The Complete Solitaire Glossary: 40+ Terms Every Player Should Know

Solitaire has a vocabulary all its own, and it's older and more precise than most players realize. Once you know that the "tableau" is the main layout and a "supermove" is really a stack of ordinary moves, rule sheets and strategy guides suddenly read clearly. This glossary collects more than forty terms you'll meet across Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, and the other classics, defined in plain language and alphabetized so you can scan for the one you need. For the rules of specific games, pair this with our solitaire rules hub.

A–C

Alternating color: The most common tableau building rule: each card must be placed on one of the opposite color (red on black, black on red), one rank lower. Used in Klondike and FreeCell.
Auto-play (auto-complete): A convenience feature that automatically sends every remaining card to the foundations once the game is guaranteed won.
Base card: The rank that a foundation starts from. In Klondike it is always the Ace; in games like Canfield it is a randomly chosen rank that all foundations must match.
Build: To place cards in sequence on one another, and also the sequence itself ("a build of four cards"). Building can be down (tableau) or up (foundations).
Cascade: Another name for a tableau column, especially in FreeCell - A fanned, overlapping pile of cards you build downward.
Cell (free cell): A single-card holding space, most associated with FreeCell, where any one card can be parked temporarily. Four is the standard number.
Column: A vertical pile in the tableau. Klondike has seven; FreeCell and Spider have eight and ten respectively.
Court card: Any of the face cards - Jack, Queen, or King. In many games the King is the only court card with a special role (filling empty columns in Klondike).

D–F

Deal: Both the initial layout of cards and, in Spider, the act of dropping a new row of cards from the stock onto every column.
Deck (pack): The 52-card set. Spider uses two decks (104 cards); most other solitaires use one.
Draw: Turning cards from the stock to the waste. "Draw one" (Turn 1) reveals one card; "draw three" (Turn 3) deals three at a time.
Empty column: A tableau column with no cards. What may fill it is a defining rule of each game - Only a King in Klondike, any card in FreeCell and Spider.
Face down / face up: Whether a card's rank is hidden or visible. Klondike and Spider deal many cards face down; FreeCell deals everything face up.
Fan: A group of cards spread so several are partly visible - For example, the three-card group dealt to the waste in Turn 3 Klondike, where only the top card is playable.
Foundation: The pile (usually four) where you build cards up by suit, from the base card to the King. Filling all foundations wins the game.
Free cell: See Cell.

G–M

Hint: A feature that suggests a legal or recommended move. Useful for learning, though not always the strongest available play.
In-suit: A run of cards all of the same suit. In Spider, only in-suit runs can be moved as a group, and only in-suit King-to-Ace runs are removed.
Klondike: The classic seven-column, alternating-color game most people simply call "solitaire." See our Klondike table.
Marriage: An old patience term for joining a King and Queen, or more loosely for placing one card correctly onto another to build a sequence.
Move: A single legal transfer of a card (or, via a supermove, a sequence) from one location to another.

N–R

Packing: Building cards onto the tableau according to the game's sequencing rule - "packing down in alternating colors," for instance. A well-packed tableau is one arranged for maximum mobility.
Pass (cycle): One complete run through the stock. Some games limit the number of passes allowed; others permit unlimited redeals.
Patience: The British and European name for solitaire, reflecting the game's origins as a solitary test of patience.
Pile: Any group of cards on the board - Tableau columns, the stock, the waste, and foundations are all piles.
Rank: A card's value, from Ace (low) through King (high). Sequencing rules are defined by rank.
Redeal: Recycling the waste back into the stock to run through it again. The number of redeals allowed is a key rule variable.
Reserve: A set of cards set aside for limited use, most famously the 13-card reserve (the "talon") in Canfield. Unlike a free cell, reserve cards typically come into play in a fixed order.
Run (sequence): A series of cards in consecutive rank order, such as 9-8-7-6. Whether a run can be moved as a unit depends on the game.

S–Z

Seed: The number used to generate a specific shuffle. A shared seed lets many players attempt the identical deal - The basis of daily challenges and head-to-head races.
Sequence: See Run.
Solver: Software that analyzes a deal to determine whether it is winnable and, if so, how. Solvers produced the famous winnability figures for FreeCell and Klondike.
Stock (talon): The face-down pile of undealt cards you draw from during play. "Talon" is the older French term, still used for the stock or, in some games, the waste.
Suit: One of the four card families - Hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. Hearts and diamonds are red; clubs and spades are black.
Supermove: Moving several cards at once as if they were one. It's a convenience that stands in for a series of single-card moves through free cells and empty columns, and it's limited by how many of those you have - Famously (free cells + 1) × 2^{(empty columns)} in FreeCell.
Streak: A run of consecutive wins tracked by many apps. Turn 1 Klondike, with its higher win rate, is the friendliest place to build a long streak.
Tableau: The main playing area - The columns of cards you build and rearrange. From the French for "table" or "layout," and the heart of nearly every solitaire.
Undo: Reversing your last move. In full-information games like FreeCell, using undo to explore lines is a legitimate way to learn a position rather than a form of cheating.
Turn 1 / Turn 3: Klondike variants that draw one or three cards from the stock at a time. Turn 3 is considerably harder because only the top of each three-card fan is playable.
Unwinnable deal: A shuffle that cannot be won no matter how well it is played. Rare in FreeCell, more common in Klondike, and the norm in low-odds games like Pyramid.
Vegas scoring: A Klondike scoring style descended from casino play: you "buy" the deck and earn a fixed sum per card sent to the foundations, aiming to come out ahead.
Waste (discard): The face-up pile where cards drawn from the stock go. The top card of the waste is the one available to play.
Winnable: A deal that can be completed with perfect play. "Winnable-only" modes deal only such shuffles, guaranteeing a solution exists.

A Note on Regional Names

Because solitaire spread across Europe before it reached software, many terms have two names - One English, one French or German. Patience and solitaire are the same thing; talon and stock often overlap; and tableau is simply French for the layout. If a rule sheet uses a word you don't recognize, there's a good chance it's the older European name for something on this list.

Keep this page bookmarked as a quick reference, and when you're ready to put the vocabulary to use, the classic game is always ready on our solitaire table.