| Attitude signal | As defender, playing a high card to say ‘I like this suit’ or a low one to discourage or deny values in the suit. |
| Auction | The first stage of the game in which all four players may speak, one at a time, competing for the final contract (the bidding). |
| Balanced hand | One with a relatively equal number of cards in each suit. No void or singleton, not more than one doubleton. |
| Bid | A call made during the auction in a suit or in no trumps. |
| Biddable suit | A suit with four or more cards in it. |
| Bidding box | A way of making bids without actually speaking. |
| Blackwood | An artificial bid of 4NT asking partner how many aces he holds. |
| Board | The container which holds a deal. Boards come in numbered sets and show who is dealer and vulnerable. For instance on board 1, North deals at Love All. |
| Bonus | Extra points for making a contract, like 50 for a part score. |
| Buy | In a competitive auction, the side playing the hand is said to buy the contract |
| Call | A bid, a pass, a double, a redouble made when it’s your turn to speak. |
| Cash | To play a winning card or cards. Cash out is to take all your winning cards. |
| Chicago | A social form of bridge for four players, scoring very like duplicate. Each rubber consists of four deals with pre-determined vulnerability |
| Claim | When the play is clear-cut, declarer shows his hand, claiming the tricks. |
| Clear a suit | To force out the high card held by the opponents and set up winners. |
| Competitive bidding | An auction in which both sides take part. |
| Contract | The final bid in the auction which determines the denomination (suit or no trumps) and the number of tricks to be won by declarer. |
| Convention | An artificial bid with an agreed meaning, e.g. an opening 2§= big hand. |
| Count signal | Play by defender of a higher then lower ranking card to show an even number of cards (called a peter), or low then high to show an odd number of cards. |
| Covering honours | When an honour is led and the next player plays a higher honour, this is said to be ‘covering an honour with an honour’. |
| Cross-ruff | Sequence of tricks in which a player and his partner score trumps separately by alternately ruffing side suits. |
| Deal | Fifty-two cards distributed so each player has thirteen cards. |
| Dealer | The player who makes the first call on a deal. |
| Declarer | The player on the side winning the contract who first bid the suit or no trumps and who thus has the right to play both his hand and dummy. |
| Defeat the contract | To win, in defence, enough tricks so that declarer fails to make the contract. The score is 50 points for each non-vulnerable undertrick and 100 if vulnerable. |
| Defence | The line of play adopted by the defenders. |
| Defenders | The two players in opposition to declarer. Often referred to as RHO (right-hand opponent) and LHO (left-hand opponent). |
| Defensive bidding | Bidding by the non-opening side. |
| Denomination | Clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades or no trump. |
| Discarding | When unable to play a card in the suit lead, playing another suit, preferably throwing a card that gives helpful information to partner. |
| Double | Originally, a bid to extract a larger penalty. But at low levels a request for partner to bid – a take-out double. |
| Double dummy | A play which could not be bettered even if declarer could see all four hands. |
| Doubleton | A holding of two cards in a suit, shown by either leading the higher or playing the higher one before the lower. |
| Drawing trumps | Continuing to lead trumps until opponents have none left, involves counting the cards played to make sure all opposition trumps have been drawn. |
| Ducking (hold-up) | Deliberately withholding a high card which could have won a trick. |
| Dummy | Declarer’s partner whose hand is tabled after the opening lead. |
| Duplicate bridge | Where the score is determined by comparison with other scores on the same deal. |
| Duplication | Duplication of distribution is when both players in a partnership have the same length in each suit. Duplication of values is when strong holdings in one hand are facing strong values in the same suit in partner’s hand, like AQ opposite KJ. |
| Eight-card fit | A combined holding of eight cards in a suit between the two partnership hands. |
| English Bridge Union | The governing body for the game of duplicate bridge in England. |
| Entry | A card that enables access to a particular hand. |
| Establishing | Setting up a specific card or cards as winners by forcing out high cards. |
| Etiquette and Ethics | Good manners and good behaviour at the bridge table, |
| Exit | Get off lead by playing a card you expect to be won by the other side – trying to do so without giving away a trick. |
| Finesse | A technique of card play to try and win a trick with a card, when opponents hold a higher card in the same suit. |
| Fit | A fit is holding adequate supporting cards in a suit bid by partner. |
| Flat board | In duplicate, a hand where the same result was scored by all contestants. In teams both sides recorded the same score. |
| Flat hand | A balanced hand, particularly 4 3 3 3 pattern. |
| Following suit | Playing a card in the same suit. |
| Forcing bid | A bid which tells partner to bid again. |
| Forcing to game | or Game forcing, is demanding that the partnership does not stop short of game. |
| Fourth highest | Lead in a suit of the fourth card from the top, e.g. K J 9 6 4 lead the 6. |
| Free bid | A bid made in a situation where there is no obligation to speak. |
| Game | Contract whose trick score is 100 points or more, e.g. 3NT, 4©,4ª,5§,5¨. |
| Get a count | Discover the distribution of the unseen hands |
| Give count | Make a distributional signal. |
| Go down | or Go Off. Make fewer tricks than you said you would. |
| Grand slam | A contract to make all thirteen tricks. |
| High card points | Values given to high cards to help decide what to bid (ace=4, king=3, queen=2, jack=1). There are 40 high card points (HCP) in the pack. |
| Honours | The five highest cards in a suit (ace, king, queen, jack, ten). |
| Intermediates | Middle-size cards like tens, nines and eights that might win tricks. |
| Intervention | A bid made after the opponents have opened the bidding, an overcall. |
| Invitational bid | Invites partner to continue bidding with a bit extra. |
| Jump bid | A bid at a higher level than required to name the denomination of the bid. |
| Jump overcall | A single jump bid made as an overcall. |
| Jump shift | A bid in a new suit higher than necessary to beat the previous bid. |
| Kibitzer | An onlooker at the card table, from the Yiddish for a kiebitz bird. |
| Laws | The Laws of Duplicate Bridge, 1997 version, describe the game you are playing. |
| Laydown | A contract that is so certain that declarer can claim at trick one |
| Lead | The first card played to a trick. |
| Limit bid | A bid that limits the strength and distribution of the hand within precise bounds. |
| Long suit | A suit of four or more cards in the same hand. |
| Major suits | Spades and Hearts whose tricks score 30 points each. |
| Match-point scoring | The way the results are usually determined in a pairs competition. |
| MiniBridge | A bridge-like game, where the contract is chosen by the side with the most HCP. |
| Minor suits | Diamonds and Clubs whose tricks score 20 points each. |
| Non-forcing | A bid which does not require a response from partner. |
| No trumps | A contract played without trumps (the highest card in the suit led wins the trick). |
| Opening bid | The first call in the auction other than ‘Pass’. Made by the ‘Opener’. |
| Opening lead | The card led to the first trick before dummy is seen. |
| Overbid | A call for which the bidder has insufficient values. |
| Overcall | Bid made by the opponents after the bidding has been opened. |
| Overtrick | A trick made by declarer above the number required for the contract. |
| Pair | The partnership of two bridge players. |
| Part score | A contract below the level of game, the trick value is less than 100. |
| Pass | Or ‘No bid’ indicates the caller has nothing worth saying at this stage. |
| Pass out | All four players pass without anybody bidding, or three passes after a bid. |
| Passive lead | A lead which tries not to give away a trick to declarer. |
| Penalty | Points scored by defenders when declarer fails to make a contract. |
| Play | The part of the deal after the bidding, where declarer tries to make the contract. |
| Pre-emptive bid | Obstructive bid, made at a high level, usually a weak hand with a very long suit. |
| Protection | Re-opening the bidding in the pass out seat, because it is clear partner must have some values, e.g. after 1ª pass pass. |
| Quit a trick | To complete the trick by turning over the cards after all players have played to it. |
| Raise | A responding bid in a denomination bid by partner. |
| Rebid | The second or subsequent bid made by a player. To rebid a suit already bid, promises extra length, five or more cards. |
| Redouble | An expression of confidence that a contract would make despite being doubled for penalties. Redouble increases the stakes. Sometimes used conventionally. |
| Responder | The partner of the player who started the partnership’s bidding. |
| Reverse | The rebid in a new suit, after a one-level opening, higher than two of the first suit bid. Shows extra strength and distribution. |
| Revoke | Failure to play a card of the suit led when it is possible to do so. Can be corrected if the trick has not been quit. Otherwise ask the director for help. |
| Ruffing (trumping) | When holding no card of the suit led, playing a trump to win the trick. |
| Rule of Twenty | A formula for deciding if a hand is worth an opening bid. |
| Ruff (or To Trump) | To play a trump on the lead of a side suit in which you are now void. |
| Sacrifice or Save | Bidding a contract expecting it to go down but hoping for a smaller minus score than letting the opponents play the contract. |
| Second hand | The player on left of the leader to the current trick who plays second. ‘Second hand plays low’ means that the second hand often does not try to win the trick. |
| Sequence | Three or more touching cards in the same suit, e.g. J 10 9. |
| Side suit | Any suit other than trumps. |
| Sign off | A bid which asks partner to stop bidding. |
| Singleton | Holding of only one card in a particular suit. |
| Small slam | Contract for twelve tricks, hoping to get the slam bonus. |
| Standard English Acol | The bidding system we use. Similar to Acol – another popular English system. |
| Stayman | An artificial bid after partner opens 1NT, asking if a four-card major is held. |
| Stop or Stopper | A card, or cards, held in a suit which prevents the opponents from running the suit. Also called a guard. |
| Tenace | A combination of cards held in a suit which is not a sequence, because there are gaps, e.g. A Q or K J 10. |
| Third hand | The partner of the player who led to the trick, normally ‘Third hand plays high’. |
| Touching suits | Two suits adjacent in ranking order e.g. Hearts and Diamonds. |
| Traveller | A piece of paper for recording scores that moves with the board. |
| Trick | Four cards, one from each player, played in clockwise rotation. |
| Trump | A card in the suit the suit named as trumps during the last bid in the auction. |
| Two-level | Contracts or bids of 2§, 2¨, 2©, 2ª or 2NT. Similarly, three-level, four-level..... |
| Unbalanced hand | Contains a void or singleton or two doubletons. |
| Unbid suit | One that has not been shown during the auction. |
| Vulnerable | A designation that on this deal a side will have bigger pluses for making a game or slam contract and larger minuses for failing in a contract. |
| Void | Holding no cards in a particular suit. |
| Weak take-out | Bidding in response to a 1NT opening on a weak hand with a long suit. |
| Weak no trump | Another name for the opening bid showing 12-14 points and a balanced hand. |
| Wide open | A suit in which declarer has no stopper when playing in no trumps. |
| Winners | Cards that may reasonably be expected to win tricks. |
| x | Used to describe unimportant small cards, e.g. A K x x. |
| x | A shorthand way of writing ‘Double’ on the score card, e.g. 4©x. |
| xx | A shorthand way of writing redouble, e.g. 3NTxx. |
| Yarborough | A hand with no card higher than a nine. |
| Zero | The lowest score possible on a board at duplicate. |