Glossary of Japanese Mahjong Terms

Name	Definition
Hanchan	mahjong match consisting of 2 table rotations. Called the South Round in MJS.
Tonpuusen	the same but with only 1 rotation. East Round.
Honba	added counters everytime when a non-east player DOESN’T win the round. Increments value of hand by 300. Symbolized by 100 point tenbo.
Kyoku	round counter. Uses japanese numerals. So: East 1 - Ton iikyoku East 2 - Ton Nikyoku East 3 - Ton Sankyoku East 4 - Ton Yonkyoku. With the south round, switch Ton with Nan.
Orasu	All Last, the final round (S4)
Renchan	dealer repeat
Oya	dealer
Ryuukyoku	terminal draw, happens when tiles run out and nobody wins by last discard
Kamicha	player before you (on your left)
Shimocha	player after you (on your right)
Toimen	player opposite of you
Ari	rule is respected
Nashi	rule is not respected
Atozuke	rule allowing you to win if your yaku is dependent on only one of your multiple outs. For example, yakuless hand with shanpon wait for 9m and Hatsu can win on Hatsu discard. Gets fucked by wrong draw often.
Kuitan	open tanyao (nashi = no open tanyao, ari = open tanyao allowed)
Kuikae	ability to swap calls, for example, call chi on 5 for 34 and discard 2. Not allowed on MJS.
Nashi Nashi	old ruleset in which there are no akadora, and tanyao can be only closed yaku. Also atozuke nashi according to these sources: 1 2 3 4 5
Ii	1
Ryan	2
San	3
Suu	4
Uu	5
Rou	6
Chii	7
Paa	8
Kyuu/Chuu	9
Pinzu, Souzu, Manzu (or Wanzu)	suits (pins, bamboos and cracks respectively).
Shanten	Number of tiles required to reach tenpai (0 shanten). So, for example, ryanshanten requires two tiles to reach tenpai.
Ukeire	tile acceptance. Pool of tiles that decrease shanten count.
Ton	East wind
Nan	South wind
Xia	West wind
Pei	North Wind
Chun	Red Dragon
Haku	White Dragon
Hatsu	Green Dragon
Haipai	initial hand of 13/14 tiles.
Mentsu	meld of three. Four mentsu and pair makes winning hand
Shuntsu	sequence, for example 123
Taatsu	two tiles that make up mentsu after adding one more tile, ex: 46
Koutsu	Triplet
Minkou (commonly refered to as just Pon)	open triplet
Ankou	closed triplet
Kan	quad
Ankan	closed kan
Shouminkan	lesser Kan, upgraded from minkou
Daiminkan	Kan called directly from hand.
Spicy houteihai	the last tile of the game. Very dangerous.
Tsumo	act of drawing a tile.
Giri	act of discarding a tile
Tedashi	discarding a tile from hand
Tsumogiri	discarding just drawn tile
Shonpai	live tile
Yaochuu	terminals and honors
Agari	Broad term referring to winning on particular tiles.
Takame	higher payoff. Refers to win while in multiple wait, where one tile produces more value. Common examples: chanta, sanshoku
Yasume	lower payoff. Opposite of takame.
Machi	wait
Tanki	wait for single tile for pair. Only kind of wait allowed in chiitoitsu.
Shanpon	double pair wait, for completion of triplet
Kanchan	middle wait, in case of 46 sequence, wait is on 5.
Penchan	end wait, 12 waiting on 3 or 89 waiting on 7.
Ryanmen	double sided wait, for example 45 waiting on 3 or 6. Basis of omotesuji.
Omotesuji	groups of tiles separated by 3. So 1,4,7 ; 2,5,8; 3,6,9
Urasuji	tiles adjacent to omotesuji. So for 5 urasuji is else 1,4 or 6,9.
Betaori	act of folding your hand to avoid dealing in. Focuses on dealing safe tiles.
Genbutsu	a 100% safe tile. The tiles on the pond of the guy in tenpai are genbutsu, because he can't ron on that thanks to furiten.
Kabe	method of defense focused on checking if there are valid ways to form specific ryanmen waits remaining in the game.
Ryankan	not a wait per se, but one of iishanten constructs. Usually something like 468, when entering tenpai allows you to make suji-trapped kanchan wait, so dealing 4 and waiting for 7.
Sanmenchan	three sided wait, something like 23456 waiting for 1,4,7.
Nobetan	double tanki wait, for example 2345 waiting for 2 and 5. Does not enable pinfu.
Sanmentan	triple tanki wait: 1234567 waiting for 1,4,7.
Entotsu	ryanmen+shanpon wait. For example, 45666 + RR waits for 3,6 and R.
Ryantan	ryanmen+tanki, for example 4555 waiting for 3,4,6.
Kantan	kanchan+tanki, 3555 waiting for 3 and 4.
Aryanmen	4566 waiting for 3 and 6.
Harabote	worst wait. 4556 waiting for 5.
Hadaka tanki	tanki wait after 4 calls. Makes your yaku completely transparent and renders you defenseless.
Jigoku tanki	waiting for tanki honor tile while two of them are visible (in pond or as dora indicator). Absolutely based.
Karaten	empty tenpai, tenpai with no possible way of winning.
Nomi	act of having only a single yaku (mostly referred to Riichi Nomi, but might also be used for tanyao), without any visible dora.
Damaten	closed hand tenpai without calling riichi, especially effective in 4:30 area.
Mentanpin	short for Riichi Pinfu Tanyao. Bread and butter of mahjong.
Menhon - menzen honitsu	closed honitsu
Oyaman	mangan by oya, 12k points
Oyahane	haneman by oya, 18k points
Jikaze	seat wind
Bakaze	round wind
Otakaze	neutral wind
Oikake riichi	pursuit riichi, calling riichi just after another player, usually on a tile safe against him, to fish out potential ippatsu + additional riichi stick.
Sashikomi	dealing with intent, rather dumb idea when playing with akadoras
Yakitori	state of not having any wins after the end of hanchan.
Tenpai	Ready Hand
Menzenchin	Closed Hand
Riichi	Ready hand - This is the only yaku, by which players have the option to declare or not. Otherwise, hands may possibly win without it, if it remains closed with other valid yaku. 1 Han
Tanyao	All Simples - No honors or (terminal) are used. 1 Han
Menzenchin tsumo	Fully Concealed Hand - Drawing the winning tile with a closed hand. 1 Han
Yakuhai	Seat Wind/Prevalent Wind/Dragon - Specific collection of any dragon, seat wind, or round wind tiles. 1 Han
Pinfu	No-points hand - Every tile group must be a sequence plusone non-yakuhai pair. The potential winning tiles must be tiles from both sides of a sequence (ryanmen wait). 1 Han
Iipeikou	Pure Double Sequence - This yaku uses two-identical sequences. 1 Han
Chankan	Robbing a Kan - Winning with a tile used for an added kan by another player. When you have a Tenpai for Thirteen Orphans, you can call on a closed Kan. 1 Han
Rinshan kaihou	After a Kan - Drawing a winning tile after a kan call. 1 Han
Haitei raoyue	Under the Sea - Winning with the last tile draw. 1 Han
Houtei raoyui	Under the River - Winning off of the last possible discarded tile for the hand. 1 Han
Ippatsu	One-shot - Win a hand within 1 turn after declaring Riichi, in addition draws/discards must not be interrupted by tile calls during that turn. 1 Han
Double riichi	Double-ready - Declare Riichi with your starting hand before any tiles are called. 2 Han
Sanshoku Doukou	Triple Triplets - Needs three identically numbered triplets across the three suits. 2 Han
Sankantsu	Three Quads - Requires three quads, which are considered as triplets plus one extra. 2 Han
Toitoi	All Triplets - Every tile group is a triplet. 2 Han
Sanankou	Three Concealed Triplets - Three closed triplets. 2 Han
Shousangen	Little Three Dragons - Win a hand with two triplets out of the three Dragon Tiles, plus a pair of the third dragon tile. 2 Han
Honroutou	All Terminals and Honors - Only honor and terminal groups. 2 Han
Chiitoi	Seven Pairs - Win a hand with seven different pairs. "Best Yaku"
Chanta	Half Outside Hand - Every tile group with an honor or terminal. 2 Han Closed/1 Han Open.
Ittsuu	Pure Straight - A complete string of 1-9 tile naturally use sequences of the same suit. 2 Han Closed/1 Han Open.
Sanshoku doujun	Mixed Triple Sequence - this yaku uses three identically numbered sequences across the three suits. 2 Han Closed/1 Han Open.
Ryanpeikou	Twice Pure Double Sequence - this yaku uses two-identical sequences two times. 3 Han.
Junchan	Fully Outside Hand - Every tile group with a terminal. Also known as the cutest yaku. 3 Han Closed/2 Han Open.
Honitsu	Half Flush - Honor tiles with one suit. 3 Han Closed/2 Han Open.
Chinitsu	Full Flush - All tiles are the same suit. 6 Han Closed/5 Han Open.
Nagashi Mangan	Mangan at Draw - Win a game with all your discarded tiles being Terminal Tiles and no one has called them.
Kazoe Yakuman	A yakuman composed of regular yaku that accumulates into 13 han. Pretty based, unless it's some disgusting dora 12 bullshit.
Tenhou	Blessing of Heaven - Win a hand as a dealer in the first turn with the first draw.
Chiihou	Blessing of Earth - Win a hand as a non-dealer in the first turn before any tiles are called
Daisangen	Big Three Dragons - Win a hand with three triplets or quads of all the three Dragon Tiles. Can be opened
Suuankou	Four Concealed Triplets - Win a hand with four closed Triplets. A tanki wait for Suuankou is considered a Double Yakuman.
Tsuuiisou	All Honors - Win a hand that consists entirely of honor tiles.
Ryuuiisou	All Green - This hand consists of any four tile groups and a pair that consists of only 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 of souzu and/or the green dragon tiles. Literally, this hand is composed of "all green" painted tiles
Chinroutou	All Terminals - every tile is a terminal, or 1's or 9's. No other tile type are used: no simples (2-8) or honors.
Kokushi musou	Thirteen Orphans - it requires of one of each terminal tile from each suit and one of each of the honor tiles. The 14th tile must be a duplicate of any terminal or honor tile. A 13-wait kokushi (waiting for any terminal/honor) is considered a Double Yakuman.
Shousuushi	Four Little Winds - A yakuman hand that requires three groups winds, and a pair of the last wind.
Daisuushi	Four Big Winds - a yakuman hand that requires groups of all four winds. Double Yakuman.
Suukantsu	Four Quads - A yakuman in where the hand has collected kan four times.
Chuuren poutou	Nine Gates - A yakuman hand that contains the 13-tile pattern 1-1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-9-9 of the same suit, plus any one more tile from the suit. A 13 sided wait True Nine Gates is worth Double Yakuman. The goal of every Mahjong Player, as achieving this yakuman immediately gets you killed.