嵌張待ちかんちゃんまち

Meanings

wait for the middle tile of a run to complete a hand

Mahjong term: a wait pattern where you have two tiles of a three-tile straight (e.g., 4 and 6) and need the middle tile (5) to finish the run. Also called a 'closed wait' or 'kanchan wait'.

嵌かん張ちゃん待まちは、両面りゃんめん待まちよりあがりにくい。
A kanchan wait is harder to win on than a ryanmen wait.
彼かれは嵌かん張ちゃん待まちでリーチをかけた。
He declared riichi with a kanchan wait.

Kanji

嵌go into, plunge, inlay
張counter for bows & stringed instruments, stretch, spread
待wait, depend on

Related words

両面待りゃんめんまち
A ryanmen wait is a two-sided wait (e.g., 4-5 waiting for 3 or 6), which is generally better than the single-tile kanchan wait.
辺張待ちぺんちゃんまち
A penchan wait is a wait for the edge tile of a run (e.g., 1-2 waiting for 3), also a single-tile wait but at the end of a sequence.

Built from

嵌張かんちゃん+待まつ

Written forms

嵌張待ちかんちゃんまち
Standard kanji spelling for this mahjong term.
カンチャン待まち
Common mixed kana-kanji spelling; 嵌張 is often written in katakana in mahjong contexts.

Etymology

From mahjong terminology: 嵌 (kan, 'insert/fit in') + 張 (chan, from 張る 'to stretch/be on the lookout') + 待ち (machi, 'wait'). The reading カンチャン is a Sino-Japanese compound reading.