Bridge Terms: A Glossary of Bridge Terminology A to Z

Bridge terms are the shared vocabulary of the game: words like trick, trump, contract, declarer, dummy, finesse and vulnerable. You need about fifty of them to follow a lesson, and a couple of hundred to read bridge columns and books comfortably.

This glossary starts with the core words grouped by the part of the game they belong to, then lists the terms from A to Z with a short, plain definition of each. Many of these terms have their own full article in our Learn section.

The auction (or bidding) is the first phase of each deal. Starting with the dealer, each player in turn makes a call: a bid, a pass, a double or a redouble. A bid names a level (1 to 7) and a strain (a suit or notrump). The last bid becomes the contract.

The first bid of the auction is the opening bid, made by the opener. Opener's partner is the responder. A bid by the other side after an opening is an overcall. A bid that partner must not pass is forcing; a bid that describes a hand within a narrow range is a limit bid; a bid that asks partner to stop is a sign-off.

Bids are either natural (they show the suit named) or artificial (a convention with an agreed meaning, like 2♣ Stayman). Artificial calls are alerted at duplicate.

In the auction above, South is the opener and North the responder. West's 2♣ is an overcall, North's 2♥ is a raise (a simple raise), East's 3♣ is a competitive raise, and South's 4♥ is a game bid. The final contract is 4♥, and South is declarer because South bid hearts first.

After the auction comes the play: 13 tricks of four cards each. The player on declarer's left makes the opening lead, and declarer's partner becomes dummy, placing the cards face up. Each player must follow suit; a player who cannot follow may ruff (play a trump) or discard (play another suit).

Declarer uses techniques such as the finesse, drawing trumps, ruffing in dummy, the hold-up and establishing a long suit. The defenders use signals to talk through their cards: attitude, count and suit preference. Advanced plays include the squeeze, the endplay and the safety play.

A contract scores trick points for tricks bid and made, plus bonuses (the full tables are in bridge scoring). A contract worth 100 trick points or more is a game; anything less is a part score. Twelve tricks bid and made is a small slam, thirteen a grand slam. A side may be vulnerable, which raises both bonuses and penalties. Tricks taken beyond the contract are overtricks; tricks short of it are undertricks.

In duplicate bridge, the same deals are played at many tables and scores are compared using matchpoints (pairs events) or IMPs (team events), as explained in matchpoints vs IMPs. In rubber bridge, the first side to win two games wins the rubber.

• Above the line: in rubber bridge, the part of the score sheet for bonuses, overtricks and penalties. Only trick points for contracts bid and made go below the line.
• ACBL: the American Contract Bridge League, the governing body for bridge in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Bermuda.
• Acol: the standard bidding system in Britain, based on four-card majors and a weak (12-14) 1NT opening.
• Advancer: the partner of a player who overcalls or makes a takeout double.
• Alert: a warning to the opponents that partner's call has a special meaning they may not expect. Made by saying "alert" or showing an alert card.
• Announcement: a short spoken explanation used instead of an alert for some common calls, such as "15 to 17" after a 1NT opening.
• Artificial: a call that does not show the suit named, such as 2♣ Stayman or a 4NT ace-asking bid.
• Attitude signal: a defender's card that says whether they like the suit partner led.
• Auction: the bidding phase of a deal.
• Auction bridge: the forerunner of contract bridge, in which overtricks counted toward game.

• Balanced hand: a hand with no void, no singleton and at most one doubleton: 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2 or 5-3-3-2.
• Balancing: bidding in the pass-out seat when the opponents have stopped at a low level. Also called protecting.
• Bath coup: a hold-up by declarer with A J x when the opponent on the left leads the king: if the king lead is continued, declarer wins both the ace and the jack.
• Below the line: in rubber bridge, the part of the score sheet that records trick points toward game.
• Bergen raises: a set of conventional jump responses to a major opening that show four-card support and different strengths.
• Bid: a call naming a level and a strain, such as 2♥.
• Bidding box: a box of cards printed with every possible call, used at clubs so that nobody speaks the auction.
• Bidding system: the full set of agreements a partnership uses for its calls, such as 2/1 Game Force, SAYC, Acol, Precision or Polish Club. See bridge bidding systems.
• Blackwood: a 4NT bid that asks partner how many aces they hold.
• Board: in duplicate, a tray with four pockets holding one deal; also the deal itself.
• Book: the first six tricks won by declarer's side, which do not count toward the contract.
• Break: how the missing cards of a suit divide between the two opponents, such as a 3-2 break. See the suit break calculator.
• Bridgemate: a small electronic device at each duplicate table that records results and sends them to the scoring computer.
• Business double: an older name for a penalty double.

• Call: any action in the auction: a bid, a pass, a double or a redouble.
• Cash: to play a winner and take the trick at once.
• Chicago: a form of bridge played in sets of four deals, with vulnerability fixed in advance.
• Chicane: an old word for a void; first used for a hand with no trumps.
• Claim: a statement that you will take a certain number of the remaining tricks, ending the play early.
• Competitive auction: an auction in which both sides bid.
• Contract: the final bid of the auction, which declarer must try to make.
• Control: an ace or a king (first- or second-round control), or a void or singleton in a suit contract. Used in slam bidding.
• Convention: an agreed artificial meaning for a call.
• Convention card: the form on which a partnership lists its system and conventions.
• Count signal: a defender's card that shows whether they hold an odd or even number of cards in the suit.
• Cover: to play a higher card on an honor led by the opponents, as in "cover an honor with an honor".
• Crossruff: a plan in which declarer ruffs in each hand alternately, using the trumps separately instead of drawing them.
• Cuebid: a bid of a suit the opponents have bid, or, in slam auctions, a bid that shows a control in the suit named.

• Danger hand: the defender who can hurt declarer by getting the lead, usually because that defender can lead through a weak holding or cash an established suit.
• Deal: the act of distributing the cards, and also the four hands that result.
• Dealer: the player who deals the cards and makes the first call.
• Declarer: the player who plays the contract: the first player of the winning side to bid the strain of the final contract.
• Defender: either opponent of declarer.
• Director: the official who runs a duplicate game, applies the laws and rules on irregularities. Call the director as soon as something goes wrong.
• Discard: a card of another suit, not a trump, played when you cannot follow suit.
• Distribution: the number of cards in each suit of a hand. Also called shape.
• Double: a call that increases the score for making or defeating the opponents' contract. In many auctions it is used for takeout rather than penalty.
• Double dummy: analysis that assumes every player can see all four hands.
• Doubleton: a holding of exactly two cards in a suit.
• Draw trumps: to lead trumps until the opponents have none left.
• Drop: to win an opponent's honor because it falls under your higher card, as in playing for the queen to drop rather than finessing.
• Ducking: playing a low card and deliberately losing a trick you could have won.
• Dummy: declarer's partner, whose cards are placed face up and played by declarer.
• Duplicate: the form of bridge in which the same deals are played at several tables and results are compared.

• EBU: the English Bridge Union, the governing body for bridge in England.
• Endplay: a play that forces an opponent to win a trick and then lead to declarer's advantage.
• Entry: a card that lets you win a trick in a particular hand, so you can lead from it.
• Equity: the result a deal would most likely have produced without an irregularity. The director restores it when a penalty is not enough.
• Establish: to set up a suit by forcing out the opponents' higher cards, so your remaining cards become winners.
• Exit: to give up the lead on purpose, usually with a safe card.

• False card: a card played to mislead an opponent about your holding.
• Finesse: an attempt to win a trick with a lower honor by playing toward it, hoping the higher honor sits with a particular opponent.
• Fit: a suit in which the partnership holds eight or more cards together.
• Fit-showing jump: a jump bid in a new suit that shows length in that suit and a fit for partner's suit.
• Flat board: a duplicate board on which every pair got the same result, so nobody gains.
• Follow suit: to play a card of the suit led, which you must do if you can.
• Forcing bid: a bid that partner must not pass.
• Forcing pass: a pass in a competitive auction that partner must not let stand: partner must double the opponents or bid on.
• Fourth best: the opening lead of the fourth-highest card of your longest suit, such as the 5 from K J 7 5 3.
• Fourth suit forcing: a convention in which a bid of the fourth suit is artificial and forcing.

• Gambling 3NT: an opening of 3NT that shows a long, solid minor suit and little outside.
• Game: a contract worth 100 or more trick points: 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ or 5♦ (and higher).
• Game force: a bid that commits the partnership to reach at least game.
• Gerber: a 4♣ bid that asks for aces, usually after a notrump bid.
• Grand slam: a contract to take all 13 tricks, at the seven level.
• Grand slam force: a 5NT bid that asks partner to bid seven with two of the top three trump honors.

• Hand: the 13 cards one player holds; also used for one deal.
• HCP: high card points, the 4-3-2-1 count of aces, kings, queens and jacks.
• Hold-up: refusing to win a trick, usually with an ace, to cut the opponents' communication.
• Honor: an ace, king, queen, jack or ten.
• Honors bonus: in rubber bridge, a bonus for holding four or five top trump honors, or all four aces in notrump, in one hand.
• Howell: a duplicate movement in which every pair plays against every other pair.

• IMP: International Match Point. A scale that converts the difference between two scores into a smaller number, used in team games.
• Insufficient bid: a bid that is not higher than the previous bid, an irregularity handled by the director.
• Insult: in rubber bridge, the bonus of 50 points for making a doubled contract (100 for a redoubled one). Duplicate scoring has the same bonus.
• Invitational bid: a bid that asks partner to bid game (or slam) with a good hand and stop with a poor one.

• Jacoby 2NT: a 2NT response to a major opening that shows four-card support and game-forcing values.
• Jacoby transfer: a response to 1NT in which you bid the suit below your real suit, asking partner to bid it.
• Jump bid: a bid one level higher than needed, such as 2♠ over partner's 1♥.
• Jump shift: a jump bid in a new suit.

• Key card: in Roman Key Card Blackwood, one of the four aces or the king of the agreed trump suit.
• Kibitzer: a spectator who watches the play.

• Lavinthal: a discard signal in which the card you throw shows suit preference between the other two suits.
• Law of Total Tricks: a guide that says the total number of tricks available to both sides is about equal to the total number of trumps in both sides' best fits.
• Lead: the first card played to a trick.
• Lead-directing double: a double of an artificial bid, such as a cuebid or Stayman, that asks partner to lead that suit.
• Lebensohl: a 2NT relay used after the opponents interfere over your 1NT, or after a weak two is doubled.
• Level: the number in a bid, from 1 to 7. Level plus six is the number of tricks the contract needs.
• LHO: left-hand opponent.
• Limit bid: a bid that shows a narrow range of points, which partner can pass or raise.
• Long suit: a suit of five or more cards.
• Loser on loser: discarding a loser on a losing trick in another suit, often to avoid a ruff or to set up a suit in dummy.
• Losing Trick Count: a method of hand evaluation that counts losers in each suit.

• Major suits: hearts and spades, worth 30 points a trick.
• Make: to take at least the number of tricks the contract requires.
• Masterpoint: a ranking point awarded for good results in sanctioned games.
• Matchpoints: a scoring method for pairs events in which you score points for every pair you beat on each board.
• Michaels cuebid: a direct cuebid of the opponents' suit showing a two-suited hand, such as both majors over a minor.
• Minor suits: clubs and diamonds, worth 20 points a trick.
• Misfit: a deal where partners have no good fit and each is short in the other's suits.
• Mitchell: a duplicate movement in which North-South pairs stay at their tables and East-West pairs move.
• Movement: the schedule that tells pairs and boards where to go between rounds.

• Natural bid: a bid that shows length in the suit named.
• Negative double: a double by responder after an overcall, showing the unbid suits.
• New minor forcing: a convention in which responder bids the unbid minor after opener's 1NT rebid, to ask about support.
• Notrump: a contract with no trump suit.

• Opener: the player who makes the first bid of the auction.
• Opening lead: the first card of the play, made by the player on declarer's left.
• Overcall: a bid made after an opponent has opened.
• Overruff: to ruff with a higher trump than the one already played.
• Overtake: to play a higher card than partner's winning card, usually to win the trick in the hand you want to lead from.
• Overtrick: a trick won beyond the number the contract required.

• Part score: a contract worth less than 100 trick points. Also called a partial.
• Partnership: the two players who sit opposite each other and play together.
• Pass: a call by which you make no bid.
• Pass-out seat: the seat that can end the auction with a pass. Also called fourth seat when no one has opened.
• Passed out: a deal on which all four players pass, so there is no play.
• Penalty card: a card exposed by a defender in error, which must be left face up and played at the first legal chance.
• Penalty double: a double made to increase the score for defeating the contract.
• Pre-alert: telling the opponents about unusual methods before the first board, so they can prepare a defense.
• Precision: a strong club system in which 1♣ shows 16 or more points.
• Preempt: a high opening or overcall with a long suit and a weak hand, made to take bidding space from the opponents.
• Psych: a deliberate, gross misstatement of strength or length. Legal in most events, as long as partner has no special knowledge of it.

• Quick tricks: tricks a hand expects to win in the first two rounds of each suit: A K = 2, A Q = 1.5, A = 1, K Q = 1, K x = 0.5.
• Quitted trick: a trick that has been completed and turned face down.

• Raise: a bid of the same suit partner has bid.
• Rebid: a player's second bid in the auction.
• Redouble: a call after an opponent doubles your side's bid, which raises the score again.
• Responder: the partner of the opening bidder.
• Reverse: a rebid by opener in a higher-ranking suit at the two level, which forces responder to go to the three level to give preference. It shows extra strength.
• Revoke: a failure to follow suit when able.
• RHO: right-hand opponent.
• Rubber: in rubber bridge, a match won by the first side to make two games.
• Ruff: to play a trump on a trick when you cannot follow suit.
• Ruff and discard (ruff-sluff): a lead in a suit both declarer and dummy lack, which lets declarer ruff in one hand and discard a loser from the other.
• Rule of 11: a guide for the partner of a fourth-best opening lead: subtract the card led from 11 to find how many higher cards the other three hands hold.
• Rule of 20: a guide for opening light hands: open when your high card points plus the lengths of your two longest suits add up to 20 or more.
• Running suit: a suit that will produce a trick with every card once you start it, such as A K Q J 10 6.

• Sacrifice: a contract bid with the expectation of going down, because the penalty will cost less than the opponents' contract. Also called a save.
• Safety play: a way of playing a suit that gives up a small chance of extra tricks to guard against a bad break.
• SAYC: Standard American Yellow Card, the ACBL's standard bidding system.
• Second hand low: the guideline that the defender playing second to a trick should usually play a low card.
• Sequence: two or more cards in a row, such as K Q J. Also an auction, as in "this bidding sequence".
• Set: to defeat a contract.
• Shape: the distribution of a hand, such as 5-4-3-1.
• Short club: a 1♣ opening that can be made with only two or three clubs, used for balanced hands that have no better opening in the system.
• Sign-off: a bid that asks partner to pass.
• Signal: a card played by a defender to give partner information.
• Singleton: a holding of exactly one card in a suit.
• Slam: a contract for 12 tricks (small slam) or 13 tricks (grand slam).
• Splinter bid: an unusual jump that shows a fit for partner and a singleton or void in the suit bid.
• Squeeze: a play that forces an opponent to discard a card they need to keep.
• Stayman: a 2♣ response to 1NT that asks opener for a four-card major.
• Stopper: a holding that stops the opponents from running a suit in notrump.
• Strain: the denomination of a bid: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades or notrump.
• Suit combination: the way the cards of one suit are split between declarer and dummy, and the best way to play them.
• Suit preference signal: a defender's card that shows which of two other suits they want led.

• Table presence: the skill of reading the opponents' manner and tempo, which is legal to use as long as you act at your own risk.
• Takeout double: a double that asks partner to bid one of the unbid suits.
• Tenace: two cards of the same suit that are not in sequence, such as A Q or K J, which gain when the opponent with the missing card must play first.
• Third hand high: the guideline that the defender playing third to a trick should usually play high to win it or force out declarer's high card.
• Top of sequence: the opening lead of the highest card of touching honors, such as the K from K Q J.
• Transfer: a bid that asks partner to bid the next suit up, so that the stronger hand becomes declarer.
• Traveler: in duplicate, a slip that travels with a board and records the result at every table.
• Trick: four cards, one from each player, in clockwise order.
• Trump: the suit named in the contract, whose cards beat all cards of the other suits. Also used as a verb meaning to ruff.
• Trump coup: an ending in which declarer, after shortening their own trumps, leads a side suit from dummy late in the play, so that an opponent's trump honor sitting in front of declarer's trump tenace is trapped.
• Two over one (2/1): a bidding system in which a new-suit response at the two level by an unpassed responder, after a 1♥ or 1♠ opening (and for most pairs after 1♦), forces to game. The other base rules are five-card majors, a 15-17 1NT and a forcing 1NT response to a major. See 2/1 Game Force, or see what 2♣ over 1♠ means in every system.

• Unbalanced hand: a hand with a singleton or void, or with two doubletons.
• Unblock: to play a high card early so that it does not block the run of a long suit in the partner's hand.
• Underlead: to lead a low card from a suit in which you hold the ace (or another high honor).
• Undertrick: each trick by which declarer fails to make the contract.
• Unusual 2NT: a jump overcall of 2NT that shows both minors, or the two lowest unbid suits.
• Upside-down signals: a signaling method in which a low card encourages and a high card discourages, the reverse of standard.

• Void: a holding of no cards in a suit.
• Vulnerable: the scoring condition in which game and slam bonuses and undertrick penalties are higher.

• WBF: the World Bridge Federation, the international governing body, which writes the Laws of Duplicate Bridge.
• Weak notrump: a 1NT opening with about 12 to 14 points, standard in Acol.
• Weak two: an opening bid of 2♦, 2♥ or 2♠ showing a six-card suit and about 5 to 10 points.
• Whist: the older trick-taking game from which bridge developed.
• Yarborough: a hand with no card higher than a nine.

Words stick best when you meet them in real decisions. In BridgeDummy's bidding puzzles every option is solved double dummy over many dealt hands, so terms like part score, game, sacrifice and penalty double come with a score attached. When you are ready for the basics of the game itself, start with how to play bridge.