Meld

Meld

Meld at a glance

A meld is a set of three tiles that forms either a sequence (shuntsu) or a triplet (koutsu). In standard mahjong hand composition, a winning hand requires exactly four melds plus one pair (jantou), totaling 14 tiles.

Meld, explained

Melds are the fundamental building blocks of mahjong hands. Understanding melds is essential to playing mahjong effectively, as hand construction revolves entirely around forming and completing melds.

Types of Melds

Shuntsu (Sequence Meld)

A shuntsu is a meld consisting of three consecutive tiles of the same suit. For example, 3-4-5 of bamboo or 7-8-9 of characters. Sequences can only be formed from suited tiles (bamboo, characters, or dots) and cannot include honor tiles. The sequence must follow numerical order, and the lowest possible sequence is 1-2-3 while the highest is 7-8-9 of any suit.

Koutsu (Triplet Meld)

A koutsu is a meld consisting of three identical tiles. This can be three of the same number in the same suit (such as three 5-dot tiles) or three of the same honor tile (such as three East wind tiles). Triplets can be formed from any tile type in the game.

Meld Formation

Melds can be formed in two ways during gameplay:

Concealed Melds

Melds formed entirely from tiles drawn from the wall are concealed (a concealed triplet is an ankou). These stay hidden in a player’s hand and are only revealed when the hand is complete and won.

Called (Open) Melds

Melds completed by claiming another player’s discard are open (called melds are collectively fuuro). When a player claims a discard, they must display the meld face up on the table. The calls are: pon (claiming a discard to complete a triplet from a pair), kan (claiming the fourth copy of a tile while already holding three), and chii (claiming the previous player’s discard to complete a sequence).

Hand Structure

A complete winning hand in standard mahjong consists of:

• Four melds (either shuntsu or koutsu, in any combination)
• One pair (jantou)

This totals 14 tiles. For example, a winning hand might contain two shuntsu sequences, two koutsu triplets, and one pair. Alternatively, a hand could contain four koutsu and one pair, or any other valid combination.

Seeing Meld in play

Consider a player holding the following tiles: 1-2-3 bamboo, 5-5-5 characters, 7-8-9 dots, 2-3-4 bamboo, and a pair of East wind tiles.

This hand contains four valid melds:

1. 1-2-3 bamboo (shuntsu)
2. 5-5-5 characters (koutsu)
3. 7-8-9 dots (shuntsu)
4. 2-3-4 bamboo (shuntsu)

Plus one pair: 5. East-East (jantou)

This represents a complete, winning hand with four melds and one pair.

Understanding melds and their types is the first step in reading hands: every winning shape, and most scoring decisions, come down to which melds a hand is built from and whether they stayed concealed.