Bridge has its own language, and a little of it goes a long way. This glossary defines the terms you will actually hear at the table, grouped so you can find them fast — no circular jargon, no assumed knowledge.
Updated May 2026·9-minute read·All levels
Start with four words: A trick is one round of four cards; a trump beats any other suit; the declarer plays the contract; the dummy is their partner’s exposed hand. Master these and the rest follows.
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The language of the table
From suits and tricks to finesses and squeezes — the vocabulary of bridge, explained in one place.
The Cards & the Deal
These are the foundation terms — the ones that describe the physical game before a single bid is made.
Cards and dealing
Hand
The 13 cards dealt to one player.
Suit
One of the four families of cards: spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.
Trump
The suit, chosen in the auction, that beats all others for the hand.
High-card points
A count of strength: ace = 4, king = 3, queen = 2, jack = 1.
Void
Holding no cards at all in a particular suit.
Singleton
Holding exactly one card in a suit; a doubleton is two.
Balanced
A hand with no void, no singleton and at most one doubleton.
The Auction
The bidding has the richest vocabulary in bridge, because it is a coded conversation. These are the terms you need to follow any auction.
Bidding terms
Bid
An offer to win a stated number of tricks in a stated trump suit or no-trump.
Contract
The final bid — the number of tricks declarer must win, and the trump suit.
Opening bid
The first bid (not a pass) made in the auction.
Response
A bid made by the opener’s partner.
Overcall
A bid made by the side that did not open.
Double
A bid that increases the stakes, or carries a conventional meaning.
Convention
An agreed bid with an artificial meaning, such as Stayman.
Game
A contract worth 100+ trick points — 3NT, 4♥/4♠, 5♣/5♦.
Slam
A contract for 12 tricks (small slam) or all 13 (grand slam).
The Play
Once the contract is set, a second set of terms describes what happens as the cards hit the table.
Playing terms
Trick
One round of four cards, one from each player; the highest wins.
Declarer
The player who plays the contract, controlling both their hand and dummy.
Dummy
Declarer’s partner, whose cards are placed face up and played by declarer.
Defender
Either opponent of the declarer.
Opening lead
The first card played, by the defender on declarer’s left.
Follow suit
To play a card of the suit led, which you must do if you can.
Ruff
To play a trump when void in the suit led.
Finesse
An attempt to win a trick with a card that is not the highest, by playing through an opponent.
Squeeze
An advanced play forcing an opponent to discard a winner.
Scoring & Results
Finally, the words that describe how a hand ends and what it was worth.
Scoring terms
Part-score
A contract below game, earning a small bonus.
Vulnerability
A status raising both bonuses and penalties for a given hand.
Undertrick
A trick by which declarer falls short of the contract.
Overtrick
A trick won above the contract.
Set / Down
To defeat the contract; declarer is “set” or goes “down”.
Rubber
A unit of the home game, won by the first side to make two games.
Duplicate
The tournament format where every table plays the same hands.
A finesse is an attempt to win a trick with a card that is not the highest in the suit, by playing it through the opponent who holds the missing high card. It is one of the most common ways declarer makes an extra trick.
To ruff is to play a trump on a trick when you are void in the suit led. Because a trump beats any plain-suit card, ruffing wins the trick unless an opponent ruffs higher.
Declarer plays the contract and makes all the decisions for the partnership. Dummy is declarer's partner, whose 13 cards are placed face up; declarer plays them, and dummy takes no active part.
Both mean the same thing: declarer failed to win as many tricks as the contract required. The defenders then score penalty points for each undertrick.
A convention is an agreed bid that carries an artificial meaning rather than its natural one — Stayman's 2 clubs, for example, asks about majors rather than showing clubs. Both partners must know and disclose it.
No. Learn the handful you meet most — trick, trump, declarer, dummy, follow suit — and pick up the rest naturally as you play. This glossary is here to look up the others when you need them.
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The Language of Bridge
Every game has its jargon, and bridge’s vocabulary is really just shorthand for ideas you already understand once you have played a few hands. The words stop being intimidating the moment you see what they describe.
Keep this glossary handy as you work through the Learn Bridge Hub, and reach for it whenever a term in the Bridge Bidding Hub is new to you.