winning a hand (mahjong)
Mahjong term for completing a winning hand. Compare 上がり (sense 5) for general 'finish' or 'rise', and 和了 (ホーラ) for the Chinese-derived reading.
He won the hand with a one-shot riichi.
He drew the winning tile and brilliantly achieved a yakuman.
winning on a discard
Standard mahjong term for winning a hand; uses the kanji 和了 with okurigana り.
Abbreviated spelling sometimes seen in mahjong contexts.
Variant with extra okurigana; less common.
The reading あがり is the nominalized form of 上がる (to rise, to finish). The kanji 和了 are ateji borrowed from Chinese mahjong terminology, where they mean 'harmony' and 'completion'.