The Dominos glossary

The words you read at a Dominos table, from blank to round blocked, with the exact meaning the game gives them. Each one points to a specific rule: when in doubt, the rules page has the final say.

Blank: A domino half with no dots on it: the game’s zero. You say “the six-blank”, never “the six-zero”, and the screen talks the way the table does. The double blank is the lightest domino of all: it is worth zero points.
End: One of the two extremities of the line, and the number it leaves showing. After the opening, every domino played picks up the number of an end. The screen never names a side: it speaks of the start of the line and the end of the line, always with their number.
Line: The dominoes played end to end in the middle of the table, where two halves that touch always show the same number. It only ever has two ends, and the screen sums it up in one sentence: how many dominoes it holds, and which numbers it is open on.
Doubles: Dominoes whose two halves show the same number, which the screen calls “double five” or “double blank”. They are played straight along the line, like the others: played on an end, a double leaves it open on the same number.
Double-six set: The full set: twenty-eight dominoes, from the double blank to the double six, each appearing only once, all dealt out at seven per player. Its strongest piece shares its name: the double six, which is worth twelve points and determines who opens the first round.
Dead heat: A blocked round in which both teams have exactly the same points total. The round then goes to the team that played the last domino, and the end-of-round screen spells it out. The points won don’t change: the dead heat decides who scores, never how much.
Round: One complete deal, from the moment everyone receives their seven dominoes until the last domino is played or the round is blocked. Only one team scores points in it. A thirty-second break separates it from the next one, which the host can start earlier.
Round blocked: A round in which all four players have passed one after another: nobody can play any more. Each team then adds up the points in its two hands, and the team with the lighter hands scores the other team’s total.
Target: The score a team must reach to win the game. The host sets it before the game starts: one hundred points by default, from fifty to five hundred in steps of fifty. It is checked at the end of each round, and any points above it count.
Opening: The first domino of a round, played on an empty line: any domino will do, and it sets the first two numbers. The opening rotates from one round to the next. On screen, “open” also describes the number an end leaves showing: “open on six”.
Partner: The player sitting across from you, with whom you form a team; an opponent always plays between their turn and yours. When you play your last domino, their hand doesn’t count. When the round is blocked, it is added to yours.
Pass: To give up your turn because you can’t play. You may pass only if no domino in your hand fits either of the two ends, and you are then required to. A pass is public: the whole table sees which numbers you passed on.
Play: To add a domino to the line. The half showing the same number as the end is placed against it, and the other half becomes the new end. When a domino can go on both ends, the screen asks you to choose which one.

The words of the site — pearls, leaderboard, progress — are shared by every game, but for now a game of Dominos earns no experience, no pearls and no place on the leaderboard. They are defined in the general glossary.