Mahjong Tiles Explained: Names, Suits and Meanings

If you have ever opened a Mahjong set, or played Mahjong Solitaire for the first time, the tiles can look like a puzzle of their own. Once you know the groups, they make sense quickly. This guide names every tile in a standard 144-tile set, explains the characters printed on them, and shows how they match in Mahjong Solitaire.

The full set at a glance

Group	Tiles	Copies	Total
Dots (circles)	1 to 9	4 each	36
Bamboo (bams)	1 to 9	4 each	36
Characters (craks)	1 to 9	4 each	36
Winds	East, South, West, North	4 each	16
Dragons	Red, Green, White	4 each	12
Flowers	Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, Bamboo	1 each	4
Seasons	Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter	1 each	4
Total			144

The three suits are often called simple tiles when they are 2 to 8, and terminals when they are 1 or 9. Winds and dragons together are the honour tiles.

The three suits

Dots (circles)

Each tile shows one to nine circles. The circles are usually described as coins, and the 1 of dots is often drawn as a large, decorated circle. Dots are the easiest suit for beginners because you can simply count them.

Bamboo (bams)

Each tile shows bamboo sticks, from two to nine. The 1 of bamboo is the odd one out: by long tradition it is usually drawn as a bird, often a sparrow or a peacock, rather than a single stick. New players often mistake it for a bonus tile.

Characters (craks)

These tiles show a Chinese numeral on top and the character 萬 (wan, meaning ten thousand) below. The numerals are worth learning, because they are the only way to read the suit:

Numeral	一	二	三	四	五	六	七	八	九
Value	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

The first three are easy: one, two and three strokes. Many sets also print a small Arabic number in the corner.

The honour tiles

Winds

The four winds are marked with the Chinese characters for the compass directions:

Character	Wind
東	East
南	South
西	West
北	North

In four-player Mahjong, each player has a seat wind and each round has a round wind, and a pung of either scores extra. Play passes around the table in the order East, South, West, North.

Dragons

There are three dragons:

• Red dragon 中 (zhong, “centre”), printed in red.
• Green dragon 發 (fa, “prosper” or “fortune”), printed in green.
• White dragon 白 (bai, “white”), usually a blank tile or a tile with a blue frame.

Dragons are among the most valuable tiles in four-player Mahjong: a pung of any dragon scores, and collecting all three can earn a big hand.

Flowers and seasons

The eight bonus tiles each appear only once. The four flowers are plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo; the four seasons are spring, summer, autumn and winter. Each is usually numbered 1 to 4.

In four-player Hong Kong Mahjong, these tiles are set aside when drawn and can add faan, especially the one that matches your seat number. In American Mahjong, all eight are simply called flowers and appear inside hands on the card.

How tiles match in Mahjong Solitaire

Mahjong Solitaire uses the same 144 tiles, and the rule is simple: remove two matching free tiles.

• Suit tiles, winds and dragons match only an identical tile: the 4 of dots matches the 4 of dots, the red dragon matches the red dragon.
• Any flower matches any flower, and any season matches any season, even though their pictures differ.
• A flower never matches a season.

Because every suit tile, wind and dragon has four copies, each face forms two pairs. The flowers and seasons each form two pairs as well, which makes 72 pairs in all.

Tile names in other games

The same tiles go by different names depending on where you learned to play:

Common English name	Other names you may hear
Dots	Circles, coins, wheels, tong
Bamboo	Bams, sticks, bars, sou
Characters	Craks, cracks, wan, man
Red dragon	Chun, zhong
Green dragon	Hatsu, fa
White dragon	Soap (in American Mahjong), haku, bai

Japanese Riichi sets usually leave out flowers and seasons and use 136 tiles, and some add red fives as bonus tiles. American sets add eight jokers for 152 tiles.

Tips for reading tiles quickly

1. Learn the character numerals 1 to 9 first; they cause most mistakes.
2. Remember the bird is the 1 of bamboo.
3. Spot the white dragon by its frame or blank face, not by colour.
4. In solitaire, scan for flowers and seasons early: because any two match, they are easy pairs and useful when you are stuck.
5. Say the tile names out loud for a few games; it is the quickest way to make them stick.

With these few rules, every tile on the board has a name and a partner. Mahjong Solitaire on this site uses clear, high-contrast faces, so it is a good place to practise recognising them.