Filipino and Visayan Mahjong Basic Terms and Glossary
Filipino mahjong has a lot of Tagalog terms, technical terms, and synonyms for those terms. This glossary will be updated as needed. If we use a term in one of our posts that you need defined, please let us know.
Ambition - A special combination of tiles that receives a special payout. Sometimes these payouts are made immediately upon declaration, and sometimes they are only paid at the end if that player wins.
Bahay - A valid combination of three or four tiles, also known as a meld.
Beauty - A special bahay in Visaya mahjong consisting of a dagger, green, and window (one of each dragon).
Bunot - Self-Draw - Winning with a tile drawn directly from the wall.
Chow - A meld consisting of three tiles of the same suit in a sequence. It can only be called if it is discarded by the player to the left.
Escalera - An ambition consisting of nine tiles in ascending value from 1 to 9 of the same suit.
Eye - A pair of identical tiles (same value and same suit).
International - A special form of the Siete Pares (Seven Pairs) hand with 7 pairs and a pung.
Mahjongero - Someone who plays mahjong (that's you!)
NEWS - A special meld (bahay) in Visaya mahjong consisting of all four winds.
Pung - A meld consisting of three identical tiles (same value and same suit). A discarded tile can be called to complete a pong any time even if it is not the player’s turn, and has priority over chow.
Siete Pares - Seven Pairs - an alternative winning configuration, consisting of 7 pairs and one meld.
Thirteen Flowers - An ambition consisting of thirteen flowers
Todas - Winning/Mahjong - Winning with a tile discarded by another player.
Waiting - Needing only one more tile to win
Here is the basic list of terms you will most likely run across when you are playing Filipino Mahjong! Do not be intimidated and always ask others to help clarify any unknown terminology. Most likely you already know the terminology from another type of mahjong you are already playing.
