Japanese mahjong terminology

The following is a list of terms associated to Japanese mahjong. While it is certainly not necessary to know the Japanese terminology to the game, a player should at least be able to identify a terms reference when used or applied. However, players are highly encouraged to know the yaku by Japanese name, especially when it comes to the chanting a winning hand composition.

Seating
Dealer
 * The player assigned as East, the east seat-wind player.

Non-dealer
 * The other three players, with South being to the right of the dealer; West, across; North to the left.

Calls
All calls make the meld open and the player's hand to be open.

Melds
Chii
 * Call on a discard to complete a run.

Kan
 * Call on a discard to make a quad.

Pon
 * Call on a discard to complete a triplet.

Riichi
 * Declare a bet of ready.

Hand end
Both of these terms apply at the end of an exhaustive draw; otherwise, remain uncalled until then.

No-ten
 * Declare a hand is not ready.

Tenpai
 * Declare a hand is ready.

Wins
Agari
 * General declaration of a win.

Ron
 * Declare a win off a discard tile or a kan tile. Ron doesn't make the player's hand open, but it does make a set completed by the ronned tile to be open.

Tsumo
 * Declare a win with a self-drawn tile.
 * Also a term used for any drawn tile.

Game Rounds
Abortive draw
 * Any condition, aside from chombo, which ends the hand prematurely

Exhaustive draw
 * State of the hand when all tiles, apart from the dead wall, are drawn and resulted in no winner

Hanchan
 * A single game of Japanese mahjong, composed of East-South rounds.

Renchan
 * A single hand of mahjong, in which the wind seating does not rotate due to the dealer winning or ended the hand in tenpai

Hand composition
Ankō (ankou) or an-kōtsu (an-koutsu)
 * A closed meld of triplets.

Dora
 * Bonus tiles which increases a hand's han count.

Kantsu
 * A meld of quads.

Mentsu
 * The meld. A principle in rummy, where a group of 3-tiles form a set of same suit sequences or triplets. Quads also count as a meld, functioning as a triplet plus one extra.

Minkō (minkou) or min-kōtsu (min-koutsu)
 * An open meld of triplets.

Shanten
 * The minimum number of tiles needed to reach tenpai for a given hand. For example, a hand might be 2-shanten, meaning that two specific draws are needed to reach tenpai.

Shuntsu
 * A sequential meld.

Suji
 * Specific tiles waiting based on the "octaves" of 1-4-7, 2-5-8, or 3-6-9.

Tenpai
 * Hand is waiting on one more tile either by draw or discard for completion.

Toitsu
 * A pair of tiles.

Yaku
 * The composition pattern and/or luck situation of a mahjong hand. See Mahjong yaku.

Scoring
Fu
 * "Minipoints". A value based on the individual melds

Han
 * A combined value on the total yaku with dora, if applicable. Due to dora, yaku equates to han, but han may not necessarily equate to yaku.

Honba
 * The number of consecutive hands, in which a winner is not produced. It may also include the number of times a dealer wins consecutively.

Tenbou
 * Scoring sticks.