Glossary

This is a page to keep track of Japanese mahjong terminology.
I am aware that some English sources call these something else, but I'm defining these words here so that you can reference when you read the guides.

I'll update this list as new words appear in the guide updates.

Ankou/アンコウ/暗刻: Hidden koutsu. A triplet of one tile that is in your hand and not a result of fuuro.

Betaori/ベタオリ: Also called "ori" for short. Defensive play to give up on winning for the sake of avoiding houjuu.

Daisangen/大三元: Yaku containing koutsu of each of the three sangen tiles (,  and ).

Fuuro/フーロ/副露: The act of taking a tile an opponent played to make a mentsu. Examples include chi, pon and kan.

Hanchan/半荘: Game format in which both East rounds and South rounds are played.

Houjuu/放銃: Playing a tile to cause another player to ron. Same as furikomi/振り込み

Jantou/ジャントウ/雀頭: Pair of a tile. A standard winning hand requires 4 mentsu and 1 jantou.

Kanchan/カンチャン/嵌張: Taatsu that is missing the middle tile. For example, 4s6s requires 5s to complete the shuntsu.

Kantsu/カンツ/槓子: Group of four tiles in quadruple repeat. Example: east east east east.

Koutsu/コーツ/刻子: Group of three tiles in triple repeat. e.g. 3m3m3m.

Machi/待ち: Wait pattern (to win).

Mentsu/メンツ/面子: Group of three tiles. Can be either shuntsu (number sequence, e.g. 2p3p4p) or koutsu (triple repeat, e.g. 3m3m3m). A standard winning hand requires 4 mentsu and 1 jantou.

Menzen/メンゼン/門前: Also called menzenchin(メンゼンチン/門前清). A hand that did not fuuro. A menzen hand has 13 tiles all "in hand" and hidden from other players. Menzen is a requirement for many yaku.

Oya/親: The player playing first. Has point bonus for winning and penalties for losing. The oya player will continue to be oya if he wins.

Penchan/ペンチャン/辺張: Terminal taatsu containing 12 or 89, requiring 3 or 7 to complete the shuntsu.

Ponten/ポンテン: Using a pon to enter tenpai status.

Routou Tiles/老頭牌: Number tiles of 1 and 9.

Ryankan/リャンカン: A three-tile complex form consisting of two kanchan in continuation. Example: 3p5p7p.

Ryanmen/リャンメン/両面: Taatsu consisting of two consecutive number tiles. It can be completed into shuntsu with two kinds of tiles. For example, 6m7m can take either 5m or 8m to complete the shuntsu.

Sanmenchan/サンメンチャン/三面張: Wait/entrance pattern that is a fused ryanmen, waiting on 3 types of tiles. Example: 2s3s4s5s6s, waiting on 1s, 7s or 4s.

Shanpon/シャンポン or Shabo/シャボ: The phenomenon where two toitsu can each take in 2 possible tiles to complete mentsu.

Shanten/シャンテン/向聴: Often followed by a mahjong number prefix. e.g. iishanten(1-shanten), ryanshanten(2-shanten), sanshanten(3-shanten). The shanten number indicates the number of effective tiles a hand needs to gain to enter tenpai status.

Shuntsu/シュンツ/順子: Group of three tiles in a number sequence. it. 2p3p4p.

Suji/スジ/筋: Tiles are said to be suji when they are 3 numbers apart. 1-4-7, 2-5-8 and 3-6-9 are said to be suji tiles of each other in their respective groupings.

Taatsu/ターツ/搭子: A group of two tiles that needs one more correct tile to become a shuntsu(sequence). Examples: 2p4p, 1m3m, 5s6s.

Tanki machi/単騎待ち: A pattern that waits on a single kind of tile to win.

Tenpai/テンパイ: The status in which the player only needs one more tile to complete a winning hand.

Toitsu/トイツ/対子: Pair. Two of the same tile.

Tsupparu/突っ張る: Ignoring opponents' riichi/tenpai and keep focusing on winning at the risk of houjuu.