
Lesson 3 of 13
American Mahjong Terms
Learn the short table words that beginners hear constantly, without turning the lesson into a wall of text.
A lot of beginner confusion is really just vocabulary
If words like exposure, wall, pung, or dead hand feel fuzzy, the table sounds harder than it really is. Once these short terms feel familiar, beginner instructions become much easier to follow in real time.
Table and flow words
Rack
The holder in front of you for your concealed tiles.
Pusher
The piece attached to the rack that helps move the wall.
Wall
The stacked tiles players draw from during the hand.
Discard
The tile you throw away after your decision.
Call / Claim
Taking the most recent discard because the rules allow it.
East
The dealer for the hand.
Exposure
Tiles shown openly in front of your rack.
Hand-shape words
Concealed
Private on your rack rather than exposed to the table.
Pair
Two matching tiles.
Pung
Three matching tiles.
Kong
Four matching tiles.
Quint
Five matching tiles, usually with joker help.
Dead hand
A hand that can no longer finish legally as played.
Take the quiz when you're ready.
Finish the teaching first, then open a short one-question-at-a-time quiz. You need 4 or more correct answers to complete this lesson.
5 questions