Rummy has its own vocabulary, and most of it is never explained to new players. They pick it up by inference, which works eventually but costs a few confusing evenings. Here is the whole list in one place.
The cards
- Meld
- Any valid group of cards: a sequence or a set. “Melding” is the act of arranging your hand into them.
- Sequence (run)
- Three or more consecutive cards of the same suit.
- Pure sequence
- A sequence containing no joker. You cannot declare without one.
- Impure sequence
- A sequence where a joker substitutes for a missing card.
- Set
- Three or four cards of the same rank in different suits.
- Printed joker
- The joker card that comes with the deck.
- Wild joker
- The rank cut at the start of the round. Every card of that rank becomes wild.
- Tunnela
- Three identical cards, same rank and same suit. Possible because multiple decks are in play. Used in 21-card rummy.
- Dublee
- Two identical cards, same rank and suit.
The table
- Closed deck
- The face-down pile you draw from blind.
- Open deck
- The face-up discard pile. Drawing from it tells everyone what you need.
- Finish slot
- Where your final card goes when you declare.
- Toss
- The cut that decides who deals or plays first.
The actions
- Draw
- Taking a card at the start of your turn.
- Discard
- Putting a card on the open pile to end your turn.
- Drop
- Folding. A first drop costs 20 points, a middle drop 40.
- Declare
- Announcing a completed hand. It is then checked for validity.
- Invalid declaration
- Declaring a hand that does not meet the rules. Scores the maximum, normally 80.
- Auto-drop
- Online only: the system folds you after several missed turns.
The formats
- Points Rummy
- One round, each point carries a value.
- Pool Rummy
- Scores accumulate; reaching the pool limit (101 or 201) eliminates you.
- Deals Rummy
- A fixed number of deals with chips.
- Best of
- A short head-to-head series.
The slang
- Dead card
- A card nobody can use, usually because both copies of what it needs are gone.
- Connector
- A card adjacent in rank to another in your hand, one step from a sequence.
- Floater
- A card with no connection to anything else you hold.
- Deep hand
- A hand with several near-complete melds.
- Feeding
- Discarding cards that help an opponent, usually by accident.
The three that matter most
If you remember nothing else: pure sequence is the requirement you cannot avoid, drop is the move beginners use far too rarely, and feeding is the mistake that loses the most hands. Everything else you will absorb by playing.
