Mahjong tiles: the names and meanings of all 144 tiles

The suits, the winds and the dragons come in sets of four identical tiles. The flowers and the seasons are one tile each, and they are bonus tiles: they add points, but they are never part of a hand. The pictures on this page are our own drawings of the traditional faces.

The dots suit, 筒子 tǒngzi, is also called circles, coins or wheels. Each circle stands for a copper coin, the old Chinese cash with a square hole. The 1 of dots is one large, colorful circle, which players nickname 大餅 dà bǐng, the big pancake.

To read a dots tile, count the circles. There are four of each tile, so 36 dots in all.

The bamboo suit, 索子 suǒzi, is also called sticks or bams. Each stick stands for a string of coins. Count the sticks to read the tile, with one exception: the 1 of bamboo shows a bird. It is often a sparrow, and Japanese sets often show a peacock. Some old sets drew a string of coins instead.

The characters suit, 萬子 wànzi, is also called craks or cracks. Each tile has two Chinese characters. The top one is the number of the tile. The red one under it, 萬 wàn, means ten thousand, and it is the same on every tile of the suit. The 3 of characters reads 三萬 sān wàn.

These are the nine numerals. Many sets also print a small Western number in a corner, as our drawings do.

The winds are East, South, West and North, four tiles of each: 16 in all. Each player sits at a wind, and each round of the game has a prevailing wind, starting with East. A set of three of your own wind, or of the prevailing wind, scores. The seats are not where a map puts them: South sits on the right of East.

The dragons are red, green and white, four tiles of each: 12 in all. A set of three of any dragon scores. In American mahjong, players call the white dragon soap, and it stands for the zero in the hands of the yearly card that spell out a year, like 2026.

The eight bonus tiles are one of each: four flowers and four seasons. Plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo are the Four Gentlemen of Chinese painting. A player who draws a bonus tile puts it face up and draws another tile. Each bonus tile has a number from 1 to 4, which matches a seat: a player whose own flower or season comes up scores more.

Sets print the flowers and the seasons with a picture, a number, and often their Chinese name. Our drawings show the picture and the number.

• Suit tiles: the dots, the bamboo and the characters, 108 tiles.
• Honor tiles: the winds and the dragons, 28 tiles. They can make sets of three or four, but never a run.
• Terminals: the 1s and the 9s of the three suits.
• Simples: the 2s to the 8s of the three suits.
• Bonus tiles: the flowers and the seasons, 8 tiles.

Scoring patterns use these groups. A hand of only honors, for example, is one of the highest hands of the game.

In mahjong, four players build sets of tiles. A chow is three tiles in a row of one suit, a pung is three of the same tile, and a kong is four. A winning hand has four sets and a pair, 14 tiles, like this one:

Read the rules step by step in how to play mahjong, with the deal, the claims of discards and the scoring.

Mahjong solitaire uses the same 144 tiles for a game for one: take free tiles off the board in pairs. Each tile needs its twin. The flowers and the seasons are one of each, so any flower matches any flower, and any season matches any season.

Try it in our free mahjong solitaire: every deal can be cleared, and it plays on a phone with no download.