1.2 Suited tiles and honors

Tiles fall broadly into two groups: suited tiles and honors.

Suited tile

A tile numbered 1 to 9. It comes in three suits: man, pin, and sou.

Honor

A tile with no number. There are four winds and three dragons.

Man

One of the three suits of suited tiles. It has nine kinds, from 1-man to 9-man.

One of the three suits of suited tiles. It has nine kinds, from 1-pin to 9-pin.

Sou

One of the three suits of suited tiles. It has nine kinds, from 1-sou to 9-sou.

Winds

One of the two kinds of honors. There are four: East, South, West, and North.

Dragons

One of the two kinds of honors. There are three: White, Green, and Red.

Shimocha

The player to your right.

Toimen

The player across from you.

Kamicha

The player to your left.

Oya

The seat that plays first in each hand. Its agari is worth 1.5 times the points.

Ko

The three seats other than the oya.

Hand

The tiles a player holds. Every player starts with 13.

Wall

The stack of tiles left after each player’s hand is dealt. Players draw from it one tile at a time.

Draw

The end of a hand when nobody reaches an agari before the wall runs out.

Turn

A unit counting one lap of the table, in which each of the four players plays once.

Discard

A tile a player has thrown away and placed in front of their seat.

Dora

Dora indicator

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Dora

A bonus tile that raises the score of an agari. It is the tile after the dora indicator.

Dora indicator

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Dora

A face-up tile that marks the dora. The tile after it becomes the dora.

Agari

Meld

Pair

Completing your hand with four melds and one pair. It is either a tsumo or a ron.

Meld

Sequence

Triplet

A set of three tiles. It is either a sequence or a triplet.

Sequence

A meld of three consecutive tiles in the same suit.

Triplet

A meld of three identical tiles.

Pair

Two identical tiles grouped together. A complete hand always has exactly one.

Tenpai

Meld

Toitsu

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Wait

The state of being one tile away from an agari.

Hand building

The process of drawing and discarding to shape your hand toward an agari.

Taatsu

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Ukeire

Two tiles that become a sequence with one more tile.

Toitsu

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Ukeire

A shape of two identical tiles. One more copy makes it a triplet, or it can serve as the pair as it is.

Ukeire

Taatsu

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Ukeire

Tiles that bring your hand closer to an agari. Both kinds and copies are counted.

Shanten

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Ukeire

The number of ukeire tiles still needed to reach tenpai. A hand that needs one is 1-shanten.

Block

Meld

Taatsu

Toitsu

A general term for a meld, taatsu, or toitsu.

Five-block theory

Block

A method of splitting your hand into five blocks for hand building.

Isolated tile

Block

Isolated tile

A tile that belongs to no block.

Menzen

Building your hand from your own draws, without making melds from other players’ discards.

Wait

Tenpai

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Wait

A tile that turns a tenpai hand into an agari. The shape waiting on it is also called a wait.

Ryanmen

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Wait

A shape of two consecutive suited tiles waiting on either end.

Kanchan

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Wait

A shape of two suited tiles with a one-tile gap, waiting on the tile in between.

Penchan

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Wait

A shape like 1-2 or 8-9 that is cut off at one end and waits only on the other.

Tanki

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Wait

A shape of a single tile waiting on its match to form the pair.

Shanpon

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Wait

A shape of two toitsu waiting on a third copy of either. The one completed becomes a triplet, and the other stays as the pair.

Riichi

Discard

Declaration tile

A declaration that you are in tenpai. Once declared, the hand can no longer be changed.

Declaration tile

Discard

Declaration tile

The tile discarded to declare riichi. It is placed sideways.

Tsumogiri

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The act of discarding the tile you just drew.

Tsumo

Ryanmen

Tsumo

An agari on a tile you drew yourself. The other three players share the payment.

Ron

An agari on a tile another player discarded.

Deal-in

Another player’s ron on your discard. You alone pay all the points.

Furiten

The state of being unable to ron after discarding or passing up one of your own waits. If you pass one up after riichi, it lasts for the rest of the hand.

Betaori

Riichi

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Genbutsu

A defense that gives up on agari and focuses only on avoiding a deal-in.

Safe tile

A tile that cannot deal into any riichi player.

Genbutsu

Discard

Declaration tile

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Genbutsu

A tile the riichi player has already discarded. A tile that player passes up for ron after the riichi is genbutsu too.

Suji

Genbutsu

Suji

A tile three ranks away from a genbutsu tile. 147, 258, and 369 are suji to each other.

Naka-suji

Genbutsu

Naka-suji

Genbutsu

A 4, 5, or 6 whose suji on both sides are genbutsu.

Kata-suji

Genbutsu

Kata-suji

A 4, 5, or 6 whose suji is genbutsu on one side only.

Kabe

A tile whose four copies are all visible. Every sequence and ryanmen using it is blocked.

Dangerous tile

A suited tile that is neither genbutsu nor suji and is not blocked by a kabe.

Visible tile

A tile you can see face up from your seat. The discards, your hand, and the dora indicator all count.

Chase riichi

Riichi

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Genbutsu

A riichi declared while another player is already in riichi.