mah jong

/ ˌmɑːˈdʒɒŋ /

noun

1. a game of Chinese origin, usually played by four people, in which tiles bearing various designs are drawn and discarded until one player has an entire hand of winning combinations

Word History and Origins

Origin of mah jong¹

from Chinese, literally: sparrows

Example Sentences

And residents in their golden years enjoy karaoke, the Chinese tile game mah jong and — as the outside world learned last week after a horrific mass shooting — ballroom dancing.

From Seattle Times

And upstairs — where Halley works sitting on the floor at a tubular steel Marcel Breuer side table with a view of Long Island Sound — is a Technicolor hangout area anchored by a chubby French indigo sofa from the ’60s or ’70s and a low-slung Missoni Roche Bobois Mah Jong chair whose hot pink and brown stripes echo the shades of a 1972 print by Andy Warhol that hangs on the back wall.

From New York Times

Cities announced measures to avoid mass gatherings: Senior classes across San Francisco were canceled, from Argentine tango in Noe Valley to mah jong in Nob Hill.

From Los Angeles Times

He had bicycle clips and tatting shuttles and Mah Jong sets.

From Literature

My mother and aunts playing mah jong in the basement, gossiping in Chinese to the rapid clack-clack-clack as they shuffled tiles beneath an incandescent light.

From Salon