A glossary of Japanese Mahjong terms. Contains most of the terminologies listed in this doc as well as the common yaku you might encounter. No local yaku because those suck.
| 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:
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. |
| 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 | safe tile. |
| 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. |