リャンメン待まち

Meanings

double-sided wait; two-sided wait

In mahjong, a wait for one of two different tiles to complete a sequence (chow) and finish the hand. The two possible tiles are on opposite sides of a consecutive run, e.g., holding 4-5 and waiting for 3 or 6.

リャンメン待まちでテンパイした。
I reached tenpai with a double-sided wait.
リャンメン待まちは待まち牌はいが多おおいので有ゆう利りだ。
A double-sided wait is advantageous because it has many winning tiles.

See all 5 example sentences ›

Kanji

両both, old Japanese coin, counter for carriages (e.g., in a train)
面mask, face, features
待wait, depend on

Related words

ペンチャン待まち
A wait for a single tile to complete a sequence at the edge (e.g., 1-2 waiting for 3). リャンメン待ち waits for two tiles, while ペンチャン待ち waits for only one.
カンチャン待まち
A wait for a single tile to fill the middle of a sequence (e.g., 4-6 waiting for 5). Like ペンチャン待ち, it waits for only one tile, unlike the two-tile wait of リャンメン待ち.
シャンポン待まち
A wait for either of two pairs to become a triplet. リャンメン待ち completes a sequence, while シャンポン待ち completes a triplet.

Built from

両面りゃんめん+待まつ

Written forms

リャンメン待まち
Standard mahjong term; katakana リャンメン is the usual spelling for the wait type.
両面待りゃんめんまち
Kanji spelling using 両面 for 'both sides'; less common than the katakana form.

Etymology

From リャンメン (ryammen, 'both sides', from Chinese 两面) + 待ち (machi, 'wait'). A mahjong term describing a wait that can be completed by two different tiles.