American Mah Jongg Glossary for Beginners

This American Mah Jongg glossary for beginners explains the words you hear at the table, from Charleston and exposure to self-pick and wall game. Use it as a quick reference alongside your current National Mah Jongg League (NMJL) card: the vocabulary explains the conversation, while the card tells you which hands you can make.

Which terms should you learn before your first game?

Start with five: rack, wall, Charleston, discard, and exposure. Together, they describe where your tiles sit, where new tiles come from, how you pass before play, and how tiles move during a game.

Here is a typical table instruction translated into plain English:

“After the Charleston, keep your tiles on your rack. On your turn, draw from the wall and discard.”

That means: finish the opening tile exchange, keep your private tiles facing you, take a new tile when it is your turn, and place an unwanted tile face up in the center. East begins regular play with an extra tile and makes the opening discard without drawing.

American Mah Jongg glossary for beginners: tiles and equipment

Natural tile means the actual tile rather than a joker standing in for it. In a group of 7 dots, a real 7 dot is a natural tile.

Suit means bams, cracks, or dots. Winds and dragons are not extra numbered suits. The colors printed on the NMJL card show suit relationships; they do not permanently assign green to bams or red to cracks.

What do hand, pair, pung, kong, and quint mean?

A hand can mean your collection of tiles or a specific winning pattern on the card. Players also use “one hand” to mean one game, from dealing until someone wins or the wall runs out.

The group names tell you how many identical tiles belong together:

• Single: one tile.
• Pair: two identical tiles.
• Pung: three identical tiles.
• Kong: four identical tiles.
• Quint: five identical tiles, requiring joker support for ordinary numbered tiles because only four natural copies exist.

For example, three 5 bams form a pung; four 5 bams form a kong. These are vocabulary examples, not complete winning hands. A winning American Mah Jongg hand must match a permitted 14-tile pattern on the current card, including its suit and parenthetical requirements.

What do players mean during the Charleston?

The Charleston is the opening exchange in which players pass unwanted tiles before regular drawing and discarding begins.

The first sequence is right, across, left, with three tiles passed each time. If the table proceeds with the second Charleston, its sequence is left, across, right. Jokers cannot be passed.

Across means the person directly opposite you, not the next player around the table.

A blind pass, also called stealing, means passing eligible incoming tiles without looking at them on a permitted final pass: the first left or the last right. It does not mean taking tiles secretly from someone else's rack.

The courtesy pass is the optional final exchange with the opposite player. Each opposite pair agrees on zero to three tiles; when their preferences differ, the smaller number governs.

What do call, exposure, and concealed mean?

A discard is a tile a player places face up in the center and names aloud. A call announces that another player wants the most recent eligible discard.

An exposure is a completed group displayed face up on top of the rack after a legal call. You cannot call a discard merely to save it for later. A call for a single or pair is allowed only when that tile completes Mah Jongg.

An exposed hand, marked X on the card, permits exposures; it does not require you to make one. A concealed hand, marked C, prohibits exposures before the winning declaration. It can still win on a discard that completes the entire hand.

One away means you need one tile to complete a valid winning hand. Mah Jongg is the winning declaration, not simply an announcement that you are close.

What do self-pick, hand value, and wall game mean?

A self-pick is a win completed by drawing the winning tile yourself. A discard win uses another player's discarded tile. The hand value is the amount printed beside the winning pattern; NMJL card values commonly run about 25–75 points.

For a discard win, the discarder pays the winner double the hand value; the other two players each pay the hand value. For a self-pick, all three opponents pay the winner double.

• 25-point discard win: the discarder pays 50; the other two players pay 25 each. The winner receives 100.
• 30-point self-pick: each opponent pays 60. The winner receives 180.

These examples exclude bonuses. Confirm your table's house rules before play.

A wall game means the available wall tiles have been exhausted without a winner. A dead hand is a hand that cannot continue as a live participant under the rules, such as a hand with an incorrect tile count; it is not just a disappointing collection of tiles.

Where Bird Bam fits in

Learning the vocabulary is easier when you are not also trying to reconstruct a messy paper score sheet. Bird Bam is an iOS American Mah Jongg scoring and community app that helps your group keep score and track hands and games, leaving more attention for play and table conversation.

You still need the current NMJL card. For cleaner scorekeeping as your group learns together, explore Bird Bam.

Frequently asked questions

Are mahjong and Mah Jongg different games?

They are different spellings used across a family of games. The important distinction is the ruleset: American Mah Jongg with an NMJL card is not interchangeable with riichi or Chinese rulesets.

Is a kong the same as an exposure?

No. A kong describes a four-tile group. An exposure describes a group displayed openly after a legal call; that group could be a pung, kong, or quint.

Do I have to memorize all these words before playing?

No. Learn the five starting terms, keep this glossary nearby during practice, and ask what unfamiliar words mean between turns. Use the NMJL's official resources and your current card for rule questions rather than treating table nicknames as rules.