Japanese Riichi Mahjong Terms

Here is a list of terminology you will hear here in one place or another regarding Japanese Mahjong.

Aburakkoi	油っこい	A tile that is usable in many combination, it often refers to the middle number tile 4-6.
Agari	和がり	To win a hand.
Agariguse	アガリ癖	To be in a ‘winning mode’ – someone who wins lots of hands.
Agarihai	アガリ牌 / 和がり牌	The tile that you win on. Not to be incorporated into your hand, so that the wait is discernible.
Agarihoki	アガリ放棄	It is a state where, as a penality for rule violation such as apparent and grievous manner, a player must abandoned a win. Often, a player is not allowed to Reach, Khan, Pon or Chi. At Ryu-Kyoku, a player is forced to Noten.
Agarikei	アガリ形	Four mentsu and one jantou. Only possible with Chi-toitsu and Kokushimusou.
Agaripai	和がり牌	The tile that completes a hand.
Agarirenchan	アガリ連荘	The rule that allows the dealer to continue the dealer position only when he/she wins the hand. With this rule, even when the dealer is in Tempai when nobody wins the round, the dealer position change.
Agariten	アガリ点	It is the total point that a player has when that player declares an Agari (win). In Mahjong, point is automatically calculated with Han and Fu.
Agaritoppu	アガリトップ	To be in a state that winning any hand, no matter how small, puts you in first place.
Agariyaku	アガリ役	Yaku, A hand that completes a hand.
Aidayonken	間四軒	An interval of four ‘missing’ tiles that indicate a dangerous wait. For example. seeing a discarded 1 and 6 means a 2-5 wait is poosible.
Akabo	赤棒	a stick representing 10,000 points.
Akadora	赤ドラ	Red dora.
Akapai	赤牌	Red tiles, often used as dora.
Akkei	悪形	Akkei is a state where a player has a less of a use tiles. A player is waiting for a less useful tile. Also said as “Gukei”.
Akuukansappo	亜空間殺法	Akuukansappo is a famous strategy created and used by Pro Michiru Andou (deceased). It is where a player controls the flow of tsumo using Naki ( Pon, chi, Khan).
Allgreen	オールグリーン	All-Green is when you get a yakuman with only green tiles. This phraise is not used often.
Amosu	アモス	AMOS, a brand of automatic mahjong table.
An	暗	dark’ – tiles concealed in the hand.
Ana	穴	Ana refers to a middle tile you are waiting to complete the order set (Ex. 3 is the ana for a set of 2-3-4). This term is rarely used.
Anjun	暗順	A concealed sequence.
Anko	暗刻	Ankou refers to three of a kind collected without calling “pon”.
Ankotoshi	暗刻落とし	a set of three identical tiles discarded while bailing from a hand – if the first is safe then it follows that the next two are as well.
Ankou	暗刻	A concealed set of self-drawn identical tiles, such as used in san ankou.
Anpai	安牌	Safe Tile.
Anzempai	安全牌	Anzempai (safe tile) refers to a discarded tile that has low risk of being taken by another players. Also called Anpai. Anzempai that is 100% safe to discard is also known as Kanzenanzempai or Kanzenanpai (perfectly safe tile).
Aonodomon	青洞門	An old yaku, using one of the four wind tiles and 2,4,8 circle tiles.
Aotenjo	青天井	An alternate scoring rule that does not limit hands to 2000 base points – the full score of the han and fu is used (for example, 40 and 6 whole note be a haneman, but the full 40 and 6 – 10240 points each before payment modification.
Arasu	荒らす	Arasu means to cause action during the game, such as making call frequently. It is the same as Kakimawasu.
Arau	洗う	Arau refers to when players are done playing Mahjong. The term “arau” comes from “wash the feet”.
Areba	荒れ場	Continuous game that involves high points. Antonym is Koba.
Ari	あり,アリ,有り	in effect”, it means that the rule listed is active (for example, aka ari is “reds are uesd”.
Ari ari	アリアリ	Ruleset that allows open tanyao and backdoor wins (kuitan and atozuke).
Arinashi	アリナシ	Ruleset that allows open tanyao, but not backdoor wins.
Arisu	アリス	It is a special rule where if a player wins with no hand or comes back from a no hand, he/she can flip the tile next to Dora display tile. If a player has the same tile as the one flipped, that player may gain Chips. * it is a local rule so the exact rule may differ between community. .
Arushiaru-ma-jan	アルシーアル麻雀	Arushiaru Mahjong is special rule by Japan Mahjong Commitee and is different from normal mahjong rules. A player needs at least 22 points to declare a win, hence called Arushiaru ( which means 22 in chinese).
Arutima	アルティマ	ULTIMA, a brand of automatic mahjong table.
Aryammen	亜両面	a 3-tile sequence that ends in a pair, such as 4566.
Asai	浅い	It is when rounds are going in a fast pace. Antonym is Fukai.
Ashidome	足止め	Ashidome is when a player use movement that prevents another player from continueing the game. Reach is often used.
Atama	頭	The pair in a standard mahjong hand.
Atamahane	頭跳ね	Head bump – the rule where only the player closest in turn order to the dealing-in player wins if there are multiple ron calls.
Atarihai	あたり牌	The tile that is responsible for a Ron call.
Atohikkake	後引っかけ	Atohikkake is when a player gets Sujimachi after he calls a reach. It is often by chance and often increase the chance of winning.
Atozuke	先付け	Backdoor – a rule that allows a hand to win even if there are tiles that complete the hand without yaku (for example, an open tanyao hand with a 1-4 wait calling ron on the 4).
Atsucha	熱茶	Parlor term for hot tea.
Atsushibo	アツシボ	Parlor term for a hot towel.
Auto	アウト	Out- Parlor term for being unable to pay a debt.
Autoover	アウトオーバー	Out-over – Parlor term for a maximum amount loseable in a single run or session. Losing above this cap causes losses to cap at this amount, then banning the player from playing until the end of the session.
Awaseuchi	合わせ打ち	Discarding a tile that is discarded by another to avoid dealing in.
Ayahai	綾牌	Ayahai is a tile that is drawn often throught the game. a player does not always have to care or worry about ayahai.
Azukari	預かり	Parlor term for money given to the parlor for sakekeeping, to avoid the chance of bring unable to pay a debt.
Ba	場	A “wind round”, such as tonba (east round) or nanba (south round).
Badai	場代	The fee for playing a game of mahjong.
Bagime	場決め	Determining the initial wind and seating positions.
Baibai-keisan	倍々計算	Baibai-keisan is a rule when your hand points doubles, then the total points doubles too. A player does not have to worry during the game.
Baichoku	倍直	Abbreviation of Baiman-chokugeki.
Baiman	倍満	A hand worth 8-10 han.
Bainin	玄人	A ‘pro’ – someone who makes their living playing mahjong.
Bakahon	バカホン	Slang for hon-itsu/half-flush only (no additional yaku or dora).
Bakatoi	バカ対	Slang for all triplets/toi-toi only (no additional yaku or dora).
Bakaze	場風	The round wind.
Bakazehai	場風牌	Bakazehai menas the same as Bakaze.
Bakazuki	バカづき	Bakazuki is when a player is on a roll (has a good hand/ win ratio).
Bakeru	化ける	Bakeru means when a player’s hand turns into a very high hand. It is often used when “a player hands turns in a monstrous (very high) hand”.
Bakku	バック	Back is the same as Atozuke. “Tung-Back” means getting a yaku later during the east seat.
Bakku-doroppu	バックドロップ	Back-drop Is the same as Atozuke, not used often.
Bakudan	爆弾	Bomb’ – cheating terminology, for loading a specific tile into the wall for dealing-in / dora purposes.
Bakudan-tsumi	爆弾積み	To load a ‘bomb’ into the wall.
Bakuhai	爆牌	Bakuhai is a method of reading opponents hands and getting the extra tiles. It is a method introduced in Masayuki Katayama’s “No-mark Bakuhai Party”.
Bakyo	場況	Bakyo is another way of saying the situation of the game field.
Bamban	バンバン	Ban-ban refers to Bazoro.
Banana	バナナ	Banana is when the second and third desicarded tile is the same tile. For example, 1 2 2.
Banokaze	場の風	Banokaze refers to Bakaze or round wind.
Bappu	罰符	Bappu is points that player pays for no-ten or chombo.
Barai	払い	A payment.
Basanzen	場三千	The 3,000 points paid at the end of an exhaustive draw.
Basengo	場千五	A rule where each repeat-deal counter is worth 1500, not 300, points.
Bashin	馬身	A bet that is paid based on placement (paid once per placement difference: a 1000 Bashin is 1000 from 2nd to 1st, but 3000 from 3rd to 1st).
Bashogime	場所決め	Bashogome is deciding where a player sits before the start of the game.
Batta	バッタ	Grasshoppers – slang for a double pair/shanpon wait.
Bazoro	場ゾロ	The two ‘base’ doubles given to a hand during scoring calculation.
Beni-kujaku	紅孔雀	An old Yakuman, the opposite of All green – using only the red-containing Sou tiles (1/5/7/9).
Betaori	ベタ降り	A strategy of full defense – avoding dealing into other hands without any intention of completing one’s own hand.
Betashi	ベタ師	Cheat term. A cheating player who uses elevators.
Betazumi	ベタ積み	Cheat term. a type of tsumikomi ( to load tile into the wall). a player loads a good tile into a wall that has a better chance of tsumo, while a player loads a unnecessary tile into a wall with less chance of tsumo.
Bi-toppu	Bトップ	Boo/Sports mahjong term. It refers to two floating top players.
Bikina-zurakku	ビギナーズラック	Beginner’s Luck – the abnormally large hands early players often receive.
Binta	ビンタ	Penalty payments based on placement.
Bohai	暴牌	A discarded dangerous tile.
Boten	棒テン	To get to tenpai as fast as possible without awareness of any other aspect of the current game.
Botensokuri-zen	棒テン即リー全ツッパ	A strategy where a player reach as soon as the player tenpai and ignoring other players move. Lacks safety.
Bu-ma-jan	ブー麻雀	based on google translation: Boo Mahjong is one the variation rule of Mahjong played mainly in the kansai (west region).
Bubun-yaku	部分役	A special type of yaku based on some of the tile hand, not all. For example, a player requires only 9 certain tiles to make daisengen.
Bukkonuki	ぶっこ抜き	Cheat terms. A type of Nukiwaza (to pull a tile from a wall). A player loads certain type of tile into the wall beforehand and quickly switch it with his hand during shuffling.
Bukumi	含み	a hand the includes certain type of tile, such as dora or three colors.
Burafu	ブラフ	Bluff.
Burakku-hai	ブラック牌	Black tiles, especially tiles without an obvious front or back when viewed from the side.
Butsu	ぶつ	Butsu is an old way of saying “to play Mahjong”.
Buttobi	ぶっとび	Buttobi is another way of saying tobi (Bankrupt – 0 point).
Chagarama-jan	茶ガラ麻雀	One round mahjong.
Chakan	加槓	A kan that was upgraded from a called triplet/min kou.
Chanfompai	荘風牌	Same meaning as Bakazehai (Round wind).
Chankan	槍槓	To win on the attempt to upgrade a Kan.
Chanta	チャンタ	A hand that has all parts containing an outside or honor tile.
Check	チェック	Parlor term – to prohibit winning from a tile you’ve seen accidentally.
Check-hai	チェック牌	Same meaning as check (a tile a player accidently looked at).
Chi	七	The number 7.
Chi-	吃	To call a sequence.
Chi-cha	起家	The first dealer in a game.
Chi-chama-ku	起家マーク	The marker that shows the table wind – East on one side, South on the other.
Chi-ho-	地和	To win as a non-dealer on your first drawn tile.
Chi-pai	チー牌	The tile taken in a Chi.
Chi-shinu-shi	七星無靠	An old yakuman, one of each wind and dragon, and the remainder of the hand being unrelated (differing by 3 or more) suit tiles.
Chi-ten	チー聴	To Chi into tenpai.
Chi-toi	チートイ	Slang for Seven different pairs.
Chi-toitsu	七対子	Seven different pairs.
Chidorizumi	千鳥積み	Cheating – to set up the draw of another.
Chii	七	Seven.
Chii	チー	The call to make a sequence / min jun.
Chimma-jan	清麻雀	Mahjong that does not use Hanahai tiles. Antonym is Hana-mahjong.
Chimmai	チンマイ	Boo-Mahjong terms. Three flowting top players.
Chimpe-ko-	清盃口	An old Yaku, When the two outer mentsu tile is the same number in Ryanpe-ko.
Chinchitorii	金鶏独立	An old Yaku, To make Hadakatanki with One Banboo tile.
Chini-so	清一色	Full name for a Full flush.
Chinichi	チンイチ	Slang for full flush.
Chinitsu	チンイツ	Full flush – A hand consisting of only one suit.
Chinro	チンロー	Slang for Chin rou tou.
Chinroto	清老頭	Having a legal hand that consists of only 1s and 9s.
Chipon	遅ポン	A late pon used to take priority over a Chi call, not always legal.
Chippu	チップ	Chip – A bet type based on certain aspects of the hand, such as ippatsu, red or ura dora.
Chippuma-jan	チップ麻雀	To play mahjong with chip bets, particularly with high chip bets in comparison to the regular point rate.
Chiron	遅ロン	A late ron used to take priority over another call or lack thereof- not always legal.
Chitchi	チッチー	Short for 7,700 points.
Cho-ma	チョーマ	A type of tenbo that is not used that much.
Choko	長考	To think for a long time before making the next move. It is idealistic to draw and discard in few second. It is considered rude to take a long period of time between drawing and discarding a tile.
Chombo	チョンボ	An error that invalidates a complete hand, often with penalty payments.
Chombo	冲合	An error that invalidates a complete hand, often with penalty payments.
Chonchon	チョンチョン	The 13th and 14th tile taken simultaneously by the dealer during initial hand drawing.
Chopaiko	跳牌刻	An old hand that contained 3 kan of 2-tile intervals (1/3/5, 4/6/8, etc) of the same suit.
Chosanko	頂三刻	An old hand that contained 3 kan of maximum interval(1/5/9) of the same suit.
Chu	九	Nine.
Chu-pinraoyui	九筒撈魚	An old Yaku, To Ron with 9 pinzu tile with the last discard tile.
Chu-ren	チューレン	Short for Nine gates/.
Chunchampai	中張牌	Simples – the tiles 2-8, used in Tanyao.
Chunchan	中張	Simples – the tiles 2-8, used in Tanyao.
Chunchanhai	中張牌	Simples – the tiles 2-8, used in Tanyao.
Chuu	九	nine.
Chuugokuma-jan	中国麻雀	Chinese mahjong.
Chuurempoto	九連宝燈	Nine Gates – a closed full flush consisting of 1112345678999 + 1 other tile of that suit.
Chuusharin	中車輪	An old hand, full flush 11223355778899 in pin.
Dabudora	ダブドラ	To have a single tile that is worth 2 dora (such as a red tile that is also dora, or to have a tile be worth 2 dora due to kandora).
Dabunan	ダブ南	To be the south wind in South Round, such that South is worth 2 yaku for you.
Daburi	ダブリー	To reach on your first discard.
Daburon	ダブロン	To have multiple players win simultaneously on a single discard.
Daburu-bakku	ダブルバック	“Double-back” to attack while waiting for two possible taitsu.
Daburu-hako	ダブル箱	To be down twice as many points as you originally started with.
Daburu-mentsu	ダブル面子	To have two connected pairs, such as 4455.
Daburu-mentsu-otoshi	ダブル面子落とし	To cut one each of two connected pairs, such as discarding a 4 and 5 while keeping another 4 and 5 in hand.
Daburu-yakuman	ダブル役満	The property of certain yakuman to make them worth multiple yakuman.
Dabururi-chi	ダブル立直	To reach on the first discard.
Dabuton	ダブ東	To be the east wind in East Round, such that East is worth 2 yaku for you.
Dahai	打牌	To discard a tile.
Daichikurin	大竹林	An old hand, full flush tanyao seven pairs in sou.
Daichisei	大七星	An old hand, one of each wind and dragon, and seven different tiles of the same suit.
Daida	代打	To have a ‘pinch hitter’, or a player to take over for you at certain times.
Daiminkan	大明槓	To call the 4th tile to make an open kan.
Daiminkan	大明槓	To call the 4th tile to make an open kan.
Daimyochi	大名打ち	To aim to make a hand that gets you first place in one shot.
Daimyoma-jan	大名麻雀	To play in a style that winning one hand wins you the game.
Dainoten	台の点	Refers to Fu-tei (base 20 points).
Daisangen	大三元	To have a triplet of all three dragons.
Daisharin	大車輪	An old hand, full flush tanyao seven pairs in pin.
Daiso	代走	Parlor term – to have an employee play for you while you take a break (bathroom, for example).
Daisu-shi	大四喜	To have a triplet of all four winds.
Daisuurin	大数隣	An old hand, full flush tanyao seven pairs in man.
Daiuchi	代打ち	A player who makes a living playing mahjong.
Damaten	黙聴 or ダマ聴	To be in fully closed tenpai without reaching.
Dangoba	ダンゴ場	Dumpling field – to have a play state that is good condition for drawing pairs and triplets.
Danrasu	断ラス	To be dead last.
Debasai	デバサイ (でばさい）	When a leading player completes a hand with Ron. Often rude to yell at other player.
Dejami	手三味	When a player pretend that he is hesitating by making unnecessay movement like as though he is playing a Shamisen (Japanese ancient string instrament).
Dejitaru	デジタル	Digital – a school of thought focused on the outcome of a game based on probability and statisctics.
Dekimentsu	出来メンツ (できメンツ）	Already completed Mentsu.
Dekin	出禁 (できん）	Parlor term, to be banned.
Deme	出目 (でめ）	The roll of the dice.
Denancha	出南家 (でなんちゃ）	When the first round starts at the south seats.
Deoya	出親 (でおや）	Starter, when the first round starts at the east seat.
Depeicha	出北家 (でぺいちゃ）	When the first round starts at the north seat.
Derupon-deruchi	出るポン出るチー (でるぽんでるちー）	When a player calls on any tile.
Desha-cha	出西家 (でしゃーちゃ）	When the first round starts on the west seat.
Dobon	ドボン	When a game ends when a player tobi (goes bankrupt).
Dojun	同順	To discard the same tile four go-arounds in a row.
Dojunfuriten	同巡フリテン	Same as Dojunnaifuriten.
Dojunnaifuriten	同巡内フリテン	When a player wins with other player’s discarded tile between the player’s first round and second round but becomes Furiten.
Dokasen-rule	導火線ルール	A type of Wareme rule, when a player doubles the score with the tiles in tsumo pile after he wins, not with the broken wall.
Dora	ドラ	To award an extra han for each instance of a specific tile in a hand.
Dorabaku	ドラ爆	Dora bomb – to suddenly gain a lot of dora via kandora or uradora. Often used to describe a cheating technique with that as the outcome.
Dorabukumi	ドラ含み	When a hands has a lot of specific tile that can be awarded an extra han.
Dorahyo	ドラ表	An Abriviated term for Dorahyojihai (Dora Indicator).
Dorahyojihai	ドラ表示牌	The Dora indicator – the physical tile that determines the value of the tile that is dora.
Dorahyouji	ドラ表示	The Dora indicator – the physical tile that determines the value of the tile that is dora.
Doramatagi	ドラまたぎ	a wait that surrounds the dora. For example, if the dora is 4, having a 2-5 or 3-6 wait.
Dorashijihai	ドラ指示牌	The Dora indicator – the physical tile that determines the value of the tile that is dora. Archaic.
Dorasoba	ドラそば	Suji tile that is connected with Dora that is close to that number tile. for example if dora is 1 then it will be 2.
Dorasuji	ドラ筋	Suji tiles connected to dora. For example, if dora was 4, then 1 and 7.
Doratan	ドラ単	Refers to Doratanki (when a player is waiting for dora).
Dorauke	ドラ受け	When a player gets a Dora tile in hand.
Dorazuri	ドラ吊り	Cheating term – to swap out the dora tile to one of your hoosing.
Dotakame	ド高目	A specific hand that could yield the highest point out of all possible hand. Antonym to Doyasume.
Dotaku	同卓	To sit at the same table.
Doyasume	ド安目	A specific hand that yield the lowest point out of all the possible hand. Antonym is Dotakame.
E-toppu	Aトップ	Boo mahjong term. When a single player is on the lead. Sometime called Maru-A.
Eawase	絵合わせ	To win a hand without taking into account the overall scorring, often to the detriment of another player without personal gain.
Egaau	絵が合う	When a player at first don’t take in account of overall scoring, waits for a single tile and wins with an inefficient hand.
Enchousen	延長戦	Overtime – to contine playing until a player reaches the target points required to end a game.
Entotsugata	エントツ形	A chimney – to have a wait that is both a ryanmen and shanpon, such as 34555EE (waiting on 2-5, and E).
Erebe-ta	エレベーター	Cheating term – to slide tiles into a wall, removing the same number.
Fampai	飜牌	A tile that is a han in a triplet, such as a dragon or round wind.
Fan	飜	A scoring doubler, not necessarlity one required to win.
Fann	翻	A scoring doubler, not necessarlity one required to win.
Fanpai	翻牌	A tile that is a han in a triplet, such as a dragon or round wind.
Faron	花竜	An old hand, refers to sanshokukantsu.
Fu	符	The unit of points used along with doubling han to determine score, based on hand makeup and wait.
Fu-ro	副露	To call. Same as Naku and Kuu.
Fu-shi-pai	浮屍牌	A discarded tile. A term not used often.
Fu-tei	副底	the 20 base points in determing a hand score.
Fuhane	符はね	to round up to the nearest 10 points while determining hand score.
Fukai	深い	When a round goes relativley slow. Antonym is Asai.
Furi	フリー	Parlor term – to play without paying, such as a parlor that only charges the winner the table fee.
Furi-janso	フリー雀荘	A parlor that uses Free rules.
Furikomi	振り込み	To deal into a hand for strategic purposes.
Furikomi	振り込み	A payment for dealing into another hand.
Furiten	振聴	A rule that states one cannot win off of another player due to previous discard or missed call.
Furitenri-chi	フリテンリーチ	To reach while in furiten, a legal move.
Furu	振る	When a player wins with Ron. Can refer to Hoju.
Fusehai	伏せ牌	Face down tiles, often in a hand.
Futanaki	二鳴き	To wait for two different tile to make a hand.
Futanaki-tempai	二鳴き聴牌	To win by waiting for two different tiles.
Futari-agari	二人あがり	For multiple players to win (via double ron rules).
Fuuka-setsugetsu	風花雪月	An old yakuman, having an all triplet hand consisting of pin 1s, 5s, the personal wind, and white dragons.
Fuupai	風牌	The wind tiles.
Fuuro	副露	To call a tile, also “naki”.
Fuusoku	風速	An old way of saying point-to-cash rate.
Fuutei	副底	The base 20 points in a hand.
Fuyohai	不要牌	Unnecessary tile.
Gameru	ガメる	To collect dora within a hand.
Gami	ガミ	To lose or be in Deficit.
Gampai	ガン牌	A tile that has mark or scratches on its outer layer. May be abused for cheating.
Garasu	ガラス	Glass – When a player is pretty readable.
Gari	ガリ	Refers to Nukidora during a 3 player mahjong.
Garisamma	ガリ三麻	Three player mahjong using Nukidora.
Ge-mudai	ゲーム代	The fee for playing a mahjong game.
Gembari	現張り	GeNbari? – To be waiting for a safe tile discarded by a leading player.
Gembutsu	現物	A 100% safe tile, such as the same tile as was immediately previously discarded, or one mathematically unable to be in a winning hand.
Gembutsudora	現物ドラ	GeNbutsudora? – An old rule where Dora is the flipped tile, not the tile next to the flipped one.
Gembutsuhai	現物牌	Refers to Genbutsu.
Genrokuzumi	元禄積み	Cheating term. A type of Tsumitomiwaza. When a player puts an ideal tile on top or bellow the pile.
Genten	原点	To set the point sticks to the starting amounts.
Getahai	ゲタ牌	A tile that is physically made bigger.
Girishi	ギリ師	Cheating term, a name used for a cheater who uses Nukiwaza (to put tile on the wall) and/or hiroiwaza (to get tile from the discard pile).
Giru	ぎる	Cheat term, to pull tiles from the walls and discards.
Go-ni-	ゴーニー	Scoring term – 5,200.
Gochi	誤チー	A mistaken Chi (124, for example).
Gohyakuo-ru	ゴヒャクオール	Scoring term – 500 all.
Golden-gate-bridge	金門橋	An old yakuman, full flush 123 345 567 789.
Gomi	五三	Scoring term, 300 / 500.
Gomite	ゴミ手	A hand that is relatively cheap or bland.
Gon	豪運	to be extremely luck.
Gonoko	5ノコ	“5 Left”, the columns of tiles left after drawing from a roll of 10. (using luke’s other translation).
Gopon	誤ポン	A mistaken pon (556, for example).
Goppa	ゴッパー	Scoring term – 5,800.
Goron	誤ロン	A mistaken ron, eligible for penalty payments.
Goshuugi	ご祝儀	A bonus prize, paid in chip mahjong, for certain tiles. Alternatively, chip payments in a yakuman situation (often 10 or 5-all).
Gotoshi	事師	A person who cheats.
Gotsumo	誤ツモ	A mistaken tsumo, eligible for penalty payments.
Gotto	ゴットー	Scoring term – 500/1000.
Goumii	ゴーミー	The cheapest tsumo, 300/500.
Gukei	愚形	A weak hand, to be waiting for a inefficient tile. Also known as Akkei.
Guuzenyaku	偶然役	Yaku that happens by chance, such as Haitei or Ippatsu. Guhatsuyaku.
Gyakukiri	逆切り	To discard a wait from the inside out. For example, when discarding a 1-3, to discard the 3 first and then the 1.
Gyakumo-shon	逆モーション	To setup pile in reverse order, considered bad manner.
Gyakuten	逆転	Turnabout – to pass someone in points at the end of the game.
Gyarujan	ギャル雀	A Mahjong house for mostly young female players.
Gyarumen	ギャルメン	A member of Female Mahjong house.
Hadakatanki	裸単騎	Naked pair – To have 1 tile left in hand, waiting on the pair.
Hai	牌	Mahjong Tile, Basic tools used for Mahjong.
Haifu	牌譜	Score Card for Mahjong. Records all point movement inside the game.
Haigen	配原	Refers to Haikyuu-genten.
Haigen-binta	配原ビンタ	Penalty paid for going lower than Beginning point.
Haikatsuji	牌活字	To show tiles in text instead of the printed name of the tile.
Haikoritsu	牌効率	Tile efficiency.
Haikyuu-genten	配給原点	Amount of point a player have before the start of a round.
Haipai	配牌	The players’ initial draw.
Hairi	牌理	To manage tiles efficiently, aiming the fastest completion of a standard hand.
Hairime	はいり目	Refers to Irime.
Haisabaki	牌捌き	The motions made with hands when dealing with tiles.
Haisei	牌勢	Aura of the tile, when a player can “feel” the tile.
Haishashoku	牌写植	Same meaning as Haikatsuji.
Haishi	牌姿	same as shuhai.
Haitei	ハイテイ	The last draw.
Haitei-hai	ハイテイ牌	The last tile.
Haitei-moyue	海底摸月	Old name for Haitei Raoyue.
Haitei-raoyue	海底撈月	To win on the last draw.
Haitei-ron	ハイテイロン	To win on the last discard, commonly called Houtei.
Haitei-tsumo	ハイテイツモ	To win with the last tile.
Haiyama	牌山	The walls – from where tiles are drawn.
Hajiki	弾き	Cheating term – to discard to the top of your discard pond, shifting the tile above where yours should go into the correct spot.
Hako	箱	To have zero point. Same meaning as Tobi, or Hakoten.
Hakoshita	ハコ下	Negative scores.
Hakoshita-seisan	ハコ下精算	To calculate points including the negative scores.
Hakoten	ハコ点	To have zero point. Same meaning as Tobi or Hako.
Hakoware	ハコ割れ	To have zero point. Same meaning as Tobi, Hako, Hakoten.
Haku	白	White dragon.
Hamete	はめ手	A hand made to decieve other player.
Hampai	飜牌	A Yaku where 3 tiles is equialant to one point.
Han	飜	The unit used to count the number of doubles given while making score.
Han-jidotaku	半自動卓	A half-automatic table, one that uses magnets underneath the surface of the table to shuffle and flip the tiles face down.
Hanahai	花牌	Flower tiles, not commonly used in reach mahjong.
Hanama-jan	花麻雀	Playing mahjogn with folwer tiles, synonymous with Chinese mahjong.
Hanchan	半荘	A game consisting of an East round and a South round, most commonly used in Reach mahjong.
Hanechoku	跳直	A common name for direct Haneman.
Haneman	跳満	A hand worth 6 or 7 han.
Hann	飜	Unit for the points.
Hannpai	翻牌	Yaku where 3 of a kind equals 1 Hann.
Hansha	反射	Reading information via reflections.
Hansuu	ハン数	The number of total han in a hand.
Happyaku-all	ハッピャクオール	Scoring term: 800 all.
Happyaku-ichiroku	ハッピャクイチロク	Scoring term: 800 / 1600.
Harabote	腹ボテ	Bump (such as a pregnant woman would have) – A pair wait within a sequence. For example, 4556.
Haru	ハル	Same as tenpai.
Hashihai	端牌	The edge tiles, 1 and 9.
Hassei	発声	To clearly speak calls, such as Chi, Pon, Ron.
Hassei-yuusen	発声優先	An agreement that a ‘late called ‘ Pon cannot still override a Chi.
Hausuru-ru	ハウスルール	House Rules.
Hayaagari	早あがり	To win a round early.
Hayagiri	早切り	To discard an important tile early in the hand, such as dora.
Hazusu	外す	To discard tile that was non-single tile such as tile that made Mentsu or Toitsu.
Heii-so	黒一色	An old Yakuman, consisting of only 2,4,8 pin and wind tiles.
Heikyoku	平局	To not increase the repeat deal counter after an exhaustive draw.
Hensoku-machi	変則待ち	An irregular wait that results in a three tile double sequence wait – such as 234456, which is still a 1-4-7.
Hensokute	変則手	Uncommon hand, to get a Yaku other than Pinfu or Tanyao.
Hiki	引き	The ‘pull’ of a certain tile, the feeling ti will be a good or bad draw.
Hiki-modoshi	引き戻し	To have drawn a tile that a player once discarded.
Hiki-modosu	引き戻す	Trying to draw a tile that a player once discarded.
Hikiagaru	引き上がる	To win with sef-drawn tile, same as Tsumoagari.
Hikibori	引きぼり	To discard what was drawn (archaic).
Hikiga-tsuyoi	ヒキが強い	Having good luck drawing efficient tile and wining the round.
Hikiga-yowai	ヒキが弱い	To draw an unneeded, weak tile, such as after a reach.
Hikizumo	引きヅモ	To put aside the drawn tile right after a player calls. Considered ill-manner.
Hikkake	引っかけ	Same as Suji-hikkake.
Hikkake	引っ掛け	A discard set that identifies certain tiles as safe when they are in fact not (discarding a 4pin to wait on a 1).
Hikkakeri-chi	引っかけ立直	To reach with the discarded tile which is waiting for ron.
Hikume	低目	To be waiting for a tile that yeilds a yaku with the lowest point.
Hira	ヒラ	For a player who can use cheating techinique to play fair game.
Hiraba	平場	To have 0 repeat deal (honba).
Hirauchi	ヒラ打ち	For a player who can use cheating techinique to play fair game.
Hiro-i	拾い	Cheat term, to draw a tile from a wall and replace it with different tile.
Hiroi	広い	Waiting for a large number of tiles.
Hiroiwaza	拾い技	Cheating term – to take a tile from the discard instead of the wall.
Hitoriuki	一人浮き	When only one player has total point above the starting point.
Ho-	河	The discard area. Often refered to as the river.
Ho-ra	和了	To win a hand.
Hochan	放銃	Alternate of Hojuu, rarely used.
Hojuu	放銃	To transfer points by dealing in.
Hojuuhai	補充牌	The tile that dealt in.
Hojuusha	放銃者	The person who points are transferred to.
Homba	本場	Unit to count the number of stick.
Honba	本場	The counter of repeat deals, represented by 100-point sticks.
Honchan-taiyao	混全帯ヤオ九	The official meaning of chanthaburi.
Honchinro	混清老	Different color, same suit and Honro.
Honchun	紅中	the official name of red/red dragon/chun.
Honi-so	混一色	The official name for Honitsu.
Honichi	ホンイチ	Alias for Honitsu.
Honikki-tsuukan	混一気通貫	Old Yaku, refers to sanshoku-tsukan.
Honitsu	ホンイツ	A legal hand consisting of one suit and honor tiles.
Honro	ホンロー	A legal hand consisting of 1s, 9s, and honor tiles only.
Honro-chi-toi	ホンロウチートイ	Honroutou and Chitoi.
Honro-chi-toitsu	ホンロウチートイツ	Honroutou and Chitoi.
Honro-to	混老頭	The official name for Hon rou.
Honro-toitoi	ホウロウトイトイ	Honroutou without Chitoi.
Honso	本走	Parlor term – the standard player, who switches out for a pinch hitter.
Hotei	ホウテイ	To win on the last discard.
Hoteiraoyui	河底撈魚	River bottom – The official name for Houtei.
Houjuu	放銃	To deal into another’s hand.
Houra	和了	To win a hand.
Houteihai	河底牌	The last discarded tile.
Hyakumangoku	百万石	An old yakuman, a legal hand that consists of characters that add up to more than 100.
Hyojihai	表示牌	The dora indicator.
I-	一	1.
I-chan	一荘	4 rounds going east, south, west and north. Japanese rounds goes only east and south.
I-chapao	一家包	Rule where only one can win and other three player has to pay penalty with tsumo win and only one has to pay penalty for Ron win.
I-hanshibari	一翻縛り	An alternate rule where a player must have exactly 1 han.
I-hanyaku	一ハン役	The list of hands that are exactly 1 han.
I-pe	イーペー	Abbreviation for Ii pei ko.
I-pe-ko	一盃口	Two identical sequences in a closed hand.
I-pimmo-yue	一筒摸月	An old yakuman – to win with Haitei on the 1 pin.
I-shanten	一向聴	To be one draw away from tenpai.
I-shantenjigoku	一向聴地獄	Iishanten hell – to be stuck at one draw from tenpai.
I-so-nijun	一色二順	Same meaning as I-pe-ko, but not used often.
I-so-sanjun	一色三順	An old Yaku, To add Shun-tsu in I-pe-ko. May double twice or three time on menzen, depending on local rule.
I-so-tonshun	一色同順	Same meaning is I-pe-ko. Locally it can mean I-so-sanjun and I-so-yonjun.
I-so-yonjun	一色四順	An old Yaku, to make four similar shuntsu. It can be ryanpe-ko with same shuntsu or I-so-sanjun with same shuntsu. It is a hard Yaku as it requires the player to gather four of the same tile and three of the same number.
I-su-chi	一四七	A 1-4-7 wait.
I-ton	一幢	A paired of stacked tile.
Ichidofuri	一度振り	To roll the dice only once to determine the point of wall break. Prior to automatic tables, two dice rolls was more common.
Ichigo	イチゴー	Scoring term: 1500.
Ichikoro	一コロ	To roll one die.
Ichikyuuhai	１・９牌	The character tiles from 1 to 9.
Ichikyuujihai	１・９字牌	The character tiles from 1 to 9.
Ichinaki	一鳴き	To call once.
Ichinakitempai	一鳴き聴牌	To call once to get to tenpai.
Ichinigotto	一二五十	To distribute 26,000 points – 1 10k, 2 5k, 5 1k, 10 100, “1-2-5-10”.
Ichiniiniisan	イチニイニイサン	Scoring term: 1200/2300.
Ichiniio-ru	イチニイオール	Scoring term: 1200 all.
Ichinirokuto	一二六十	To distribute 27,000 points – 1 10k, 2 5k, 6 1k, 10 100, “1-2-6-10”.
Ichiniyonto	一二四十	To distribute 25,000 points – 1 10k, 2 5k, 4 1k, 10 100, “1-2-4-10”.
Ichiroku	イチロク	Scoring term: 1600.
Ichirokuo-ru	イチロクオール	Scoring term: 1600 all.
Ichirokuzannii	イチロクザンニイ	Scoring term: 1600 / 2300.
Ichisan	イチサン	Scoring term: 1300.
Ichisanniiroku	イチサンニイロク	Scoring term: 1300 / 2600.
Ichisenchi	１センチ	“1 centimeter”, to be tenpai but waiting on your pair tile. Generally considered better than a naked wait.
Igetazumi	井桁積み	To create the 17x 2 walls out of the 136 tiles. Rarely used.
Iichan	一荘	A four-rround game. East, South, West, North. More common in Chinese variants.
Ikasama	イカサマ	To cheat using slieight of hand.
Ikkaisen	１回戦	The first round in a mahjong tournament.
Ikkitsuukan	一気通貫	The full name of Itsu – to have 123,456,789 in one suit.
Ikkitsuukan-chanta	一気通貫全帯ヤオ九	An old hand, to have Itsu, and the remaining sequence and pair to be Chanta-legal.
Ikkyoku	一局	The hands with the first dealer of a wind round (East 1, South 1).
Imaten	今聴	To be currently tenpai.
Impachi	インパチ	Scoring term: 18,000.
Inchiki	インチキ	Cheaing term: to cheat with mechanical means, whether in the game (cameras, etc) or out of it (game client, auto-table).
Infure	インフレ	Inflation – to increase the rate or dora within the game.
Ippatsu	一発	To win before your next discard.
Ippatsukeshi	一発消し	To call post-reach to stop a possible Ippatsu win.
Ippomba	一本場	To be at the state of 1 repeat deal (1 100 point stick out).
Irime	入り目	Tile used to change from i-shan-ten to tenpai. May frustrate a player is Irime comes rather than effective tile.
Iroyomi	色読み	A way of predicting tile through the color of the discarded tile.
Isano-ru	イチサンオール	Point calculation terminology, its where the non-dealer pays the dealer 1300 points.
Isshokute	一色手	One color hand, same as honichi and chinitsu. Also known as Somete.
Ittegawari	一手変わり	When winning tile and hand tile is switched, abrievated term of Ittekawarisannshoku.
Ittenyomi	一点読み	Its where a player predicts opponents tile.
Ittsu	イッツー	Shortened term for Ikkitsuukan, used very often.
Ittsu-chanta	イッツーチャンタ	A local rule, abbrieviation of Ikkitsukan-zentaiyaokyu. Ittsu has tile 4, 5, 6 so getting chanta is usually impossible.
Jamboy	雀ボーイ	Boy working at Mahjong store.
Jammu	雀夢	Formally sold automated mahjong table made by Dengen Automation Co. ltd.
Janfuu	雀風	An individual style of playing mahjong, referring to tendency and trait of the way to hit/swing.
Jango	雀豪	A strong Mahjong player, also refers to the automated Mahjong table sold by Dengen automation Co. Ltd.
Jankikai	雀鬼会	Association created by Shouichi Sakurai aka “Janki”.
Jankiryuu	雀鬼流	A particular school of Mahjong popularized by Sakurai Shoichi.
Janreki	雀歴	Mahjong history.
Janryoku	雀力	Mahjong ability.
Janryuu	雀龍.com	A website dedicated to Mahjong officially called “Mahjong-no-Janryuu.com”. Its aim is to spread Mahjong and its Image.
Janryuumon	雀龍門	3D online mahjong game run by NC JApan K.K.
Jansei	雀聖	Refering to Tetsuya Abesada.
Janso	雀荘	Mahjong Parlor that requires fee.
Jansou	雀荘	Mahjong parlor.
Jantaku	雀卓	Mahjong Table, aka Mahjongtaku.
Janto	雀頭	A pair that is necessary to win a normal hand (akari).
Jantou	雀頭	The pair in a standard mahjong hand. Commonly “atama”.
Janya	雀屋	The name of a mahjong parlor.
Jidotaku	自動卓	An automatic table that shuffles and creates the walls. Many also keep track of points, draw hands, and/or flip dora indicators.
Jigokumachi	地獄待ち	Hell wait – a wait in which all but one of the tiles are already used (discarded or in open calls).
Jijun	次巡	Next turn.
Jikadori	ジカドリ	To have a specific opposing player call.
Jikazehai	自風牌	Jikazehai refers to individual player’s Wind tile, for example, West wind for West player.
Jikyoku	次局	Next round.
Jioya	自親	Dealer Round.
Johai	定牌	To discard a safe tile.
Jojidora	常時ドラ	Tiles that are always dora (such as red 5s).
Jun	巡	The number of ‘go arounds’ this hand (approximately the number of times yo’ve drawn).
Junchan	純チャン	A hand where all parts have a 1 or a 9 in them.
Junchan-ittsu	純チャン一通	A local rule where a hand with Itsu has the fourth sequence and the pai contain a 1 or 9.
Junchan-taiyaochu	純全帯ヤオ九	The full name for Junchan.
Junikkitsuu	純一気通貫全帯ヤオ九	An old Yaku, a hand with tsu, chanta and without any word.
Junisen	順位戦	A ranking system where the player’s rank decides the point earned.
Juniuma	順位ウマ	A system where the lower rank player pays point to higher rank player.
Junkara	純カラ	Same as Soraki.
Junniuma	順位ウマ	Placement Bonus.
Juubunkei	充分形	tiles that can easily make a hand and yield a high point.
Juusammen	十三面待ち	To wait for 13 possible tile. Ex. to be in tenpai for Kushimusou.
Kabe	壁	“Wall” – A tile efficiency theory which revolves around how many of a tile are visible.
Kabeuchi	壁打ち	To slide the tile to the side of the table. As it make sound and damage the tile, it is considered against manner.
Kabeyaku	壁役	Cheating Term, a player tells a conspirator the other players hand.
Kaburu	かぶる	To get the same tile that the player discarded.
Kachofuugetsu	花鳥風月	An old Yaku, to have flower (five banboo), bird(one ), wind (wind tile ) and moon tile (one.
Kaeriton	返り東	A local rule where tie-breaker is done in the east seat rather than the west seat.
Kafu	加符	Point that player gets during calculation.
Kafuten	加符点	The actual amount of point that player gets during calculation.
Kaikyoku	開局	To begin a round.
Kaimen	開門	For the Dealor to draw the same number of tile as the same number on the dice.
Kakaeru	抱える	To hold a specific tile in his/her hand, such as Dora tile, safe tile, etc…
Kakan	加槓	A kan that was upgraded from an in-hand tile.
Kakimawasu	かき回す	To cause action at the Mahjong table, such as calling or making unnecessary movement. Same meaning as Arasu but in a more positive tone.
Kakomu	囲む	To play Mahjong.
Kamburi	槓振り	A local rule Yaku where a player Ron after they Kan.
Kamicha	上家	The player to your left.
Kamicha-dori	上家取り	Rule where double or triple ron is not allowed and the player most closest to discarder wins in that instant. Even if Double or Triple Ron is allowed, player closest to the discarder has priority.
Kamicha-yuusen	上家優先	Same as Kamicha-dori.
Kamo	カモ	Duck’, a weak player / easy mark. Slightly offensive.
Kamorasu	かもラス	Parlor term – to alert the parlor that this may be your last game in this session.
Kan	槓	To call a Kan.
Kanchan	嵌張	An internal wait, such as 46 waiting on 5.
Kanchan-machi	嵌張待ち	To be waiting for a pair of tile that is one number separated, such as 1,3 and 4,6.
Kanchanfu	嵌張符	2 point that is added during calculation for Kanchan-machi.
Kandora	カンドラ	A rule that an additional dora indicator is revealed when a kan is called.
Kankanho	槓々和	A rarely used local Yaku, another name for Renkaiho.
Kansaki	完先	Abbreviation for Kanzensakizuke.
Kanta	嵌塔	Two pair of tile that is one number separated, aka Kanchan.
Kantsu	槓子	A set of 4 identical tiles.
Kanura	槓ウラ	A new dora tile that was flipped over because of player getting the Dora tile after calling Kan.
Kanzai	槓材	Tile that makes a Kan. Fourth tile that is added after Pon or 4 tiles that can easily be Pon (Ankan).
Kanzen-sakizuke	完全先付け	Rule that forbiddens Atozuke.
Kappagi	カッパぎ	To grab a lot of tenbo (point stick) from other player, same as Kappagu.
Kappagu	カッパぐ	To grab a lot of tenbo (point stick) from other player, same as Kappagi.
Karagiri	空切り	To draw and discard the same type but different tile that makes a tsumo, for example a player draws a 3 tile when he has 2,3,4 tile and discards a 3 tile. it is often used to decieve other player.
Karanaki	空鳴き	To call without meaning to, and immediately revoking that call. Usually subject to a 1,000 point deposit, or ‘dead hand’ (a hand were further calls cannot be made).
Karari-chi	空リーチ	To take back a reach that player called. A player has to give at most 1000 point to the table as a fine.
Karasu	カラス	A special Yaku based on three player mahjong rule. To win a hand without drawing a Dora tile.
Karaten	カラテン	To be tenpai, but having all winning tiles unavailable for draw or discard.
Kareru	枯れる	to have all four of the same tile that a player wants to be out or discarded.
Karikariton	仮々東	The person who rolls the dice on the second time to choose the dealor.
Karioya	仮親	The person who rolls the dice to choose the dealor, same meaning as Karitou.
Kariten	仮聴	Wanting to change hand even though a player is on Tenpai, usually because of waiting tile is inefficient.
Kariton	仮東	The person who rolls the dice to choose the dealor, same meaning as Karioya.
Kasanaru	重なる	For a tile to be in Toitsu, Ko-tsu, Kanntsuu.
Kashitaku	貸し卓	A full set of mahjong table that a mahjong parlor provisdes, usually lent for at least an hour.
Kataagari	片和了り	To have a multiple tile wait where one or more would be an illegal win (such as a 1-4 wait with Tanyao).
Katai	固い	Defensive playing.
Katashabo	片シャボ	When all the tile that a player is waiting to Toitsu is on the table.
Kawa	河	“River” – the discarded tiles.
Kawashite	かわし手	To press and win a quick hand to keep others from winnign with larger hands.
Kawazukuri	河作り	To discard in an order that masks your winning wait.
Kaze	風	Wind – East, South, West, North.
Kazoeyakuman	数え役満	To have 13 or more han, and count that hand as a yaukman.
Kazokuma-jan	家族麻雀	To play mahjong with your family, recently not heard.
Kazupai	数牌	Number tiles, the 1-9 of man, pin, and sou.
Ke-ten	ケーテン	Abbreviation of Keishiki-tenpai.
Keishiki tenpai	形式聴牌	Having tenpai without yaku, for purposes of end of hand tenpai payments and so forth.
Kempai	懸牌	Abbreviated form of kenshoupai, which is an old terminology for Dora.
Kenfompai	圏風牌	Same meaning as Bakaze, not used often.
Kenkoma-jan	健康麻将	“Healthy” mahjong: mahjong without the negative activities normally associated with it (smoking, gambling, drinking, etc.).
Kenshohai	懸賞牌	An old terminology of Dora.
Ki-hai	キー牌	Key tile that impacts the flow of the game.
Kihonfu	基本符	20 point which is the lowest base unit for mahjong. it may be 30, 40 point.
Kikenhai	危険牌	Dangerous tile – a tile that another player is likely to win with.
Kikku	キック	“Kick the can” – to win a small hand to move the deal, shortening the game or ending a dealership.
Kikkute	キック手	Same meaning as Kick.
Kimeuchi	決め打ち	To decide on one tile to win on and continue the game based on it.
Kimma	近麻	Shorthand for Kindai Mahjong magazine.
Kimmonkyo	金門橋	“Golden Gate Bridge”, an old hand consisting of 123, 345, 567, 789.
Kindaima-jan	近代麻雀	“Modern Mahjong” – a popular mahjong magazine.
Kinkeidokuritsu	金鶏独立	An old Yaku, A Hadakatanki with Mankan.
Kinshimpai	筋心牌	Tile that makes the center of a hand, usually refers to tile 4,5,6.
Kirau	嫌う	Tile that a player continuously discards no matter what.
Kiriage mangan	切り上げ満貫	“Rounded Mangan” – a rule where 3 han 60 fu / 4 han 30 fu are rounded up to mangan.
Kiru	切る	To discard a tile.
Kirukuru	切る来る	To draw the same tile that a player tends to discards.
Kitaichi	期待値	Expected value – to determine mathematicaly the possible value of a hand.
Kitsutsuki	キツツキ	When the the first, fourth tile and second, third tile is the same tile.
Ko	子	“Child” – a non-dealer.
Ko-fompai	客風牌	Same meaning as Otakaze.
Ko-tsu	刻子	Ko-tsu refers to three of a kind. For Ko-tsu, there are Minkou where you collect the set by calling “pon” and Ankou where you do not call.
Koba	小場	Rounds where player are winning with low point.
Kohai	好牌	An easily useable tile, such as a 4-6.
Kohaiheikyoku	荒牌平局	Same meaning as Ryukyoku.
Kohaipai	好配牌	Efficient and usuable tile.
Kohaisenda	好牌先打	To discard a tile that is in favor of all the player early in the game so it does not go in opponents favor .
Koi-so	紅一色	An old Yaku, Same meaning as Koryujan.
Koitten	紅一点	An old Yaku, to win by having all green tile in the middle of the hand.
Kokei	好形	“Good shape”, having many tiles that will help the hand. “A good ii-shan-ten”.
Kokui-so	黒一色	An old yaku, a hand with tile 2,4,8 and the wind tile.
Kokushimuso	国士無双	Thirteen orphans: one of each suit’s 1 and 9, one of each wind, one of each dragon, and one more of the aforementioned tiles to create a pair.
Kombiuchi	コンビ打ち	Cheating term: to work together with another person or player to commit fraud.
Koritsuhai	孤立牌	Tile that is isolated from any combination.
Koshi	腰	To react to other players discard tile.
Koshigakarui	腰が軽い	A style of calling as soon as possible, disregarding how low the point is. This terminology is often used by Menzen player (who focus on points), to player who calls relativley early in the game.
Koshikaru	腰軽	Same meaning as Koshigakarui.
Kotegaeshi	小手返し	To swiftly draw and discard a tile.
Kotenho	高点法	Rule where the points have to be relatively high.
Kotsuujiko	交通事故	“Traffic accident” – to deal into a large hand on the second go-around, often with no warning.
Koutsu	刻子	Triplet – three melded identical tiles.
Koyaku	古役	Old rule.
Kubi	クビ	To be back to the beginning point.
Kudaripon	下りポン	To pon from the previous player.
Kuijikake	食い仕掛け	To call and win the turn.
Kuikae	喰い替え	A rule that allows you to call a tile, then immediately discard a tile that could have been used in that meld: pon an 8p and then discard an 8p, or chi a 1m for a 23m and discard a 4m.
Kuinagareru	食い流れる	When the turn is reversed, the tile that was suppose to go to the players hand and create a yaku instead goes to the other player. It often refers to being the others player’s fault.
Kuinagasu	食い流す	When the turn is reversed, the tile that was suppose to go to the players hand and create a yaku instead goes to the other player. It is often that player’s fault.
Kuinaoshi	食いなおし	To call on a tile that a player once discarded, often embarrasing moment.
Kuinobasu	食い伸ばす	To chi from an extended sequence and still leave a good wait. For example, to have 2345, calling a 1 to leave a 45.
Kuipinfu	食いピンフ	Open pinfu, a no-longer used rule that pinfu was allowed to be open.
Kuisagari	喰い下がり	A property of certain yaku that they are worth 1 less when in an open hand.
Kuisageru	食い下げる	When an essential tile was taken by the next player.
Kuitan	喰い断	A rule that allows tanyao to be open.
Kuitoru	食い取る	By calling and changing order, a player wins using tile that other player would have won with.
Kunroku	クンロク	9600 points.
Kurobo	黒棒	The 100-point stick.
Kurobosa	黒棒差	To be ‘in the black’, such that your placement can change in All Last by a score that only requires the 100-point sticks (less than 1000).
Kurogo	黒五	The non-red 5s.
Kuttsuk-itempai	くっつきテンパイ	To be waiting for the other isolated tile that can complete a hand.
Kuttsuki	くっつき	To acquire connectable tiles. If you have a 3, for example, to accumulate tiles such as 2 and 5.
Kuu	食う	To call.
Kuuchi	空チー	To chi and to take back the call immediately. Generally penalized by a 1000-point deposit or a dead hand.
Kuukan	空カン	To kan and to take back the call immediately. Generally penalized by a 1000-point deposit or a dead hand.
Kuukoi	空行為	To call in general (reach, chi, pon) and to take back the call immediately. Generally penalized by a 1000-point deposit or a dead hand.
Kuupon	空ポン	To pon and to take back the call immediately. Generally penalized by a 1000-point deposit or a dead hand.
Kuzusu	崩す	To collapse the wall or your hand accidentally.
Kuzute	クズ手	Kudzu hand – a cheap hand, similar to “tash hand”.
Kyakufuuhai	客風牌	Same meaning as Ota-fuu.
Kyakuuchi	客打ち	When the worker at a mahjong parlor plays with the guest/customer.
Kyandonho	鏡同和	An old Yaku, having a ordered number (1,2,3 tile) with two suit.
Kyatapira	キャタピラー	Cheating term – “Caterpillar”, to shift tiles into the wall by sliding the top and bottom horizontally.
Kyoda	強打	To discard a tile strongly or with a strike (bad manners).
Kyogima-jan	競技麻雀	Competition mahjong – mahjong in a tournament, as opposed to gambling.
Kyogiru-ru	競技ルール	Competition rules – a ruleset for a tournament, often lacking more random rules such as ura dora.
Kyoku	局	A round – beginning with the initial draw and ending with a win or draw. East 1, South 2, etc.
Kyotaku	供託	Deposit – points that you put into play, to be given to the winner, such as a Reach stick.
Kyotakutembo	供託点棒	Deposited point sticks.
Kyotsuu-ampai	共通安牌	A safe tile for 2-3 player.
Kyotsuu-anzempai	共通安全牌	Same as kyotsuu-ampai.
Kyu	九	9.
Kyu-pinraoyui	九筒撈魚	An old rule that gave a bonus to winning houtei on the 9p.
Kyuukoken	急行券	Express ticket – an extremely fast hand, allowing an early win.
Kyuurempoto	九連宝燈	Nine Gates – 1112345678999 + one other tile, all in the same suit.
Kyuushu-kyuuhai	九種九牌	To have 9 or more different terminals + honors on your first draw, allowing you to draw the hand in many rulesets.
Ma-chao	マーチャオ	A popular mahjong parlor chain.
Ma-jan	麻雀	Mahjong – the profound table game. Intellectual and empowering, played by the finest of humanity, including those who are so enamored with it that they would look up the translation of the game’s name on a mahjong website.
Machidori	待ち取り	When a player can wait on several type of tile depending on the tile a player discards.
Machigoro	待ち頃	Tile that is still left in the tile mountain or tile that a player might discard.
Mageru	曲げる	Bend – to turn the tile discarded post-reach sideways.
Magire	まぎれ	Accidental events that disrupt the flow of mahjong.
Magujan	マグ雀	a Semi-automatic (shuffle and flip tiles only) table.
Majan	麻将	Mahjong written in Chinese. Also, the particular way in “healthy mahjong” that mahjong is written.
Majan-matto	麻雀マット	A mat with which to play mahjong on.
Majan-pai	麻雀牌	Mahjong tiles.
Majan-pro	麻雀プロ	A player who has been accepted into a professional mahjong association.
Makura	枕	Same meaning as Jantou, Atama. The term is not used often.
Makuru	捲くる	To wound (hurt) – to bring low a player of higher points.
Mana	マナー	Manners – the courtesies used while playing mahjong.
Manchoku	満直	Abbreviation of Mankan-Chokugeki.
Maneman	真似満	Local rule where a player gets a yakuman while discarding the same first 5 tiles as other player.
Manganbarai	満貫払い	A penalty cost equal to a mangan.
Mangan	満貫	To cap han-fu calculation at 2000 points.
Manshuu	満州	An old way of saying Yakuman.
Mantembo	万点棒	The 10,000-point stick.
Mantsumo	満ツモ	Abbreviation for menzen tsumo.
Manzu	萬子	The character tiles – a kanji rom 1 to 9 plus the kanji “yorozu”, meaning 10,000.
Marubi	マルB	Boo Mahjong term, when 2 players are on top.
Marudori	丸取り	“the roundup”, a method of scring three people mahjong, so that values approimate those found in standard four-player mahjong.
Marue	マルA	Boo Mahjong term, when one player is on top.
Marushi	マルC	Boo Mahjong term, when three player is on top.
Matagisuji	またぎスジ	A 3-space tile combination straddling a single tile. For 5, they would be 4-7 and 3-6.
Mawarioya	回り親	Where the last player from the previous game is the first player in the next game.
Mawashiuchi	回し打ち	Thestrategy of attempting to develop a hand while discarding only safe tiles.
Mawasu	回す	Same meaning as Mawashiuchi.
Meisai	迷彩	To camoflauge a wait via discard order.
Mekuriai	捲り合い	To reach against another reach, competing for the first win.
Mekuru	捲る	To flip up, such as with a dora indicator.
Member	メンバー	The members and employees of a Mahjong parlor.
Mempin	メンピン	An abbreviation for Reach+Pinfu.
Men	メン	Short for Reach, used in hand notification. “mentanpin is 3900” and so forth.
Menchin	メンチン	To have a full flush with one suit during a closed hand.
Menfon	門風	Same as Wind seat.
Menfon-pai	門風牌	Same as Wind seat.
Menhon	メンホン	A state of Chinho (declaring a win on the first turn) before declaring a hand.
Mentan	メンタン	The abbreviation for reach+tanyao.
Mentanpin	メンタンピン	The abbreviation for reach+tanyao+pinfu.
Mentaru	メンタル	The state of mind, an important element required to win in mahjong.
Mentsu	面子	a meld or group of tiles.
Mentsu-otoshi	面子落とし	To discard a tile that could have made a group of tiles.
Mentsu-over	面子オーバー	To have too many potential Mentsu.
Mentsumo	メンツモ	Abbreviation for menzen tsumo.
Menzen	門前	Fully closed hand – if in tenpai, allows reach.
Menzen-chin	門前清	The official term for menzen, not used that often.
Menzen-chintsumo	門前清自摸和	The official term for Menzentsumo.
Menzen-ha	門前派	To win the game without calling, a fully closed hand.
Menzen-kafu	門前加符	The 10 points added in the case of a fully closed Ron.
Menzen-tsumo	門前ツモ	The 1 han for a fully closed selfdraw.
Menzen-yaku	門前役	A Yakuman based on Menzen ( a fully closed hand), Ipeko, chitoitsu.
Miemie	見え見え	To easily able to read other player.
Migijuu	右１０	“Right 10”, a particular place to draw tiles from after the dealer’s roll.
Migini	右２	“Right 2”, a particular place to draw tiles from after the dealer’s roll.
Migiroku	右６	“Right 6”, a particular place to draw tiles from after the dealer’s roll.
Min	明	“Open” (light), refers to called, viewable tiles.
Minjun	明順	An open sequence made by calling a discard.
Minkan	明槓	An open kan.
Minkantsu	明槓子	A rarely used term for an open kan.
Minko	明刻	Three of a kind collected by calling “pon”.
Minko-tsu	明刻子	Another way of saying Minkou. This term is rarely used.
Minogashi	見逃し	To miss a win, to fail to call a win after Reach. There are rulesets that prohibit this.
Miokuru	見送る	Same meaning as Minogashi.
Misehai	見せ牌	Tile that was seen by other player, tile that will be checked.
Misu	ミス	“Miss”, to make a mistake.
Mo-pai	盲牌	To “look” at the tile without looking, usually by feeling the texture of the tile with your fingers.
Mo-ta	摸打	Usually means tsumo.
Mochi-mochi	モチモチ	For two player to have two of the same tile. One of the player has to discard that tile in order for the other player to Pon.
Mochiten	持ち点	Points, point stick that players holds.
Mopai	摸牌	Tile that was drawn.
Moro-hikkake	モロ引っ掛け	To reach with a Safe tile.
Morogake	モロ掛け	Same meaning as morohikkake.
Morohi	モロヒ	Same meaning as morohikkake.
Moronori	モロ乗り	When there is a 4 or 3 of a kind of uradora and kandora.
Morora	モロ裏	Abbreviation of Moroniurasuji, to be waiting for a Urasuji tile.
Moshirasu	もしラス	A type of last call, refers to “maybe the last hand”.
Motodora	元ドラ	Former dora tile before a new dora tile is revealed.
Motomen	元メン	Parlor term for the original members.
Motora	元ウラ	Former dora tile before a new dora tile is revealed.
Mudazumo	無駄ヅモ	A wasted draw (a tile that does not help the hand).
Murichin	無理清	An unreasonable chi, alerting players to a half or full flush.
Murihon	無理混	An unreasonable mixed, forcing players toward Hon’itsu.
Murinaki	無理鳴き	An impossible call, such as saying Pon on the 3rd tile of a type to be discarded.
Muripon	無理ポン	An impossible Pon call.
Musuji	無スジ	Tile that is not Suji.
Nagama-jan	長麻雀	East south Mahjong, It means long mahjong, as it takes longer than boo or three player mahjong.
Nagare	流れ	“The flow” – strategy possible based on fortune, superstition, the moon, etc.
Nagareron	流れ論	The idea that mahjong is a flow, and those who “follow” it will prevail. Similar to “occult”.
Nagareru	流れる	“To flow”, to appeal to the flow.
Nagashi	流し	Abbreviation for Nagashimankan, not used often.
Nagashi-mangan	流し満貫	To win a mangan by discarding only terminals and honors, and to have no tiles called off of you, until the draw is exhausted.
Nakabukure	中ブクレ	“middle blister” – A pair within a sequence, such as 23334.
Nakame	中目	Winning tile that is in neither high point or low point, not used often.
Nakanuki	中抜き	To discard a tile already in a group when Oriru.
Nakazuke	中付け	NO CLUE literal: to make a yaku with a call made before the second win.
Naki	鳴き	To call a discard.
Nakima-jan	鳴き麻雀	To play a style of mahjong that emphasizes many calls.
Nakiragu	鳴きラグ	To pause before calling.
Naku	鳴く	A call.
Namba	南場	The South.
Namboku-senso	南北戦争	Civil War, a rarely used hand based on American Mahjong, that uses the tile sequences 1861 and 1865.
Nampaku-tsukimono	南白つきもの	A mahjong saying that those who have the south also have the white dragon (unsubstantiated).
Nan	南	South.
Nanahyaku-sensan	ナナヒャクセンサンビャク	Scoring term: 700 / 1300.
Nanahyakuo-ru	ナナヒャクオール	Scoring term: 700 all.
Nananana	ナナナナ	Scoring term: 7700.
Nanato-ichisan	ナナトーサン	Scoring term: 700 / 1300.
Nancha	南家	The south player.
Nanikiru	何切る	“What would you cut” – chess / Go-style study problems based on scoring and tile efficiency.
Nannyuu	南入	To start the south seat, after 4 seats of east.
Narabitoitsu	並び対子	Two sequenced pairs, such as 4455.
Nashi	なし,ナシ,無し	“Invalid” – denotes a rule not in effect.
Nashi nashi	ナシナシ	Ruleset that disallows open tanyao and backdoor wins.
Nashiari	ナシアリ	Ruleset that disallows open tanyao but allows backdoor wins. Rarely used.
Nashinashi	ナシナシ	REPEAT.
Nekusuto	ネクスト	“Next”, determining the dora by the dora indicator.
Neraiuchi	狙い打ち	To choose a certain other player to Ron against.
Nerihai	練り牌	Plastic mahjong tiles.
Netto-janshi	ネット雀士	Net Mahjong – playing mahjong online.
Netto-keijanshi	ネット系雀士	A Net mahjong player – someone who specializes in net mahjong.
Nettoma-jan	ネット麻雀	Net Mahjong, to play against player around the Japan and world.
Ni-yomman	ニーヨンマル	Scoring term: 24,000.
Nicha	2チャ	Second place.
Nichaho	二家和	For two player to declare Ron at the same time, If this rule is not used, than Touhane is used.
Nichame	2チャ目	Player who is in second place at that moment.
Nidoburi	2度振り	To roll the dice twice to determine the wall break. Currently non-standard.
Nidoke	2度受け	To require the same tile in two different ways, for example, 3556 needs a 4 for 35 and for 56.
Nigiri	握り	a popular term for ‘uma”. alternately, the grip of a cheating player concealing a tile.
Nigirikomi	握り込み	Cheating term: to conceal a tile in your hand.
Nigiritsubusu	握り潰す	To keep tiles that other player might be looking for to use.
Niikyu	ニイキュー	Scoring term: 2900.
Niiroku	ニイロク	Scoring term: 2600.
Niirokuo-ru	ニイロクオール	Scoring term: 2600 all.
Niisan	ニイサン	Scoring term: 2300.
Niisano-ru	ニイサンオール	Scoring term: 2300 all.
Niiyon	ニイヨン	Scoring term: 2400.
Nikake	2欠け	Parlor term: to be short 2 people for the game.
Nikaku	2確	To definately win at second place.
Nikku	ニック	Scoring term: 2900.
Nikoniko	ニコニコ	“smile”, a popular slang term for seven pairs.
Nikoro	二コロ	When two player has negative points.
Ninaki	二鳴き	To Pon on the second draw.
Ninoninotenho	二の二の天和	Cheating technique – to work with another to load a tenhou into the wall.
Ninuke	2抜け	A rule where the second player does not play the next game in a five or more person game.
Nisen	ニセン	Scoring term: 2000.
Niseno-ru	ニセンオール	Scoring term: 2000 all.
Nisenzanku	ニセンザンク	Scoring term: 2000 / 3900.
No ten bappu	ノーテン罰符	The payment made by noten players at the end of the hand.
No-chansu	ノーチャンス	“no chance” – to have no possible way of filling a wait. For example, 79 with all the 8s in the discard.
No-ho-ra	ノーホーラ	The state of never being in first throughout a game.
No-re-do	ノーレート	“no rate” – to play without money stakes.
No-tembappu	不聴罰符	A fine that a player pays (in term of point) when a player is not in tenpai.
No-ten	不聴	To not be in Tenpai.
No-ten-oyanagare	ノーテン親流れ	To pass the deal if the dealer is not tenpai at the end of the hand.
No-tenri-chi	ノーテンリーチ	To reach without being in tenpai. A major penalty if discovered throughout the course of the hand.
Nobetan	延べ単	A doubled single-pair wait, for example, 4567 waiting on 4 or 7.
Nomi	ノミ	A hand containing 1 yaku and no dora.
Nomikikku	のみキック	To “kick the can” (pass the deal) with a 1 yaku hand.
Nomite	ノミ手	A hand with only one Yaku, a cheap hand.
Nonrasu-daho	ノンラス打法	To play avoid being last.
Nukeban	抜け番	The players not currently playing if you have an imperfect number of people playing mahjong (5,6,7).
Nukidora	抜きドラ	An extracted dora – tiles that can be removed from the hand to add a dora, such as North in 3-player.
Nukiutsu	抜き打つ	To discard a non-useless tile, sometime a highely efficient tile.
Nukiwaza	抜き技	Cheating term – to pull tiles from the wall.
Nuku	抜く	Cheating term, to use a Nukiwaza.
Nurui	ヌルい	A ‘nice’ way of saying you are bad at mahjong.
O-punri-chi	開立直	A widespread local rule that allows you to show all or part of your hand upon reaching to increase the value of your reach by 1 yaku. shortened to “punri” in many cases.
O-punsen	オープン戦	“open warfare”, an “anyone can join” competition.
O-rasu	オーラス	“All Last” – South 4 in an east-south game, East 4 in an east-only. The possible last hand.
Occult	オカルト	A school of mahjong strategy that eschews Digital mathematics and believes that the game is based on flow, mahjong demons, anime bullcrap, the moon, psychology, etc.
Ogamiuchi	拝み打ち	Dealing a tile with the feeling that it will deal in.
Ogonnoi-shanten	黄金の一向聴	To have both Tanpinsanshoku and Ikkitsukan.
Ohiki	お引き	Cheating term – to set up a draw for someone.
Oikakeriichi	追いかけリーチ	“Reach roulette” – to reach after another has reached, and leave the winner up to the draw.
Oka	オカ	The first place bonus in uma.
Okizai	置きザイ	Cheating term – to roll a desired number.
Okkakeri-chi	追っかけリーチ	To reach after other player reached.
Okurikan	送り槓	“tile hog” – to not call a kan for purposes of tile efficiency. For example, 333345 = 333 + 345.
Okurikomi	送り込み	Cheating term, to put highely efficient tile into other players wall and have them draw a tile, or putting an effective tile into a allied player.
Omo	オモ	Abbreviation for the original dora.
Omomo	オモオモ	Abbreviation for 2 uradora.
Omonote	大物手	“tycoon” – A high-scoring hand, often one large enough to bust another player.
Omote	表	Abbreviation of omotedora.
Omotedora	表ドラ	The Usual Dora Tile.
Onaten	同聴	To wait on the same tile as another.
Onizumo	鬼ヅモ	To draw a few remaining efficient tile.
Onraimma-jan	オンライン麻雀	Online mahjong – an alternate term for net mahjong.
Onri	オンリ	“Only”, to be in full defense mode. rarely used nowadays.
Oriru	オリる	To play the game by focussing on discarding safe tile to prevent it from going to other players advantage.
Oriuchi	オリ打ち	To discard a tile when a player is not aiming for a complete hand or to have a discarded tile Ron against by other player.
Orosu	降ろす	For the Dealer to move to the next player.
Osaeru	押さえる	To keep tile, especially the dangerous ones.
Oshihiki	押し引き	The “push pull” balance of offense and defense central to mahjong.
Otakaze	客風	Winds that are not yaku for you.
Otakaze-sanko	客風三刻	To play 3-play mahjong because a player is missing.
Otosu	落とす	To cut a tile, usually to the detriment of your hand, for defense.
Oya	親	The dealer.
Oyabai	親倍	A Dealer Baiman.
Oyagime	親決め	To choose the dealer.
Oyakaburi	親かぶり	When non-dealer player wins the round. In Mahjong, the dealer has to pay twice the amount to the non-dealer, so the larger the point, the more point that the dealer has to pay.
Oyaman	親満	A Dealer mangan.
Oyanagare	親流れ	For the dealer to change to a new player, Same meaning as Oyaochi.
Oyaochi	親落ち	For the dealer to change to a new player, Same meaning as Oyanagare.
Oyappane	親ッパネ	A dealer haneman.
Oyari	親リー	Rule where the dealer gets 1.5 times the normal point.
Oyaware	親割れ	For the dealer to start Wareme.
Pa	八	8.
Pa-renchan	八連荘	To get a yakuman for winning 8 consecutive hands.
Paa	八	8.
Pai	牌	A tile.
Paipan	白板	The official name for white.
Pairyuujoseki	牌流定石	A Mahjong theory proposed by Masaki Kaneko.
Pao	包	A property of certain yakuman that means a player may be responsible for all or part of the cost due to giving the final part of the hand before completion.
Paohai	包牌	A tile that could create a Paohai hand.
Paosha	包者	The person responsible for the last call of a yakuman.
Paosoku	包則	Rule for Pao Yakuman.
Pe-nuki	北抜き	A North extracted for dora, used in 3-player.
Pei	北	North.
Peiba	北場	Round wind at the north seat, does not happen at a East-South mahjong.
Peicha	北家	Peicha refers to a player who sit on the right side of the dealer from the dealer’s view. North Wind becomes the player’s Wind tile.
Penchan	辺張	An end wait – 12 waiting on 3, or 89 waiting on 7.
Penchan-machi	辺張待ち	Same as Penchan.
Penta	辺塔	Slang for Penchan.
Pi-pai	壁牌	Mahjong wall.
Piano-machi	ピアノ待ち	a three-sided wait, such as 23456.
Pimpin-roku	ピンピンロク	Scoring term: 11600.
Pin	ピン	The gambling rate for 1000 points, 100 yen unless otherwise noted.
Pinchoi	平局	To play without repeat deal increases. Non-standard.
Pinfu	平和	To have no wait, meld, or pair fu.
Pinfute	平和手	A hand that has a high possibility of pinfu.
Pinjan	ピン雀	To play mahjong at the rate of 100y per 1000 points.
Pinta	ビンタ	A specific type of mahjong bet – to be paid based on the number of placement differences.
Pinzu	筒子	Suited tiles, tiles with pictures of circle with hole in the middle (like 100-yen coil).
Pinzu	筒子	The pin tiles, with circles on them.
Po-hoipa-ren	破回八連荘	Rare local Yaku, for the non-dealer player to complete a hand to prevent the dealer from making Paren.
Pon	ポン	To call a tile to make a meld of three identical tiles.
Ponkasu	ポンカス	To call the last available tile of a type for a pon.
Ponten	ポン聴	To be in a state that you can pon into tenpai.
Ponzai	ポン材	Tile to call the Pon.
Punri	プンリー	Short for “Open Reach”.
Rakuhai	落牌	To drop a tile off the table.
Rakujan	落雀	A puzzle game based on Mahjong.
Raoto-hai	老頭牌	1 and 9 tile.
Rasha	ラシャ	The cloth played on.
Rasu	ラス	4th place.
Rasuagari	ラスあがり	The person who wins the last hand.
Rasuhai	ラス牌	The last tile.
Rasuhan	ラス半	The last half of the game.
Rasuhanko-ru	ラス半コール	Parlor term – to let the parlor know in the last half of a game that the next game is your last for the session.
Rasuichi	ラスイチ	The last tile.
Rasukaku	ラス確	To definately end in last place.
Rasumae	ラス前	The game before All Last (South 3).
Rasume	ラス目	Fourth place player.
Rasunuke	ラス抜け	A rule for five or more player where the last place player does not play the next game.
Rasuochi	ラス落ち	Fourth place player.
Rasuoya	ラス親	Dealer on the last round.
Rasuseki	ラス席	The dealer during All Last.
Rasuto	ラスト	Parlor term – to declare the end of a game.
Re-to	レート	The betting ratio.
Renchan	連荘	A continuation as dealer because either the dealer won or was tenpai at the end of the round.
Renfompai	連風牌	Self Wind seat tile.
Renho	人和	To win before your first draw. Once a Yakuman, now given by many as a mangan, as there is many different thoughts on the matter, it is not employed that often.
Renkaiho	連開花	An old Yaku, If a player Kans twice, he will double twice when he tsumo wins.
Renkan-kaiho	連槓開花	Local Yaku, same mening as Renkaiho.
Renko-yaku	連刻役	Yaku formed from consecutive triplets, no longer commonly used.
Rentairitsu	連対率	Ratio to get first and second place.
Rentei	連底	Total point including all the point stick.
Retsu	列	Partner Player, a player who shares profit.
Ri-chi	立直	To depost 1000 points with a fully closed hand and discarding all draws that would change your hand until winning for 1 yaku. Cannot be done with less than 1000 points.
Ri-chibo	立直棒	The 1000-point stick deposited upon reaching.
Ri-chidori	リーチ取り	Only the one that reach can take the penalty reach stick.
Ri-chiippatsu	立直一発	To win after reaching and before discarding, for 1 extra han. Another’s call voids this opportunity.
Ri-chima-jan	立直麻雀	The popular japanese variant of Mahjong.
Ri-hai	理牌	The sideways tile reached on.
Riaruma-jan	リアル麻雀	Physical mahjong, as opposed to online mahjong.
Riipai	理牌	To arrange the tiles in one’s hand.
Rimpai	零牌	The last tile.
Rinchan	輪荘	When the dealer changes to the other player.
Rinshampai	嶺上牌	A tsumo tile after Kan, A player gets Rinshan kaiho.
Rinshan	リンシャン	Abbrevation for Rinshan Kaihou.
Rinshankaiho	嶺上開花	To win on the replacement draw of a kan.
Rinshanpai	嶺上牌	The tile drawn after kan.
Rizumu	リズム	The tempo of a game.
Ro-	六	6.
Ro-hanyaku	六翻役	Scoring term: 6 yaku.
Ro-karu-yaku	ローカル役	Local Yaku – non-standard winning hands.
Ro-karuru-ru	ローカルルール	Local Rule – non-standard mahjong rules.
Ro-zu	ローズ	Same meaning as Toshiwaza.
Rokkenzumi	六間積み	Cheat term – to put six columns between each tile loaded into the wall (such that both tiles will be drawn by the same person).
Rokumaigiri	六枚切り	To discard tiles in rows of six, as is common in mahjong.
Rokunoko	6ノコ	The 6 cut – when rolling a 9, the six remaining tiles after the dealer draws.
Rokupa	ロクパー	Scoring term: 6800.
Rokuyon	ロクヨン	Scoring term: 6400.
Rompai	ロン牌	The tile that ron is called on.
Ron	栄 or ロン	To win due to an opponent’s discard.
Ronchan	輪荘	When the dealer changes to the next player, same meaning as Renchan.
Ronho	ロンホー	To win with Ron.
Roppyaku-senni	ロッピャクセンニシャク	Scoring term: 600 / 1300.
Rotohai	老頭牌	1 and 9 tile.
Routouhai	老頭牌	Terminals: the tiles 1 and 9.
Rule	ルール	Rules: often refers to local rules.
Ryampe	リャンペー	Abbreviation for Ryan pei ko.
Ryampe-ko	二盃口	Two instances of two identical sequences.
Ryan	二	2.
Ryando-ko	二同刻・両同刻	An old yaku, to create kantsu with 2 style of number tiles.
Ryanhan shibari	二飜縛り	A rule where 2 han are required to call a win. Often occurs when the repeat deal count reaches 5.
Ryanhan-yaku	二ハン役	Yaku worth 2 han.
Ryankan		REPEAT.
Ryankan	両嵌 or リャンカン	A multitile wait formed by you attached middle waits. Examples: 135, 468.
Ryankan-chan	リャンカンチャン	Same meaning as Ryankan, usually called Ryankan.
Ryankan-machi	リャンカン待ち	Same meaning as Ryankan.
Ryankan-ryanmen	リャンカンリャンメン	A ryankan with an internal sequence, such as 245667.
Ryanmen	両面	A multitle connected wait: foreample, the 2-5 wait of a 34.
Ryanmen-machi	両面待ち	To wait for outer number next to 2 numbers, such as waiting for 2 and 5 when a player has 3 and 4.
Ryann	両	A pair.
Ryanshanten	二向聴	Two tiles from tenpai.
Ryanshi	リャンシ	Abbreviation of Ryanshiba.
Ryanshiba	リャンしば	Abbreviation for Ryanshan-shibari.
Ryanzo-chankan	二索槍槓	An old hand, consisting of winning a chan kan off the 2 sou.
Ryanzoro	リャンゾロ	Same meaning as BaZoro.
Ryokei	良形	Good shape – a hand with good tile efficiency.
Ryotembin	両天秤	To choose one Yaku from two choices.
Ryu-i-so	緑一色	A yakuman consisting of a legal hand using only tiles from the list 23468sou and green dragon.
Ryu-i-so-rin	緑一色輪	An old yaku, to have 5 banboo rather than green tile.
Ryuu	六	6.
Ryuufa	緑發	Official term for fa.
Ryuukyoku	流局	The end of a hand where there was no ron or tsumo win.
Ryuukyoku-chombo	流局チョンボ	end-of-hand penalties, such as with noten reach.
Saburokyuu	三六九	a 369 wait.
Sai	賽	The dice.
Saifu	採譜	A wallet.
Saikokei	最高形	The best possible hand available from a current hand.
Saikoro	骰子	The dice.
Saishuukei	最終形	The final form of a hand,.
Sakigiri	先切り	to call ryanmen early in the hand, and to discard tiles that may be dangerous later.
Sakizuke	先付け	Disallows a hand from winning that contains its only yaku from the winning discard. Opposite of Atozuke.
Sakizumo	先ヅモ	To touch the tile to draw then change your mind and call. A manner violation.
Sakusaku	サクサク	To proceed the game without any problem.
Sama	サマ	An abbreviation for cheating.
Samma	三麻	An abbreviation for 3-player mahjong.
Sammemmachi	3面待ち	A three-tile-wait, such sa 23456, awaiting 146.
Sammenchan	3面チャン	To be waiting for 3 different tile.
Sampongohon	サンポンゴホン	Scoring term: 300 / 500.
Sampuuko	三風刻	An old Yaku, to create kantsu with three of the four wind tile.
San	三	3.
Sananko-	三暗刻	Three concealed triplets.
Sanbaiman	三倍満	A hand worth 11-12 han.
Sancha	3チャ	Third place.
Sanchaho	三家和	A triple Ron, depending on the rule, may cause Tochu-ryuukyoku (Ending the round with no win).
Sanchaho-nagare	三家和流れ	Rule where if three player declares Ron, then the Round will be a no win game (Tochuryuukoku).
Sanchame	3チャ目	The third place player.
Sando-ko	サンドーコー	Abbreviation for Sanshokudoko.
Sangempai	三元牌	The dragon tile.
Sangempaichi-toi	三元牌七対子	An old Yaku, same meaning as sangenchitoi.
Sangenchi-toi	三元七対子	An old Yaku, hand of Chitoitsu including the three dragon.
Sangenpai	三元牌	The dragon tiles.
Sanhaizumo	三牌ヅモ	Cheating term – to draw three tiles at once.
Sanhanyaku	三ハン役	The Yaku that are worth 3 han.
Sankake	3欠け	Parlor term – down three players for a game.
Sankaku	3確	To definitely finish in third place.
Sankantsu	三槓子	Three kan.
Sanninron	3人ロン	To have three players simultaneously declare Ron.
Sannoko	3ノコ	“3 Left”, the columns of tiles left after drawing from a roll of 12.
Sannuke	3抜け	Rule where the Top three player does not play the next game in a five or more player mahjong.
Sanrenko	三連刻	A local rule of three consecutive triplets in the same suit, for 2 han. Relatively common for a non-standard rule.
Sanshiki	サンシキ	Same meaning as Sanshoku.
Sanshoku	サンショク	An abbreviation for san shoku doujun.
Sanshoku-bukumi	三色含み	Hand that has a possibility of turning into a Sanshoku-dojun.
Sanshoku-dojun	三色同順	The same sequence in all three suits.
Sanshoku-doko	三色同刻	The same triplet in all three suits.
Sanshoku-dopon	三色同ポン	Refers to Sanshoku-doko.
Sanshoku-ittsu	三色一通	An old term, refers to Sanshoku-tsuukan.
Sanshoku-renko	三色連刻	An old Yaku, to have one of the four wind tile, 2,4,8 circle tile and toitoi with dragon tile.
Sanshoku-tsuukan	三色通貫	An old term, to make Ikkikantsu with three different number tile.
Santya	散家	Non-dealer player, same meaning as Ko.
Sanyon	サンヨン	Scoring term: 3400.
Sarasu	晒す	Same meaning as Naku or call.
Sasaru	刺さる	To pay penalty to other player.
Sashikomi	差し込み	To intentionally deal into to a hand.
Sashiuma	差しウマ	An end-game payment of 4th and 3rd places to 1st and 2nd.
Sawarazuno	触らずの十四枚	The fourteen tiles that are vertically symmetrical.
Seichaku	正着	The most correct tile to discard in term of efficiency.
Seichakuda	正着打	The discarded tile that has the most tile efficiency.
Sekinimbarai	責任払い	Certain rule regarding point payment, such as Pao.
Sempai	洗牌	To shuffle the tiles.
Sen	セン	Scoring term: 1000.
Senchampai	尖張牌	The 3s and 7s.
Sengenhai	宣言牌	The tile reach is declared on.
Sennisen	センニセン	Scoring term: 1000 / 2000.
Seno-ru	センオール	Scoring term: 1000 all.
Senpai	尖牌	Same meaning as Senpaihai.
Senseiri-chi	先制リーチ	An early reach.
Senten	千点 or センテン	A 1000-point hand.
Seori-	セオリー	Tactics.
Setto	セット	Parlor term: to rent a table by the hour.
Sha	西	West.
Sha-ba	西場	The west wind seat, Only happens when the game enter west in a east south game.
Sha-cha	西家	Sha-cha refers to a player who sit on the opposite side of the dealer from the dealer’s view. West Wind becomes the player’s Wind tile.
Sha-nyu	西入	Local rule if the top player has point less than 30,000, then the game continues into west round.
Shabo	シャボ	Abbreviation of Shanpon.
Shaitsu	シャイツ	Thedice.
Shamisen	三味線	To say things and/or make noise at an attempt to influence the game. “my hand is cheap” , “I am not tempai yet”, and sighing. Manner violation.
Shampommachi	シャンポン待ち	To have a shanpon wait in tenpai, that is two pairs.
Shampon	シャンポン	Tenpai with 2 different Toitsu, can be called Shabo.
Shanpon	双ポン or シャンポン	Two pairs, the third tile of either will complete the hand.
Shanron-chonchu	双竜争珠	An old Yaku, to have Pinzu pair and manzu, souzu shuntsu triplets.
Shanten	向聴	The number of tiles needed to get to tenpai.
Shanten-modoshi	シャンテン戻し	To return tile that of yield tanpai. To level down Shanten, for example from ishanten to ryanshanten (to wait for two tile rather than one tile).
Sharinyaku	車輪役	The wheel hands (seven pairs full flush tanyao), local rules.
Shi-aruraotai	十二落抬	An old Yaku, to complete a hand by hadakatanki through Pon or Chi.
Shi-fu-pai	四風牌	The wind tile, that is East, South, West, North tile.
Shi-pai	洗牌	To shuffle the tile in the begining of the game.
Shi-samputo	十三不塔	“Thirteen broken”, a popular local rule. To have thirteen unconnected tiles – no pairs, no two part or three part sequences. Often a Baiman or Yakuman.
Shi-sanrommen	十三龍門	Different name for Kokushimusou.
Shi-sanu-shi	十三無靠	An old Yaku, to have no Mentsu, totsu, toitsu and a different Yakuman.
Shi-sanyaochuu	十三ヤオ九	Different name for Kokushimusou.
Shi-toppu	Cトップ	Boo Mahjong term. 3 top player.
Shibabo	芝棒	100 point stick.
Shibari	縛り	Constraint, such as “minimum 2 yaku needed to win”.
Shibori	絞り	To squeeze – to hold onto tiles an opponent would be likely to pon or chi.
Shiboru	絞る	To not discard tile that may favor other player, to prevent other player from completing hand.
Shichifukusei	七福星	“Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars”, an old yakuman. seven pairs + all honors.
Shikake	仕掛け	To Chi, Pon, Kan, Reach.
Shimbunshi	シンブンシ	For the first five discard tile to be in the specific order such as west, 2, 3, 2, west, where the outer two tile, the outer middle tile are in pair.
Shimocha	下家	The player to your right.
Shimpai	心牌	Important number tile, usually means the 5 tile.
Shinimentsu	死にメンツ	A hand that is close but hard to gets Mentsu.
Shitazumo	下ヅモ	Bottom row of the tile wall.
Shizemmeisai	自然迷彩	A naturally camoflauged discard pile.
Shizumu	沈む	To sink below the starting number of points.
Sho-su-shi	小四喜	Small Four Winds – Three different triplets of winds, and a pair of the fourth.
Shohai	初牌	When no tile has been discarded yet.
Shoku	色	Suit (color).
Shominkan	小明槓	Same meaning as kan.
Shonpai	生牌	“Live tile” – a tile that has not yet been discarded.
Shori	処理	To discard a tile.
Shosan	ショウサン	An abbreviation for shou san gen.
Shosangen	小三元	Little Three Dragons – triplets of two dragons and a pair of the third.
Shosharin	小車輪	Small Wheel, an old hand of full flush seven pairs consecutive.
Shouhai	少牌	When a player has less tile in hand than normal, usually means Agarihouki (giving up on win).
Shu-pai	数牌	The number tiles, 1-9.
Shuntsu	順子	A sequence of three tiles, called or concealed.
So-zu	索子	Banboo suit.
Sobaten	そばテン	When the last tile that a player discarded completes a tenpai of other player.
Socha	荘家	The Dealer.
Sokuhikkake	即ヒッカケ	To get Suji tile right after calling Reach.
Sokuri	即リー	An abbreviation for an immediate reach.
Sokuri-chi	即リーチ	To reach immediately upon gaining tenpai.
Someru	染める	A dyed hand – something that is likely to be a half or full flush.
Somete	染め手	One color hand, such as Chinitsu, Honitsu.
Soryuusoju	双竜争珠	An old yaku, to have pinzu pair and 2 juntsu with number suit and banboo suit.
Sotogawa	外側	Outer number, usually the 1 and 9 number.
Souuma	総ウマ	Uma by all player.
Souzu	索子	The bamboo suit.
Su-	四	4.
Su-an	スーアン	An abbreviation for suu ankou.
Su-anko	四暗刻	Four completely concealed triplets.
Su-ankotanki	四暗刻単騎	To have four completely concealed triplets, waiting to complete a pair to make a valid hand.
Su-chari-chi	四家立直	To have all four players in reach,often considered an abortive draw.
Su-fu-chi-toitsu	四風七対子	An old yaku, Same meaning as Su-fu-chi-toitsu.
Su-fu-haichi-toitsu	四風牌七対子	An old yaku, Same meaning as Su-fu-chi-toitsu.
Su-fu-nagare	四風流れ	Same meaning as su-fu-renda.
Su-fu-renda	四風連打	To have all players discard the same wind on the first go around, causing an exhaustive draw.
Su-hanyaku	四ハン役	A yaku that makes four han. Logistically does not exist, but Shosangen and.
Su-kaikan	四開槓	Rule if 2 or more player calls a total of 4 kan, they must Tochuryukyoku (end the game without any win).
Su-kannagare	四槓流れ	Same meaning as Su-kaikan.
Su-kansanra	四風子連打	Four kans declared by two or more players total. Often signifies an abotrive draw.
Su-kantsu	四槓子	A single player kanning four times. The most difficult yakuman.
Su-renko	四連刻	To have four consecutive triplets in the same suit. An old hand.
Su-shi-chi-toitsu	四喜七対子	An old yaku, to have chi-toitsu including all of the wind tiles.
Su-shi-ho	四喜和	A collective term for Shosushi and Daisushi.
Su-shi-puto	十四不塔	Same meaning as shisansushi.
Su-tsu-ko-	四字刻	Yaku with 4 kantsu using character tile.
Suji	筋	“Muscle” – the tiles that complete ryanmen waits. The basis of many theories of wait-reading.
Suji-hikkake	スジ引っかけ	To wait specifically on tiles that suji reading deems relatively safe. For example, to have discarded a 4, but wait on a 1 or a 7.
Suji-machi	スジ待ち	Same meaning as Sujihikake.
Sujipaiko	筋牌刻	An old yaku, to make three kantsu as in 1-4-7, 2-5-8, 3-6-9 in same number suits.
Sutehai	捨て牌	Discarded tile and discarded tile wall.
Sutehai-meisai	捨て牌迷彩	To make it easier to complete a hand by making it harder for other player to know what tile the player wants.
Sutehai-yomi	捨て牌読み	To “read” other player’s hand through discard tiles.
Suteru	捨てる	To discard.
Suttan	スッタン	Abbreviation for Su-ankotanki.
Suu	四	4.
Suupai	数牌	The number tiles, 1-9.
Ta-cha	他家	Term for other player.
Ta-hai	多牌	To have more tile in hand then normal, may have to pay fine or force give up.
Ta-tsu	塔子	two tiles of a three tile triplet or sequence. 12, 13, 23, etc.
Tachiban	立ち番	Parlor term – people not part of the games (such as a tea pourer, or hospitality clerk).
Tachioya	タチ親	Starter, east seat player.
Taikyoku	対局	A Mahjong game.
Taikyokukan	大局観	The overall view, from the whole day to whole year.
Taimurasu	タイムラス	“Time last”, a parlor term – a way of calling a limited amount of time remaining.
Taitorusen	タイトル戦	The title fight / final table in a mahjong tournament.
Takame	高目	In a multi-tile wait, the tile that grants the most points.
Takehai	竹牌	Tiles whose backs are made of bamboo.
Takeyabu-yaketa	タケヤブヤケタ	For the first and last, second and sixth, third and fifth discard tile to be in pair.
Taku	卓	Mahjong table. Used in referenced to yearly play.
Takudai	卓代	The price to rent a mahjong table.
Takuso	卓掃	Parlor term – to clean a table and tiles.
Takuware	卓割れ	To not have enough players to play.
Tamenchan	多面張	To wait on multiple different tile. to be waiting on three tile is sanmenchou and to wait on four tile is yonmenchou.
Tampin	タンピン	An abbreviation for Tanyao+Pinfu.
Tanfonho	断紅和	A recent established yaku, to create four mentsu and a pair or chitoitsu with no red tile at all.
Tanki	単騎	Waiting on a single tile to complete a pair.
Tankihasha-demate	単騎は西で待て	A mahjong phrase “Wait for tanki at the west”. It is said to Tankimachi at west seat.
Tankimachi	単騎待ち	To be waiting for one tile to finish a Toitsu.
Tankisen	短期戦	Short game with few rounds.
Tanron	単竜	An old Yaku, to Tankimachi for Sanshokutsukan.
Tanyao	タンヤオ	To have a valid hand containing only number tiles from 2 to 8.
Tanyaochu	断ヤオ九	Official name for Tanyao.
Tataku	叩く	“To hit” – a common term for a pon.
Tatechin	タテチン	Single color closed hand.
Tatehon	タテホン	Many color closed hand.
Te	手	the tiles in your hand.
Tebiroi	手広い	To be open on any drawn tile.
Tedashi	手出し	To discard a tile originally from hand.
Tegawari	手変わり	When the hand structure changes after a player draw a tile and discard a different tile.
Tehai	手牌	Each player’s tiles.
Tejun	手順	The order to cut the tiles.
Tembo	点棒	Thin sticks, used to represent score.
Tembo-jokyo	点棒状況	The point count of each player.
Tempai	聴牌	To be in a state where one more tile completes your hand.
Tempai-kei	聴牌形	To be in tenpai.
Tempai-renchan	テンパイ連荘	A rule where the dealer stays dealer if they are tenpai after an exhaustive draw.
Tempai-yame	テンパイやめ	An agreement that a dealer in tenpai at all last can choose to pass the deal – thereby ending the game.
Tempane	点パネ	To have just enough minipoints to round up – 32, 42, etc.
Tempin	テンピン	Parlor term – gambling rate of 100 yen for 1000 points.
Tenari	手なり	To continue the round based on the tile a player draws.
Tenbou	点棒	Point sticks used for manual scoring.
Tengo	点五	Parlor term – gambling rate of 10 yen for 1000 points.
Tenho	天鳳	Tenhou is a popular online Mahjong game.
Tenho-	天和	Yaku when the dealer wins.
Tenichi	点一	Parlor term – gambling rate of 10 yen for 1000 points.
Tenimuho	天衣無縫	Same meaning as Churenpoutou, not used often.
Tenni	点二	Parlor term – gambling rate of 100 yen for 1000 points.
Tenochi	手の内	Tile in hand.
Tenpai	聴牌	A hand that is only one tile away from completion.
Tenpane	テンパネ	To have just enough minipoints to round up – 32, 42, etc.
Tenri-da	点リーダー	Automatic points scoring, generally with the point sticks being read by the table in some way.
Tensan	点三	Parlor term – gambling rate of 30 yen for 1000 points.
Tensuu	点数	The score.
Tensuu-hayamihyo	点数早見表	A han-fu calculation reference sheet.
Tensuu-keisan	点数計算	To calculate your score.
Tensuu-keisanhyo	点数計算表	A han-fu calculation reference sheet.
Teppo	鉄砲	Refer to 7 pin, or to gamble all money.
Terasen	寺銭	The banker fee, such as table costs.
Tetsuman	徹マン	To play mahjong all night.
Teyaku	手役	Yaku based on hand, not on Dora.
Teyaku-bukumi	手役含み	To be in a situation where there is still chance of completing a hand.
Teyakuha	手役派	To play based on Tile combination and high points.
Tezumi	手積み	To manually stack up tile walls without using auto-tables.
Tobi	トビ	Bankrupt (having less than 0 points).
Tobibappu	飛び罰符	A rule where going bankrupt has an aoodional el.
Tobidoitsu	飛びトイツ	two pairs a with a one-tile wait, such s 33 55.
Tobirasu	飛びラス	0 point fourth place.
Tobishuuryo	飛び終了	To automatically end the game after a player hits 0 point.
Tobu	飛ぶ	When you have lost all your points.
Tochaohan-chanshue	独釣寒江雪	An old hand – having a naked wait of white dragon.
Tochu-ryuukyoku	途中流局	Rule that ends the game half way through, usually decided before the game starts.
Tochuu ryuukyoku	途中流局	Abortive draw – certain events that immediately end a hand.
Tohai	闘牌	“The frozen tiles” – the patterns and flows of a mahjong battle. Colloquial term that expresses the struggle.
Tohoku-jidoshado	東北自動車道	An old yaku, to complete a hand with 2, 4, 6 pin and east and north tile (It is a literal name for one of the highway route that goes through northeastern japan).
Tohoku-shinkansen	東北新幹線	An old yaku, to make a trio with east and north tile and make Ikkitsukan with the other three tile (literal name of a shinkansen aka bullet train route).
Toicha	対家	Player on the opposite side of the table.
Toijuuichi	対１１	“Opposite 11”, the place to begin drawing from on the roll of an 11.
Toimen	対面	The player across from you.
Toinana	対７	“Opposite 7”, the place to begin drawing from on the roll of an 7.
Toipai	推牌	Having few draws remaining in the wall.
Toisan	対３	“Opposite 3”, the place to begin drawing from on the roll of an 3.
Toishi	対死	To have two player in Mochimochi (for two player to have same two tile) for a character tile.
Toisuji	遠い筋	A tile pattern showing the outside of two ryanmen waits. 1-7, 2-8, 3-9.
Toitoi	トイトイ	All triplets hand. Popular with beginning players.
Toitoiho	対々和	The official name for toi toi.
Toitsu	対子	A pair of identical tiles.
Toitsuba	対子場	A mutual discard field that leads to a higher likelihood of pairs in the hand.
Toitsuotoshi	対子落とし	To discard a paired tile.
Tokanho	頭槓和	An old yaku, To kan on the first round and Rinkankaiho (to win after calling kan).
Tokuten	得点	Point score.
Tokuten-hayamihyo	得点早見表	A scoring reference table.
Tokuten-keisanhyo	得点計算表	A scoring reference table.
Tokutenryoku	得点力	Ability to get high point.
Tokyuuken	特急券	“express ticket” – a fast hand, that can be won early.
Tomato	トマト	To discard the same tile on the first and third go around, similar to the characters in “tomato”. for example, West, 3, West.
Tomba	東場	For wind seat to be at the east.
Tompatsu	東パツ	The notion tha playres with Easts also have Green dragons (no substantiation).
Tompatsu-tsukimono	東發つきもの	Mahjong saying, those who holds East also holds Dragon tile.
Tompe-sen	東北戦	Mahjong game where the next seat seat after East is North, when usually it is South.
Tompuuso	東風荘	An East round only game.
Ton	東	East.
Toncha	東家	The dealer.
Tonn	幢 (トン）	Two tile on the tile wall, one that is stacked on top of other.
Tonnansen	東南戦	A general game consisting of 2 rounds: East and then South. Also called Hanchan (half-game).
Tonnanso	東南荘	Online mahjong game (East south).
Tonrasu	東ラス	East 4.
Tonsha-sen	東西戦	An East round – West round game. nonstandard.
Tontonsen	東東戦	A double-East Round game. nonstandard.
Topai	倒牌	To “open” hand when declaring a win.
Toppan	トッパン	Same meaning as Baiman.
Topparai	とっぱらい	One round game.
Toppuburi	トップ振り	For the Top player to role the dice to decide the first player.
Toppudori	トップ取り	“Top up”, a rule that at the end of a game, any remaining deposited points go to first place.
Toppume	トップ目	Current top player.
Toppurasuma-jan	トップラス麻雀	Player who wins first most game.
Toppusho	トップ賞	The top prize.
Torabari-chi	通らばリーチ	To be in permanent furiten if you pass up a win while in reach.
Torazu	取らず	“to not dare the tiger” – to choose to bail rather then get into tenpai.
Toripuru	トリプル	Triple Yakuman.
Toripururon	トリプルロン	Triple ron – occasionally, an abortive draw.
Toriron	トリロン	Abbreviation for Triple Ron.
Tororo	トロロ	For second and Third discarded tile to be in a pair as in ToRoRo.
Toshi	通し	If no other player Ron after a player discards a tile.
Toshiwaza	通し技	To alert other players through signs or codes the tiles that deal in.
Totenko	東天紅	3 player mahjong rule (mostly in Tokyo Area).
Touma	外ウマ	Outside bets.
Tse-i-men	絶一門	To discard the same suit as another, to greatly increase the chance of dealing in or being dealt into.
Tsu-hai	字牌	The wind and dragon tiles.
Tsu-hairi	2入り	Parlor term – two persons entering as a single player.
Tsu-i-so	字一色	To have a legal hand made of only dragons and winds.
Tsu-kake	2欠け	Parlor term – down two people for a game.
Tsubame-gaeshi	燕返し	Cheating term – to swap one’s hand at one time with the tiles in the wall.
Tsukamidori	掴み取り	Easy way of choosing position, 4 people will choose one of 4 flipped wind tile.
Tsukampo	ツカンポ	To be in bad luck, Same meaning as tsukan.
Tsukamu	掴む	To discard tile that is in favor of other player.
Tsukan	ツカン	To be in bad luck, Same meaning as tsukanbo.
Tsukanko	ツカンコ	Player in bad luck.
Tsuki	ツキ	To be in good luck.
Tsumeshibo	ツメシボ	Parlor term – a cold towel.
Tsumibo	積み棒	Each time a player Rensou or ryukyoku shows the number of deals.
Tsumifu	積み符	When a player wins, player gets 300 points for each tsumibo stick.
Tsumikomi	積み込み	Cheating term – to load tiles into the wall.
Tsumo	自摸	A self-drawn tile. Commonly used to denote the tile drawn to complete a hand.
Tsumoagari	ツモあがり	To win via a self-drawn tile.
Tsumoban	ツモ番	Next player to draw tile.
Tsumoberi	ツモ減り	Pointing system in a three player mahjong game.
Tsumofu	ツモ符	2 stick that player gets after completing a hand.
Tsumogiri	ツモ切り	To immediately discard the same tile you have drawn, also “Tsumokiri”.
Tsumoho	自摸和	Same meaning as menzen Tsumoyaku.
Tsumojun	ツモ巡	Order of drawing tile.
Tsumorare-bimbo	ツモられ貧乏	To tsumo a cheap hand just to maintain dealership.
Tsumori	ツモり	To win through Tsumo, not through Ron or any other way.
Tsumori-sananko	ツモり三暗刻	To have Sananko (Three concealed triplets) through Tsumo, not through Ron or any other way.
Tsumori-suanko	ツモり四暗刻	To have Suanko ( Four concealed quadruple) through Tsumo, Not through Ron or any other way.
Tsumosu-	ツモスー	Short for tsumo+suu annkou.
Tsumosuji	ツモ筋	Order of tile bound for each player to draw. Doesn’t change until someone calls.
Tsumu	積む	To add point stick through Rensou or Ryukoku, etc… It could also refer to Tsumikomi.
Tsupparu	突っ張る	To be offensive and discard dangerous tile.
Tsurigei	吊り芸	Cheating term – to have tiles hidden on one’s person for use.
Tsuriwaza	吊り技	Cheating term – to have tiles hidden.
Tsuyoki	強気	To be aggresive and discard dangerous tile.
U-	五	The number 5.
U-hanyaku	五ハン役	Five hann yaku, only with Called Chinitsu.
U-mensai	五門斉	An old yaku, completed hand using character, pin, banboo, wind, dragon tile.
U-pinkaiho	五筒開花	An old yaku, Rinshankaiho with 5 pin as drawn winning tile.
U-shintsuukan	五心通貫	An old yaku, to have 12346789 with one suit and wait for 5 tile (Kanchan) to win.
Uchigawa	内側	Middle number, as 5 tile is the most center tile.
Uchikake	打ち掛け	To adjourn a game prematurely.
Uchikakeshuuryo	打ち掛け終了	To finish the game prematurely after finishing current round.
Uchikiri	打ち切り	To finish the game prematurely after a certain time.
Uchiko	打ち子	Mahjong parlor worker who only discard tiles.
Uchisuji	内筋	Tile that player bound to draw on specifc draw phase.
Uchite	打ち手	Opponent player.
Ugoki	動き	To call or cause action, such as adding point stick.
Ujuu	右１０	“Right 10” – a position to start drawing tiles from after the opening roll.
Ukaseuchi	浮かせ打ち	To wait for Kutsuki (Number tile that sandwich certain number tile) on an isolated tile, Such as waiting for 2 and 4 tile for isolated 3 tile.
Uke	受け	Abbreviation for Ukeire.
Ukeire	受け入れ	The number of tiles that will get your hand one less draw to tenpai.
Uki	浮き	When one tile is isolated from other tile.
Ukihai	浮き牌	Isolated tile.
Uku	浮く	To have point that is higher than original point.
Uma	ウマ	A scoring adjustment made at the end of the game, based on ante, points, and placement.
Uni	右２	“Right 2” – a position to start drawing tiles from after the opening roll.
Uradora	裏ドラ	The hidden dora given to those that reach and win. the indicators are those underneath all reavealed dora indicators.
Uradorahyojihai	裏ドラ表示牌	Uradora indicators.
Uragei	裏芸	Cheating.
Urahyo	ウラ表	Abbreviaiton for Uradorahyojihai.
Urame	裏目	To fail on Mentsu selection.
Uramen	裏メン	Undercover mahjong parlor worker acting as a customer, used when there isn’t enough customer/player to play the game.
Urameru	裏目る	Verb phrase for Urame.
Urasuji	裏スジ	The ryanmen wait to the outside of a discarded tile. Used in discard reading theory. A discarded 3 denotes 4-7. 4 is 5-8. 5 is both 1-4 and 6-9.
Uraura	ウラウラ	Having 2 Uradora.
Uroku	右６	“Right 6” – a position to start drawing tiles from after the opening roll.
Usui	薄い	To be waiting for few tile, or having few effective tile.
Utisuji	打ち筋	The flow of Discard tile in a game, such as timing and time.
Utsu	打つ	To discard a tile.
Uu	五	5.
Uwazumo	上ヅモ	The top tile of tile wall.
Uwazumosurikae	上ヅモすり替え	Cheating term, To switch tile on wall tile by remembering what each top tile of tile wall is.
Wampai	王牌	The dead wall – tiles not drawn through the normal course of the game.
Wampaitorikiri	王牌取り切り	Three player Mahjong rule, to use all wampai and draw tile right until Dorahyojihai.
Wanchansu	ワンチャンス	“one chance” – a tile that there is only one of hidden. For example, if there are three 8s discarded, there is one chance that a player has an 8.
Wangake	ワン欠け	Parlor term – one player short for a game.
Waniri	ワン入り	Parlor term – one player has entered for a game.
Wanpai	王牌	The dead wall – tiles not drawn through the normal course of the game.
Wanzu	萬子	The character tiles.
Wareme	割れ目	A nonstandard rule that the player behind the wall broken at the start of a hand pays and receives points as a dealer.
Waremede-pon	われめDEポン	Same meaning as Warepon.
Warepon	われポン	A mahjong variety show on Fuji TV.
Waru	割る	To lose point.
Washizuma-jan	ワシズ麻雀	A special kind of mahjong, where three of each tile are clear and publically visible in a hand, made famous by “Akagi”, a popular mahjong manga.
Watari	渡り	To keep Shanten tile and Tenpai, while changing into a more efficient hand.
Watariotsu	渡りを打つ	Same meaning as Watari.
Watariuchi	渡り打ち	Same meaning as Watari.
Yakitori	焼き鳥	A rule that requires a player to win at least one hand during a game, or they must pay a penalty.
Yaku	役	A tile pattern that allows a player to win a hand.
Yakuhai	役牌	A triplet that is a Yaku – the dragons, the player wind, and the table wind.
Yakuman	役満	The highest standard scoring hand – 13 han or more.
Yakunashi	役無し	To be in Tenpai-kei but have no yaku, Player gets Chonbo if a player wins with no yaku.
Yama	山	“mountains” – refering to the wall.
Yamagiri	山切り	The cuts made after rolling to determine where to start drawing.
Yamagoshi	山越し	To lose chance of completing a hand and to have other player win after he/she discards a tile.
Yamayomi	山読み	To read the tiles in the wall.
Yamiten	闇聴	To have tenpai menzen, but not reached, can be called Damaten.
Yaoa-ru	ヤオ二	Point ratio for dealer and non-dealer. Usually 1 to 2 ratio for non-dealer, dealer. Term not used often.
Yaochu-pai	ヤオ九牌	Number 1 and 9 tile, can be called 19jihai.
Yaochuuhai	幺九牌	The 1, 9, and honor tiles.
Yasuagari	安和了	To win with low point hand.
Yasume	安目	Hand that generates the lowest point when player wins.
Yasume	安目	The tile in a multi-tile wait that awards the least points.
Yasute	安手	A hand with a low score.
Yohai	要牌	A significant tile – one that is key to something.
Yojohai	余剰牌	The leftover tiles.
Yomma	ヨンマ	4 person mahjong, 3 player mahjong is Sanma.
Yommai-zukai	4枚使い	To have quadruple tile (4 same tile) in hand without kan.
Yompa	ヨンパー	Scoring term – 4800.
Yomu	読む	To predict. To predict opponents hand through discard tile.
Yonchame	4チャ目	To currently finish last/fourth place.
Yongo	ヨンゴー	Scoring term – 4500.
Yonhon-happon	ヨンホンハッポン	Scoring term – 400 / 800.
Yonhon-nanahon	ヨンホンナナホン	Scoring term – 400 / 700.
Yoninri-chi	四人立直 (ヨニンリーチ・よにんりーち）	When all four player to call Reach, may end the game based on decided rules.
Yonkake	4欠け	When all 4 players quit playing at the same time.
Yonkaku	4確	A player with definite 4th place. Also known as Yonchakaku and Rasukaku.
Yonkenri-chi	四軒立直	When all 4 players are reached.
Yonnoko	4ノコ	“4 across” – the 4 tiles left when rolling 11 on initial draw and drawing the first 4 tiles.
Yonsenchi	4センチ	To call 3 times and have only 4 tiles in hand.
Yoreru	よれる	To not be able to draw efficient tile.
Yoseru	寄せる	To collect the tiles around a certain tile.
Yowaki	弱気	A state when you lose the will to attack and go defense instead due to other player calling riichi or using tricks and so on.
Yubirozu	指ローズ	Cheating term – to use the fingers to pass information, such as wait.
Yuukohai	有効牌	Effective tile refers to a good tile to use to spread the wait and acceptance.
Zanku	ザンク	Scoring term – 3900.
Zankuo-ru	ザンクオール	Scoring term – 3900 all.
Zanni	ザンニ	Scoring term – 3200.
Zannio-ru	ザンニイオール	Scoring term – 3200 all.
Zenjidotaku	全自動卓	A fully automatic table – ones that shuffles tiles and builds walls. requires two full sets of tiles. Newer models track points, and perform initial draws and indicator flip.
Zentaiyaku	全体役	General term for the scoring combination that all tiles in hand must fulfill the condition. Examples are Tanyao and Chi-toitsu (Seven Pairs).
Zentsuppa	全ツッパ	An all-out strategy, attempting to win without any care of dealing in to another.
Zetsu-ichimon	絶一門	Situation when you lost a kind of pin, man, or sou from hand.
Zogehai	象牙牌	Tiles that are made of ivory. They are rather high quality.
Zorome	ゾロ目	A state in which faces of 2 dices are identical.

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Comprehensive Japanese Mahjong Terminology List

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