Solitaire games share a surprising amount of vocabulary, but the same word can mean slightly different things from one game to the next. This glossary defines the terms you'll meet across CardHearth — from the parts of the layout to the moves that win games — in plain language, with notes on where each one matters most.
The layout
- Foundation
- The destination piles where you build a complete suit, almost always from Ace up to King. Clearing every card to the foundations is how you win Klondike,FreeCell and most other patience games. There are usually four, one per suit (Spider has none — a completed King-to-Ace run is simply removed from play instead).
- Tableau
- The main playing area — the grid of columns where most of the work happens. You rearrange cards here to free hidden ones and assemble sequences before sending them to the foundations.
- Stock
- The face-down pile of undealt cards you draw from when you run out of moves in the tableau. InKlondike you flip the stock into the waste; inSpider a stock click deals a new row across all columns.
- Waste (Talon)
- The face-up pile of cards turned over from the stock. Only the top card of the waste is playable. "Talon" is the older name for the same pile; the two terms are interchangeable.
- Pile / Column
- A single stack of cards. In the tableau these are usually called columns; "pile" is the more general word and also covers the stock, waste and foundations.
Cards and sequences
- Run / Sequence
- A group of cards in consecutive rank order, such as 9-8-7-6. Whether a run can be moved as a group depends on the game's building rules.
- Build down / Build up
- Build down is placing cards in descending rank (a Seven on an Eight) — the tableau rule in Klondike, FreeCell and Spider. Build up is ascending rank (Ace, Two, Three…), which is how the foundations are built in nearly every game.
- Alternating colour
- A building rule where each card must be the opposite colour of the one beneath it (a red card on a black card). This is the tableau rule in Klondike andFreeCell.
- Same-suit build
- A building rule where cards must match suit to form a movable sequence.Spider uses this: you can always stack by rank, but only a same-suit run lifts as a single unit, and completing a King-to-Ace same-suit run removes it from play.
- Face-up / Face-down
- Whether a card's value is visible. Face-down cards hide information; revealing them is usually the most valuable thing you can do. FreeCell deals every card face-up, which is why it's almost always solvable, while Klondike and Spider keep many cards hidden.
Special spaces and moves
- Free cell
- A single-card holding space, the signature feature of FreeCell. Each of the four free cells parks one card temporarily, giving you room to manoeuvre. The more free cells (and empty columns) you have open, the larger the run you can effectively move at once.
- Cascade
- Another name for a tableau column, especially in FreeCell, where the eight columns of overlapping face-up cards are called cascades.
- Supermove
- Moving a whole sequence of cards in one action even when the game technically only allows one card to move at a time. It works because the program relays cards through your empty spaces behind the scenes. Capacity is(1 + free cells) × 2^(empty columns): with all four FreeCell free cells open and no empty columns you can move five cards, and each empty column doubles that.
- Deal
- The initial layout of cards at the start of a game, and also the act of dealing more cards (as when you click the stock in Spider to deal a fresh row).
- Recycle / Redeal
- Turning the waste back into the stock to go through it again once you've exhausted it. Some games allow unlimited redeals, some limit them, and some allow none. The redeal rule has a big effect on how winnable a game is.
Game features and helpers
- Auto-finish
- A one-click action that sends every remaining card to the foundations once the outcome is certain, saving you the tedious clicks at the end of a won game.
- Hint
- A suggested legal move when you're stuck. Hints point out an available play but won't always pick the best one, so treat them as a nudge rather than a solver.
- Seed / Deal number
- The identifier that fixes how a deal is shuffled. Because every CardHearth deal has a number, the same seed always produces the same layout, so you can replay an exact hand, retry a different line, or share a deal with a friend to race the same cards.
Game-specific terms
- Peaks
- The pyramids of cards you clear in TriPeaks by playing a card one rank above or below the top of the waste pile.
- Matching pairs
- Two exposed cards whose ranks add up to 13 — the heart of Pyramid, where you remove such pairs to clear the board (a King counts as 13 and is removed on its own).
- Strokes (Golf)
- In Golf solitaire, you build a single waste pile up or down by one rank regardless of suit, aiming to clear the tableau in as few moves ("strokes") as possible.
Keep going
Now that the vocabulary makes sense, the strategy guides will read a lot more clearly. TryHow to win Klondike Solitaire orFreeCell strategy next, and browse theguides hub for the rest of the CardHearth library.