2Glossary

2.1Terms related to groups

JapaneseMeaning
Groupmentsu面子Group of three or four tiles. Either a shuntsu, kōtsu or kantsu.
Shuntsushuntsu順子Group of three consecutive tiles of the same suit.
Concealed shuntsuanjun暗順Shuntsu made with only self-drawn tiles.
Melded shuntsuminjun明順Shuntsu made by calling a tile.
ChiichiiチーDeclaration of calling a tile for making a melded shuntsu.
Kōtsukōtsu刻子Group or three identical tiles.
Concealed kōtsuankō暗刻Kōtsu made with only self-drawn tiles.
Melded kōtsuminkō明刻Kōtsu made by calling a tile.
PonponポンDeclaration of calling a tile for making a melded kōtsu.
Kantsukantsu槓子Group or four identical tiles.
Concealed kantsuankan暗槓Kantsu made with only self-drawn tiles.
Melded kantsuminkan明槓Either a daiminkan or a shōminkan.
Daiminkandaiminkan大明槓Kantsu made by calling on a concealed kōtsu.
Shōminkanshōminkan小明槓Kantsu made by promoting a melded kōtsu.
KankanカンDeclaration of making a kantsu (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 13 tiles' hand 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. A hand needing five identical tiles can never be completed, so it is not tenpai.
3) The player is not under a "dead hand" penalty.
The completing tiles may be depleted.
During the player's turn, the 14 tiles' hand 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.

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.

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

Session / Hanchan
East and South rounds.

Session score
After each session (hanchan), the "session 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 session scores.