Learning the Gin Rummy terms in this glossary is the fastest way to feel at home at the table. Once the vocabulary clicks, the rest of the game falls into place: you stop thinking about the mechanics and start thinking about strategy. This reference collects the words you will hear during a game of Gin Rummy, from the cards in your hand to the moves that end a round, and defines each one in a sentence or two.
Gin Rummy is a two-player game played with a standard 52-card deck. Each player holds ten cards, draws one and discards one on every turn, and races to organize their hand into melds. The terms below are grouped roughly by theme so related ideas sit together, but you can also skim the bold headwords to find a single definition fast. Where a term has a common nickname, it is noted in parentheses so you recognize it however it comes up at the table.
Core Gin Rummy Terms: The Cards and the Table
These are the foundational Gin Rummy terms that describe the physical layout of a game and the values on the cards.
Deck and Hand
Deck. The standard 52-card pack used for Gin Rummy, with no jokers. Suits are spades ♠, hearts ♥, diamonds ♦, and clubs ♣.
Hand. The ten cards a player holds. Because both players keep exactly ten cards through most of a turn, hand management is the heart of the game.
Stock. The face-down pile of undealt cards in the center of the table. On your turn you may draw the top card of the stock without seeing it first.
Discard pile. The face-up pile beside the stock. Each turn ends when a player places one card here, and the top card is always visible to both players.
Upcard. The single face-up card turned up at the start of a deal, or more loosely the current top card of the discard pile that either player may take.
Discard. The card a player places face up to end their turn. Choosing what to discard is as important as choosing what to draw, since it tells your opponent what you are collecting.
Card Values
Aces low. In Gin Rummy the ace is always low, worth one point, and it ranks below the two. An ace can only start a run as A-2-3, never wrap around from king to ace.
Face cards. Jacks, queens, and kings, each worth ten points. Number cards are worth their pip value, so a seven is worth seven.
Gin Rummy Terms for Melds and Deadwood
The next group of Gin Rummy terms describes how you organize your hand into scoring combinations and what is left over.
Melds
Meld. A valid combination of cards that removes them from your deadwood count. There are two kinds: sets and runs.
Set (or group). Three or four cards of the same rank, such as 7♠ 7♥ 7♣. A set can never contain more than four cards because there are only four suits.
Run (or sequence). Three or more cards of the same suit in consecutive order, such as 4♦ 5♦ 6♦. Runs can be longer, and a single card can only belong to one meld at a time.
Deadwood and Related Ideas
Deadwood. The cards left in your hand that are not part of any meld, and the point total of those cards. Reducing deadwood is the constant goal, because you can only knock when your deadwood falls to ten points or fewer.
Count. The numeric value of your deadwood, added up using the card values above. A hand with a lone king and a lone four has a count of fourteen.
Deadwood card. Any single unmelded card. Late in a round players try to hold low-value deadwood so that if they are caught, the penalty is small.
Gin Rummy Terms for Ending a Round
These Gin Rummy terms cover the moves that stop play and trigger scoring.
Knock. To end the round by laying down your hand when your deadwood is ten points or fewer. You discard one final card, reveal your melds, and expose your remaining deadwood for scoring.
Gin. Knocking with zero deadwood because all ten cards form melds. Going gin earns a 25-point bonus and cannot be undercut. Learn more in our guide to the undercut explained.
Big gin. An eleven-card gin, achieved when the card you draw completes a fully melded hand before you discard. Many house rules award a larger bonus, often 31 points, for this rare event.
Lay off. After an opponent knocks, the non-knocking player may add their own deadwood cards onto the knocker's melds to reduce their count. You cannot lay off against a hand that went gin.
Undercut (or underknock). When the player who did not knock finishes with deadwood equal to or lower than the knocker's, after laying off. The defender wins the difference plus a 25-point undercut bonus, turning the knocker's gamble against them.
Gin Rummy Terms for Scoring the Game
The final set of Gin Rummy terms covers how points accumulate across a match.
Box (or line). A single hand won. In some scoring systems each box is worth a small bonus, typically 25 points, added at the end of the game.
Game. A match played to a target score, most commonly 100 points. When one player reaches the target, scoring stops and bonuses are tallied.
Game bonus. A large bonus, usually 100 points, awarded to whoever first reaches the target score for the game.
Shutout (or skunk). Winning a game while the opponent scores zero, which typically doubles the winner's total in the systems that recognize it.
Wash (or dead hand). A round that ends with no winner. If the stock is reduced to two cards and no one has knocked, the hand is thrown in and re-dealt.
Related Games Worth Knowing
Gin Rummy sits inside a larger family, and a few of these Gin Rummy terms carry over into its cousins. Oklahoma Gin uses the first upcard to cap how low your deadwood must be to knock. Straight Gin removes knocking entirely, so you must reach full gin to win. The broader category of Rummy games includes multiplayer variants like Rummy 500, where melds are laid down during play rather than all at once. Knowing the shared vocabulary makes every one of them easier to pick up.
With these definitions in hand you can follow any game commentary, read a strategy article without stumbling, and make sharper decisions at the table. When you are ready to put the words into practice, deal a hand on our playable Gin Rummy table and watch how quickly the terms turn into instinct.