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Mah-Jongg

Mah-Jongg

6 7.7
A Chinese game for four players played with tiles to make matching sets
  • noun
  • /mɑːˈdʒɔŋ/
  • US
: Mah-Jongg
  • Every Sunday, my friends and I gather to play Mah-Jongg, enjoying the blend of strategy and luck.
  • a Mah-Jongg game
  • play Mah-Jongg

Examples

  • Later that night, after we had played a gentle, courteous game of Mah-Jongg with Albert, Min cried out in his sleep.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • Next Wednesday, instead of Mah Jongg, we'll have our séance.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • After learning the rules, she was excited to join the weekly Mah-Jongg game at the community center.

  • The local club hosts Mah-Jongg tournaments, attracting players from all over the area.

Synonyms

mahjong
vsMah-Jongg
13 8.1

A four-player Chinese game using small tiles to make sets and pairs

is written with a hyphen and doubled letters as an alternate form

Surface Forms

Mah-Jongg singular
Mah-Jonggs plural

Etymology

Mah-Jongg comes from the Chinese name májiàng, where má means 'hemp' and jiàng means 'general'. One popular story says the old name may refer to things used in the game, but the simple way to remember it is that the word is the original Chinese name for the four-player tile game we still call Mah-Jongg today.