2Glossary

2.1Terms related to groups

JapaneseMeaning
Groupmentsu面子Group of three or four tiles. Either a chow, pung or kong.
Chowshuntsu順子Group of three consecutive tiles of the same suit.
Concealed chowanjun暗順Chow made with only self-drawn tiles.
Melded chowminjun明順Chow made by calling a tile.
ChiichiiチーDeclaration of calling a tile for making a melded chow.
Pungkōtsu刻子Group or three identical tiles.
Concealed pungankō暗刻Pung made with only self-drawn tiles.
Melded pungminkō明刻Pung made by calling a tile.
PonponポンDeclaration of calling a tile for making a melded pung.
Kongkantsu槓子Group or four identical tiles.
Concealed kongankan暗槓Kong made with only self-drawn tiles.
Melded kongminkan明槓Either a big melded kong or a small melded kong.
Big melded kongdaiminkan大明槓Kong made by calling on a concealed pung.
Small melded kongshōminkan小明槓Kong made by promoting a melded pung.
KankanカンDeclaration of making a kong (either melded or concealed).
Pairtoitsu対子Two identical tiles.


Concealed
A group is concealed if it is made by using only self-drawn tiles.

Melded
A group is melded if it is made by calling a tile.

2.2Terms related to the whole hand

Tenpai
A player's hand is tenpai if it fulfils all these conditions:
1) The hand's 13 tiles needs only one more tile to form a complete hand of four groups and a pair, or seven different pairs, or the Thirteen Orphans yaku.
2) The completing tile must exist, even if it's not available.
A hand needing five identical tiles can never be completed, so it is not tenpai.
It does not matter if all completing tiles have been discarded, or are locked in other payer's hands, or are in the dead wall. Only the hand's 13 tiles are considered to determine if the hand is tenpai or noten.
3) The player is not under a "dead hand" penalty.

During the player's turn, the hand's 14 tiles is tenpai if it will fulfil the above conditions after discarding.

Noten
A hand is noten if it is not tenpai.

Winning hand
A player's hand is a winning hand if it fulfils all these conditions:
1) It has four groups and a pair, or seven different pairs, or the Thirteen Orphans yaku.
2) It has at least one yaku.

Closed
A hand is closed if it is made by using only self-drawn tiles, beside the winning tile.
If the hand is completed by calling a tile (ron), the last group or pair is melded but the hand is still closed.

Open
A hand is open if it is not closed.
I.e. a hand is open if it has at least one melded group before the winning tile.

3.3.13Tenpai

A player’s hand is tenpai or waiting if the hand needs only one more tile to complete a winning hand. A player is still considered tenpai if all his waiting tiles are visible among the discards and declared sets. A player is not considered tenpai if he is waiting only for a tile of which he already has 4. A player is not considered tenpai if his hand has been declared a dead hand.

2.3Terms related to scoring

Yaku
A yaku is a scoring pattern.
Each yaku gives one or more han.

Dora
Each dora gives one han.

Han
One of the two scoring units used for evaluating the hand.
Earned from yaku and dora.

Minipoints / Fu
One of the two scoring units used for evaluating the hand.
Earned from groups, pairs and winning event.

Hanchan (sometimes called Session)
East and South rounds.

Hanchan score
After each hanchan, the "hanchan score" is calculated as follow, without rounding:
(points - 30,000) / 1,000 + uma

Overall score
For each player, the overall score is the sum of each hanchan scores.